FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 90 of these women end up in the city slum areas and also in brothels. Therefore, prostitution is hidden and dispersed, and it is not concentrated and visible as there are no Red Light Zones. At the same time the open economy and the growth of tourism have led to the rise of high-class brothels in the city and the lure of good money alone keeps the sex workers in the trade. In a survey in Kandy it was revealed that 34 per cent of the sex workers had a history of overseas employment. Sexual promiscuity, sexual abuses and initiation into prostitution while being abroad are common. Though the incidence of trafficking out of island is not a cause for alarm as the numbers are negligible it is found that there is inward trafficking of Thai and Eastern European sex workers to Sri Lanka. It is said that Thai women are brought in by Thai gem buyers who operate in the gem city of Ratnapura. Also, the issue of trafficking in Sri Lanka has emerged in the form of trade of women and children as migrants to mainly West Asian countries in search of employment as housemaids. Disguised and modernized forms of trafficking in women take place through seemingly legitimate recruitment of women for employment. Many of these women hail from economically impoverished families from rural areas of the country. The lack of any contractual agreement between the migrant women workers and the employer is seen to be a major factor, which exacerbates the vulnerability of these workers. Therefore, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) set up a special unit in 1997 which makes it compulsory for women migrant workers to register with them prior to embarking on employment oversees. But still there are number of press reports in Sri Lanka according to which women have been called to satisfy the sexual needs of employers as part of their daily chores. Bangladesh Trafficking in women and children is now a common phenomenon and social issue in Bangladesh. Women among the poorer communities are offered better jobs and marriages and thereby lured to going “voluntarily” with agents of trafficking networks. Children from middle class and lower middle class families also increasingly face being kidnapped from schools and working places. Trafficking as an underground business is flourishing and has become an easy-money making opportunity. Though the traffickers