By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

JA, a female Filipino singer, was told by her agent she would be working as a singer in Korea but found a very different job awaiting her when she arrived.

``All I did was talk to customers ― American soldiers ― and get them to buy me drinks. I was forced to fill a drinks quota. That was my job. Upstairs there were rooms with beds. The Korean club owner tried to force me to have sex with the customers by threatening to send me back to the Philippines but I refused and told him that I would rather go back home,'' she told Amnesty International about her life as a bar girl at a club in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, which is home to a big U.S. base. JA, her stage name, was quoted in Amnesty International's report, which was released Wednesday.

RD, a 33-year-old woman from the Philippines, did not know who to turn to when she was forced to work at a bar in Dongducheon and felt her only option was to run away.

Amnesty International, an international human rights watchdog, released a report on foreign workers' status in a press conference, Wednesday, criticizing the Korean government for turning a blind eye to the plight of those coming here on entertainment visas but ending up in brothels.

About 4,970 foreigners with E-6 visas are in Korea. The visa is intended for work in entertainment activities at tourist hotels and entertainment spots. 77 percent of E-6 visa holders are women.

Many end up being bar girls, often forced to sell sex in various forms, Amnesty International said in the report.

Norma Kang Muico, an East Asia Researcher for South and North Korea as well as Japan and Mongolia, said the government isn't aware of the seriousness of the trafficking.

``We have asked the ministries of labor and justice and the migration office, but they said they have never seen a single case of trafficking in Korea. And should such a thing happen, they say it is the police's responsibility,'' she said during a press conference.

She pointed out the government has a very narrow and restrictive definition of human trafficking. ``However, according to the UN Protocols to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, trafficking of humans involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability,'' Muico said.
Korea signed the protocols in 2008.

Many of the women have run away from their workplaces, becoming illegal aliens subject to deportation, she added. They rely on non-governmental organization for shelter or look for other jobs, which can turn out to be an even greater nightmare, the report stated.

Muico asked the government to monitor such entertainment venues and conduct crackdowns when necessary to save the foreign women workers from their plight. The Korean authorities have focused on deporting the migrant workers-turned-illegal-sojourners, but Muico says it is time they think of the workers' right to live happily and with options.

``Migrant workers are not criminals and they have their right to pursue happiness in Korea, just as much as anyone else does,'' Muico said.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr