▪Case 1: This person is a victim of forced prostitution. After escaping from the location
of employment, she became an illegal immigrant. On behalf of her, Durebang filed a
lawsuit against the employer. In order to get a visa for other status(G-1 visa), she had
to pay the fines for the period of illegal stay. As she did not have any means to earn
money, she decided to file the lawsuit as an illegal immigrant. A foreigner cannot
engage in legal employment when there is a pending lawsuit. She had to work at a
factory for a small wage during the lawsuit period. During a police interview, the
policeman handling the case asked whether she filed the lawsuit to prolong the stay in
the country and the question hurt her a lot. At the factory she was working, the
employer capitalized on the illegal status of her and did not pay her wage. She moved
to a different factory where they didn’t pay her wage either. She decided to return
home asshe could not take it anymore. The lawsuit was prolonged for over one year.
The delayed payment of wage is not under the jurisdiction of the police or the
immigration office, but should be reported to the district labor office. When the
overdue amount is small, the labor office cannot force a compulsory execution.
▪Case 2: Problem from report on escape from the employment locationThis entails a
serious problem as forced prostitution and delayed payment of wages drive many
women to seek extreme choice of escaping the club. After their escape, their actual
employer, the entertainment management agency, reports to the authority of their escape
from the employment location which makes the status of these women as illegal. When
they are captured from an immigration official’s raid, they are put to compulsory
expulsion without any chance of vindication. As many women we interviewed were
suffering from the problem, Durebang filed a petition to the NHRCK (Dongduchon,
December 2008, recommendation from the Discrimination Remedy Committee).
To put an end to the situation, Durebang felt that it is necessary to give a chance for
vindication to such women as to what led to their escape from their employment
location and submitted a petition to the NHRCK. The Discrimination Remedy
Committee ruled that ‘the Committee recommends the Minister of Justice to revise the
Hotel Entertainment Management Guidelines including a guarantee of vindication
process when a person with hotel entertainment visa is reported to have escaped from
the employment location’, but the Ministry of Justice has not responded to the
recommendation. The Ministry should establish an enforcement rule within two months
from receiving such recommendation. I would like to make a desperate plea to the
Ministry to take time to think about what the prolonged review on the recommendation
means to many victims of sexual exploitation.
After recognizing that the Filipino women hired by clubs nearby US military bases are
International Standards on Human Trafficking: Implementation Strategy of Korea ❙ 35