Lengthening shadows

Female employees wait for customers at a club near a U.S. military base in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province. / Korea Times photo by Won Yoo-hyun

Korea's 'entertainment' visa continues to be exploited for sex trafficking

By Chung Hyun-chae

Korea has long been criticized for its lax control over its E-6 entertainer visa applications, exploited by human traffickers to smuggle foreign women into the country to do sex work.

Authorities have been speechifying about addressing the problem. The Ministries of Justice, Gender Equality and Family, and Employment and Labor last week announced plans for a joint investigation on sexual exploitation and other human rights problems facing women recruited to work on these visas. They also promised to strengthen monitoring of the seedy establishments where the women have been forced to sell sex.

However, human rights advocates are skeptical about how far the government will push its efforts to eliminate a problem it allowed to take root with a Laissez-faire approach in past years.

More than 2,500 foreign women, most of them Filipinos, are recruited to work on entertainment visas every year, according to recent government figures. Many of them continue to be vulnerable to human trafficking.

"I am a victim,'' said a sobbing 32-year-old woman from the Philippines, who didn't want to be named, in a telephone interview.

She received an E-6-2 visa in the spring of 2009 from a Korean agency with the understanding that she would be working legitimately as a singer in Korea, as she had previously done in Japan. She was forced into prostitution at Stereo, a ''juicy bar'' near the U.S. military's Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

She escaped from the bar in 2010 with the help of an American friend and is now cared by members of the human rights group, ''Durebang.'' She said she still lives with fear.

"On the contract I received from the agency, I was supposed to get 900,000 won a month. But I only received 100,000 won a month. I wasn't singing to guests. I was going to hotel rooms with them,'' she said.

She desperately needed the money she thought she was going to earn in Korea. Her daughter, who had stayed with her family in the Philippines, was kidnapped three years ago. The kidnappers have been demanding a ransom for her return, and the woman is now at a loss.

"The kidnappers have been demanding money for my baby, but I don't have a penny now. What can I do now?,'' she asked with a shaking voice.

U.S. Air Force officials in recent months have prevented their servicemen from entering juicy bars near the Osan base, where women flirt with customers to buy them high-price drinks and eventually pay for sex. However, the U.S. Army has yet to employ such restrictions.

Park Su-mi, who heads the Durebang shelter, said that the human trafficking networks between agencies in Korea and the Philippines have become more complex and harder to detect.

The government doesn't have a prayer at attacking the problem when the Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB), a sub-unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, continues to have greater control over the visa applications than border authorities, she said.

To receive an E-6-2 visa, an applicant must pass a screening test with the KMRB. Those who gain KMRB's approval are issued entry visas from the Korea Immigration Service and the E-6-2 from the country's Korean embassy. The government of the applicant is virtually excluded in the process of visa issuance.

Park questions why KMRB is granted the authority to control the entertainer visa system when the Culture Ministry no longer holds administrative power over the activities the visa applicants apply for. The Public Performance Act, revised in 2002, excluded the phrase ''performing at tourism establishments'' from the legal definition of the performing profession.

"There is no reason why the KMRB should be responsible for issuing entertainer visas to foreigners,'' she said.

"The government is belatedly upping the talks to eliminate the human trafficking problems linked to these visas, but without attacking the structure of visa issuance and adopting a real screening process, it's hard to expect any measure to work as prescribed. The most urgent action would be to ban any E-6 visa holder from working in bars and other tourist businesses.''

U.S. Air Force has said it remains committed to the business of the bars near its bases that have been linked with human trafficking. These establishments have been designated as off-limits to its servicemen since June.

However, municipal officials in Pyeongtaek say that the restrictions are rather loose.

"In the one month period from June to July last year, seven clubs were designated as off-limits for U.S. servicemen. However, there were complaints from the bar owners, who have influence over the local community. In July, the restrictions were lifted under the condition that the bars don't hire women from the Philippines,'' said Bang Hyo-gang, officer at Pyeongtaek city hall.

Another official describe the restrictions as ''useless'' from the beginning as Pyeongtaek simply has too may bars and other establishments providing the same services outside of the Songtan Entertainment District.

The U.S. Air Force has designated 10 bars and clubs near the Gunsan Air Base as off-limits. But at least two of bars in the district where servicemen are allowed still hire Philippine women on E-6 visas, according to Park Woan-su, an official at Gunsan city hall.

This differed from the claim of Kim Yong-kyu, an official at Public Affairs Office of USFK, who said: "When human trafficking in an off-base establishment is discovered, those establishments are declared off-limits to U.S. service members until there is confidence these activities are no longer occurring.''

He added: "Prostitution and human trafficking is cruel, demeaning, and incompatible with our military core values. These activities have direct and negative impact on the ROK-U.S. alliance; combat readiness; Service Member, Civilian, and Family morale; and community health issues."

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