Sex trafficking: Taiwanese police find Indonesian, Filipina women trapped in small dorm

Zachary Lee

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A Taiwanese man and his Filipina wife were apprehended for forcing 10 Southeast Asian women to become sex workers.

TRAFFICKED. 10 Southeast Asian women were forced to become sex workers by a couple in Taiwan. Photo from Kaohsiung City Police

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – They came as dancers, but were forced to become sex workers.

Last week, Taiwanese police found 10 women from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand in a 33-square-meter room working as sex workers in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Police got a report from a citizen about foreign sex workers possibly working in the area, leading them to investigate.

The women, most of whom had dance experience, were recruited to pole dance in clubs and flew to Taiwan on a tourist visa. But upon arrival in Taiwan, the women, who are in their 20s, were deceived and instead sold as sex workers.

“The women were asked to keep their weight under 48 kgs or would be fined TW$500 (Rp.210000),” Kaohsiung City Police Department Captain Lin Gun Yu said.

“They claimed that they did not know they would become a sex worker when they arrived Taiwan.”

According to police, most of them were already married and had children in their hometown.

 

Police said a 59-year-old only identified as “Wu” and his 43-year-old Filipino wife, who has permanent resident status in Taiwan, were responsible for the women. The couple, who owns a bar in Kaohsiung, told the women that Wu would help them apply for a working permit upon arrival.

Wu promised the women that the job in Taiwan was as a dancer but when the women arrived in Taiwan, they were asked to pay back about NT$110000 (Rp 17 million or 63,000 PHP).

Deceived

In order to pay their debt, Wu persuaded and “encouraged” them to work as female escorts.

The women were forced to earn money for sex work. Police said Wu controlled the women by forcing them to live in a small room, and keeping their passports. The space where the women were kept just had 10 beds and 10 lockers.

“Wu did not provide them the accommodation freely, but asked the women to pay a rent of $700 per month,” said Lin.

RESCUED. The women will be flown back to their respective countries. Photo from Kaohsiung City Police

During the daytime, Wu asked the workers to distribute flyers to attract clients. Most of the clients were foreign workers or foreign fishery workers mostly from Southeast Asia.

Local media reports said that clients paid TW$ 4500 (Rp1.9 million) for service for an hour, of which Wu received TW$2500 (Rp 1 million). Wu himself admitted he earned more than NT$100000 (Rp 42 million) every month while the women received NT.50000 (Rp 21 million) a month.

Helpless

Wu and his Filipino wife have been arrested while the ten sex workers were sent to Taiwan National Immigration Agency and will be repatriated to their home countries.

According to the Taiwan Ministry of Labor, the number of runaway migrant workers who are missing but believed to still be in Taiwan reached 50,000 in 2016.

“There was an Indonesian domestic worker who escaped from her boss because she was sexually harassed by her boss,” said Chiu Nai Tang, supervisor of a shelter for migrant workers.

She emphasized that the staff from the recruitment agency ignored the pleas for help from the worker, who has since earned money doing sex work.

There are at least 7 million Indonesian overseas workers. 60% of them work as domestic caretakers. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor, Indonesians account for 41.6% of all foreign nationals working in Taiwan, and 79.4% of all human health foreign workers, the largest of any country of origin. – Rappler.com

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