An electric signboard reading “massage parlor” in a main street in Jangan-dong, one of the most well known red-light districts in Seoul, remains turned off. Months of police crackdowns have driven six in ten brothels there out of business. / Korea Times File Photo |
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Months of harsh police crackdowns on red-light districts in Jangan-dong in northeastern Seoul have succeeded in driving more than half of brothels there out of business, according to police.
Encouraged by residents' support, authorities are showing no signs of letting up the operation to stamp out the illegal business. But what has been neglected is the rehabilitation of those who were ``laid off.'' Two prostitutes and one pimp have taken their own lives following the crackdown, which started September.
Dongdaemun Police Station, leading the campaign, said that by the end of October, 38 out of 61 brothels or ``massage parlors'' had folded and 19 others had suspended business.
A total of 10 pimps and nearly 260 males who paid for sex have been punished. ``More than 110 prostitutes have been summoned and instructed to visit a rehabilitation center to look for a new `legal' career,'' a police officer said.
But according to a rehabilitation center run by Dongdaemun Ward Office, no prostitute has submitted to undergo either rehabilitation programs or consultation.
The office runs under an annual budget of 800 million won ($602,000), providing former prostitutes with rehabilitation programs.
``We expected the number of consultation-seeking sex workers to increase but it hasn't,'' a ward official said. ``We speculate prostitutes whose workplaces were disrupted continue to sell their bodies in secret rather than seek new lives and jobs through rehabilitation programs.''
Most brothel operators say the sex business would evolve into other secret forms and even sneak into nearby residential areas. Indeed, the campaigns targeting Jangan-dong have played havoc with the age-old red-light district but boosted the illegal business in surrounding areas.
Too deep to escape
Becoming a prostitute can be a choice but retirement is out of one's control, anti-prostitution campaigners said.
``Most prostitutes are forced to borrow money from pimps or private lenders to be employed. At the beginning, they used the money to beautify themselves without realizing it would lead to a self-made, inescapable pitfall. When they realize it, they find themselves in heavy debt,'' a campaigner said. ``That's why despite crackdowns, they have no choice but to engage in the sex business to repay their debt.''
Earlier this month, a private lender lending money to prostitutes at an annual interest rate of nearly 200 percent ㅡ far beyond the legal ceiling of 49 percent ㅡ was arrested. In turn, two prostitutes took their own lives, denouncing what they called ``hasty crackdowns'' that left them no way out. Police said they had suffered from snowballing debt.
``Swelling debt ranked first on the list of difficulties sex workers confront,'' said the Ulsan YMCA in a recent survey. ``The government has asked police to encourage arrested prostitutes to take optional rehabilitation programs,'' an official said. ``We need to come up with measures mandating the programs.''
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
|
yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
