Tajikistan
moves to curb prostitution The police ministry wants to
criminalise the sex industry, while experts
insist the root cause is poverty. As the Tajik
interior ministry announces tougher penalties
for prostitution, analysts say the local sex
industry is a product of poverty and social
dislocation and will not be easy to
eradicate. Interior Minister Mahmadnazar
Salihov said his staff were drafting a special
bill that would soon be sent to parliament.
7-3-2008
Proposed legislation could end all prostitution advertising in Israel Meretz MK Zehava
Gal-On is set to unveil legislation Tuesday that will
potentially ban all media - including promotional
pamphlets and "business cards" - from advertising
prostitution services and providing possible clients
with access to the sex industry.
7-3-2008
Indian sex workers protest against raids A group of sex workers, supported by an
NGO, moved in a procession to the office of the police
commissioner in Ahmedabad on Saturday to submit a
representation against police brutality.
7-3-2008
Taiwanese momther forced young daughters into prostitution A mother in
Tainan County, southern Taiwan, was found to have
allegedly forced her three young daughters to serve as
prostitutes for more than two years. The woman and five
patrons were arrested and questioned by police just
before Chinese New Year.
15-2-2008
Prostitution behind the veil in Iran Minna and Fariba are neighbours and good
friends. They support one another. Both have to live
under the pervasive curtailment of women's rights and
the double standards of today's Iranian society. They
make a living walking the streets looking for men. They
have a choice between leaving their small children at
home alone or bringing them along when they have sex
with men. 14-11-2007
Sex workers target businessmen in Hong Kong Forty-four mostly foreign businessmen
have reported being drugged and robbed by sex workers in
a Hong Kong red-light district over the last three
years, police said this week.
14-11-2007
South Korea arrests 24,000 in prostitution crackdown South Korean
authorities caught nearly 24,000 prostitutes, pimps or
clients in a two-month crackdown on the sex trade, the
National Police Agency said last week.
14-11-2007
Punjabi women being lured into prostitution overseas Punjab may be
moving ahead with legislation to stop travel agents from
cheating youth with the lure of foreign pastures, but
such touts are now baiting young girls into the
multibillion immigration racket.
3-11-2007
Burmese girls turn to prostitution The spaces behind the rusty garage doors
are meant for storage but they instead house dozens of
young women from Burma like Thin Thin Thay, refugees of
the bitter poverty afflicting their home country.
2-10-2007
Indonesia: Cheap sex, high risk We were
kerb-crawling for sex workers near the railway station
in the grimy Cipinang district of Jakarta, Indonesia's
sprawling capital, with Endang Supriyati providing a
running commentary from the back seat of the car.
26-9-2007
Korea: Disputes raging over prostitution laws The government announced a plan to seize
the passports of people caught buying sex overseas,
following recent news reports that a growing number of
South Korean men are being arrested for the sexual
exploitation of trafficked women while traveling abroad.
For instance, 30 South Koreans citizens have been
detained in China for buying sex as of July this year,
up from 11 last year.
26-9-2007
Vice hotel reopens in Malaysia A
hotel closed after police discovered a prostitution den
being run on the premises is back in business. But the
bar in which the vice den was being run must stay
closed, the Lower Criminal Court ordered.
26-9-2007
Malaysia: Three fined over prostitution Three Muslim women who was caught for
"attempted prostitution" during fasting month were fined
RM4,500 each by the Syariah High Court. They are Anisah
Kindaran, 22; Hasmah Sulaiman, 20 and Rohaya Awaljan, 31
who admitted to their respective charges yesterday.
26-9-2007
Taiwan: Groups rally against scrapping legal prostitution More than 100
members of over 10 underprivileged groups last week
rallied at the Kaitakelan Blvd. to protest against an
undesirable decision made by President Chen Shui-bian to
scrap the public prostitution business when he served as
Taipei mayor 10 years ago.
13-9-2007
New law to target sex workers' clients in India Government is set to amend the Immoral
Traffic Prevention Act to bring clients under its ambit,
rendering them liable to imprisonment upto six months
and a fine extending upto Rs 50,000.
13-9-2007
Hundreds seek services of prostitutes at Kuala Lumpur's 'sex alley' Foreigners continue
to swarm the alley behind Jalan Petaling in Kuala Lumpur
seeking the services of prostitutes. Harian Metro
reported recently that it was a normal occurrence for
hundreds of foreigners to gather in the alley like they
were having a "sex party" there.
6-9-2007
Cyber child prostitution on rise in Japan Online crime hit a new high in Japan in
the first six months this year, with the number of cases
of child prostitution arranged on the Internet surging
more than 60 percent, police said last week.
30-8-2007
Philippines cracks down on old cinemas fronting as prostitution dens The Manila government
last week intensified its campaign against movie houses
showing pornographic films. This developed as Manila
policemen arrested four men allegedly engaged in
performing lewd acts inside old theaters in Quiapo and
Sta. Cruz over the weekend.
