The US downgraded the nation from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in its annual "Trafficking in
Human Persons" report in 2005 because of what it said was Taiwan's failure to
keep itself from becoming a global hub and destination point for trafficked
people, especially women and girls sold into sexual servitude.
Taiwan has since remained on the Tier 2 list.
But whether foreign sex workers, who are mostly from China and Southeast Asia,
are trafficked "victims" or prostitutes who deliberately come to Taiwan under
false pretenses was the subject of fierce debate at a conference on human
trafficking in Taipei yesterday.
Hosted by Good Shepherd Social Welfare Services, a Taipei-based Catholic
charity, the conference brought together law enforcement officials and social
workers in a discussion on fundamental concepts pertaining to the problem.
The number of foreign prostitutes is soaring amid a sharp rise in the figure
for "unaccounted for" foreigners, the majority of whom are women, panelists
said.
In 2002, for example, the number of Southeast Asian immigrants who went missing
after arriving in Taiwan totaled 8,135, government statistics show. Last year,
the figure rose to 20,051, and includes 16,413 women.
Echoing American Institute in Taiwan officials who said at a conference on
human trafficking in Taipei last month that the nation had been put on Tier 2
for "not actively addressing [its] trafficking problem," Lee Li-hua, a social
worker at the Catholic Hope Workers' Center, yesterday accused the National
Immigration Agency of being "sluggish."
The agency is confused as to how to view trafficked people, she said, citing a
recent case in which the agency processed 35 Indonesian sex workers in which
she claimed it first said it had "saved" the women, but later used the word
"apprehended" in a different context.
"So which is it?" she asked, urging the agency and charities to treat foreign
sex workers as victims.
At last month's conference, which had been hosted by the agency and attended by
US Deputy Assistant Attorney-General Grace Becker, among other senior US
officials, Becker urged Taiwan to treat all foreign sex workers as trafficked
victims and offer them protection and amnesty.
Lee said that doing so encouraged the "victims" to divulge information that
could lead to the dismantlement of entire human trafficking syndicates.
But a senior Tainan City Police Department official in attendance baulked at
Lee's comments, saying that most foreign sex workers come to Taiwan
voluntarily.
"They come here deliberately to sell sex," he said on condition of anonymity.
"They're criminals."
Tainan City police collared "30 to 40" such foreign women last year, he said.
"There's a big gap in our concept of who these women are, and who the charities
think they are," the police official said.
Lorna Kung, director of the International Migrant Network, Taiwan, agreed.
"When they face [a charity like mine], they say they were forced to come here
because the punishment would be less severe," she said.
"There are very few [genuine] victims," Good Shepherd director Therese Thong
said.
Agency official Chien Hui-chuan said at the conference that "protection" of
foreign sex workers was a basic aspect of the agency's work, but that
immigration officials still needed much education on the matter.
