Since 2004 when the Korean government launched a crackdown on brothels and other sex businesses in accordance with the Anti-Prostitution Law, sex workers here have either gone underground or moved to Japan, the United States or Australia.
According to a report recently submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, about 50,000 and 30,000 Korean women engage in prostitution in Japan and the United States, respectively.
U.S. media reported that there was prostitution involving Korean women in western cities of America, which spread to southern cities via eastern areas, they said.
After the Los Angeles police launched a crackdown on brothels, Korean prostitutes went to New York City and then Houston and Atlanta. Korean media called the phenomenon a “balloon effect.”
Atlanta in Georgia has strengthened regulations on massage parlors, branded as a “hotbed of prostitution,” since May 20.
It revised an ordinance governing massage parlors. The revised ordinance makes it mandatory to submit fingerprints of massage parlor owners and employees, if requested by investigative authorities.
The Atlanta authorities believe that massage parlors run by Koreans engage in prostitution. Koreans are clustered in Duluth, Atlanta.
A Duluth police officer said many massage parlors in the Duluth area were found to have engaged in prostitution, according to the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, Sunday. The revised ordinance will greatly help the police investigate the cases, he added.
In Houston, Texas, controversy erupted as local broadcasters aired Korean women being shackled on their ankles after they were arrested on charges of illegal prostitution. It ignited a debate on human rights violations.
In an annual report on political freedom and civil liberties in 199 nations Thursday, the U.S. State Department took issue with Korean children engaged in prostitution; sexual and domestic violence; and human trafficking, among others.
In Australia, prostitution by Korean women has become a social problem since last year, a foreign ministry official said.
Korean prostitutes flew to Australia on a working holiday program, following government crackdowns on brothels in the country, he said. The ministry said more than 1,000 Korean nationals were estimated to work as prostitutes in Australia.