22-8-2007
Women 'duped into sex slavery' Many Asian women in Bahrain are being
duped into working as sex slaves for men who lure them
with promises of marriage, according to Thai Ambassador
Phithak Phrombubpha. He says victims are put up in
apartments and visited once a week by their boyfriends,
who brainwash them into believing they will eventually
live together and start a family.
22-8-2007
Mounting poverty, health risks for China's sex workers In an attempt to
escape poverty, women in China are increasingly turning
to prostitution and competition for clients has
reportedly resulted in lower pay and more dangerous
conditions for China's estimated ten-million sex
workers. 22-8-2007
A new saviour for sex workers in India We love to hate them. We love to call
them by names. But how many of us bother to look into
the plight of their lives? Virtually none. So what!
There are people from the sex workers' fraternity, who
have now decided to work for the uplift of city sex
workers. 28-7-2007
More forced into prostitution in China Forced labor and sexual exploitation have
increased as the trend in human trafficking in China has
taken a turn for the worst. That is the assessment of a
senior public security official who was talking on the
loopholes in the country's labor system and Criminal Law
yesterday. 28-7-2007
Sex coated with honey makes you more money, fuzoku fillies find "The most I make in one
day is about 150,000 yen. Even though I'm not especially
in high demand, that's about what a gal at a 'soap' can
expect to bring in." So says a lady who goes by the
professional name Higuchi, whose place of employment is
the romantically monikered soapland-cum-brothel "Don
Juan," situated in Tokyo's centuries-old Yoshiwara
red-light district. 15-7-2007
Bahrain: Hotelier held over vice trade racket A hotelier who allegedly forced an Arab
girl in her early teens to work as a prostitute in his
restaurant has been arrested, it emerged this week.
15-7-2007
Saudi Arabia: Overstayers marriage - a mask for prostitution? With tens of
thousands of overstayers in the Kingdom, marriages
between Saudis, expatriates and overstayers is
inevitable. However, such marriages come with problems
and many are seemingly a front for prostitution as this
reporter investigates.
5-7-2007
'50,000 Iraqis' forced into prostitution They are dessed in tight jeans, low-cut
tops and knee-high boots, but the girls' make-up can't
disguise the fact that most are in their mid-teens. It's
a strange sight in a conservative Muslim country, but
this is the sex business, and it's booming as a result
of the war in Iraq. 1-7-2007
How to stop illicit affairs? Have one-hour marriages, says Iranian cleric Some see it
as a divinely sanctioned safety valve to ease sexual
frustration; others call it a hypocritical cover for
prostitution. The Shia Muslim tradition of temporary
marriage, or sigheh, allows a man and a woman in Iran to
marry for a set period of time, ranging from an hour to
99 years. 18-6-2007
Three are accused of running prostitution racket in Qatar Two Palestinians, a
man and a woman, have been accused along with a
Pakistani woman, 27, of running a prostitution racket in
Qatar. They have denied the charge in the court.
18-6-2007
New film focuses on prostitution as family trade in India A new film will
examine a centuries-old tradition among some
underprivileged Indian communities where girls in the
family become prostitutes, with their brothers and
fathers acting as pimps.
18-6-2007
Bar girls: Women a target again? The bar girls don't seem to be getting
any respite from society. After being snatched off their
only means of livelihood, the girls were evicted from
their rented flats and homes in Thane's Kisan Nagar
area, this week. The girls were evicted for alleged
indecent behaviour. But who's indecent behaviour? The
residents who beat them up while evicting them or the
client, most of whom have a family, who visit them for
favours? 8-6-2007
India struggles to combat the trafficking of poor women into forced
prostitution Meena
discovered she had been sold by her boss while riding in
an auto-rickshaw headed to New Delhi's red-light
district. The 12-year-old was working as a domestic
servant in Calcutta when the homeowner told her about a
good-paying job at his sister's house in India's
capital. 8-6-2007
Korea: Middle school girl forced into prostitution Police have arrested three suspects on
charges of detaining a middle school girl and forcing
her into prostitution with 800 men including a college
professor and a doctor.
8-6-2007
China: Veiled prostitution sites closed Not widely celebrated as the most
tolerant and liberal of countries with regard to
state-imposed Internet-based censorship, a Chinese
Internet watchdog consisting of government officials and
Net experts has this week executed a strict clampdown on
a dozen supposed dating Web sites that it believes are
serving as convenient cover for the spread of online
prostitution. 8-6-2007
Iraqi women forced into prostitution Nineteen-year-old Nafisa Ridwan says she
was forced to work as a sex worker to feed her younger
brothers after her father died in an attack in the
capital, Baghdad. With her mother seriously sick with a
heart condition, she had to resort to prostitution after
failing to find other work.
28-5-2007
Studying the sex trade One student is
using her work to impact people's awareness of the
horrors of the sex slave trade in a big way. The 10th
annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held last week,
featured more than 625 undergraduates presenting a
variety of projects, ranging from studies on brain
pressure to popular Cuban music. Junior Janice Phaik Lin
Goh focused her research on the hard facts of sex
trafficking in Southeast Asia.
28-5-2007
Taiwan divided on sex slave issue Two years after the US State Department
put Taiwan on its "Tier 2 Watch List" for human
trafficking - a dubious classification the nation shares
with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Libya and China -
local law enforcement agencies and charities still
disagree about basic concepts on how to address Taiwan's
swelling population of foreign sex workers.
28-5-2007
India tackles sex trafficking with 'maid ban' India will ban women under 30 from
emigrating to work as domestic help in the Gulf and
parts of Africa and Southeast Asia in a bid to curb sex
trafficking, a report said this week.
21-5-2007
Russia names Israeli in human trafficking An Israeli man was among three people
taken into custody by Russian security agents Tuesday in
Moscow on suspicion of selling women into prostitution.
21-5-2007
Over 35% girls enter prostitution before 18 years Of 2.8 million
prostitutes in the country, 35.47% entered the trade
before the age of 18 years, Minister of state for Women
and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury informed the
Rajya Sabha Monday. 16-5-2007
Nepal: Impoverished Nepalese girls tricked into prostitution For the past
three years, 25-year-old Sita Maskey has been fighting a
court battle in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, to
punish alleged trafficker Rekha Karki, whom she says
tricked her into forced prostitution in Dubai, in the
United Arab Emirates.
12-5-2007
Lahore sex workers despondent over risk of contracting HIV With nobody willing to
help her escape, 28-year-old Rubina is confined to life
as a sex worker in Lahore's centuries-old Heera Mandi -
widely deemed to be the largest red-light district in
Pakistan, if not the entire subcontinent.
1-5-2007
US Homeland Security officer arrested after raid for trafficking, prostitution Government was seeking illegal aliens
recruited to work for prostitution ring, but when
federal agents raided local massage parlors last month,
they were shocked to find a Department of Homeland
Security law enforcement officer's gun and uniform in an
apartment linked to one of the parlors.
1-5-2007
Indian sex workers engage men to disguise operations Sex workers in
Surat are employing men to act as their partners to
cover up tracks of their flesh trade. In some cases, sex
workers have even turned to social and emotional support
from these 'companions' and transferred property in
their name. 25-4-2007
Nine remanded to custody after swoop on prostitution network Nine of the 13
members of a prostitution network arrested in Almerķa
province last week were remanded to custody in the
Acebuche provincial prison this weekend. They are seven
men and two women. 25-4-2007
India: Sex, work and pleasure Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC),
Asia's largest sex workers' collective, has sparked off
a debate by demanding that sex work be treated as
entertainment work. 14-4-2007
US man sentenced for sex with child in Cambodia A Bay Area man has
been sentenced in federal court in San Francisco to five
years and four months in prison for having sex with a
13-year-old girl in Cambodia.
14-4-2007
Spain breaks up prostitution ring with Russian sex-slaves Police in Spain
has broken up an international criminal ring which dealt
in trafficking women from Russia and forcing them to
become prostitutes, a local police official said
Saturday. 14-4-2007
Man acquitted of forcing woman into prostitution A hotel
receptionist has been cleared of charges of forcing into
prostitution a woman who came to work as a housemaid
before she died of AIDS.
24-3-2007
Irish paedophiles flocking to Philippines Campaigning Irish priest Fr Shay Cullen
warns that the Philippines is becoming the number one
destination for Irish paedophiles who prey on the
country's estimated 60,000 children caught up in the sex
industry. 24-3-2007
Flourishing of child prostitution in Ukraine Juan Miguel Petit, the Commission's
Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography reported that the
flourishing of child prostitution and trafficking of
children are the great problems in Ukraine.
24-3-2007
More Koreans engage in sex trade in US The number of Korean women engaged in
prostitution overseas - both voluntary or
forced - has been steadily increasing after the
government's crackdown on the domestic sex industry in
2004. 24-3-2007
Taiwan busts human trafficking ring The Criminal Investigation Bureau
(CIB) on Tuesday busted a organized human smuggling
operation which forced women from mainland China into
prostitution across the greater Taipei area, the CIB
announced this week. 8-3-2007
Delhi sex workers oppose legalisation of prostitution Amidst the din
of the celebration of International Women's Day on
Thursday, sex workers in the capital yesterday opposed
legalising their profession, saying it will spell
disaster for the society.
8-3-2007
Japan's femmes frolic in Fukuoka foam Japan's sex services have catered almost
exclusively to a male clientele, but now, according to
Shukan Post, there are soapland brothels who have opened
their doors to women looking to open their legs.
24-2-2007
