Jyothi Kanics---Global Survival Network (jkanics@igc.apc.org)
Mon, 24 Aug 1998 13:41:25 -0700 (PDT)
August 24, 1998
NEW YORK TIMES
Costly Sex Trade
To the Editor:
"U.N. Urges Fiscal Accounting Include Sex Trade" (news article, Aug.
20) does not mention a troubling component of the sex trade in
Southeast Asia: hundreds of women and children are being held against
their will.
Women and girls are transported across borders by traffickers who
promise well-paid jobs and good marriages. Then the traffickers "hold"
their passports and exploit the women and girls through forced
prostitution.
Victims are often raped and beaten. The traffickers, not those held
hostage, receive the income.
While it is true that as a United Nations labor panel reported,
prostitution can generate enormous revenue, the hidden costs
include the
violation of human rights and the ravages of diseases.
Any study must take this into account.
BARBARA BECKER
New York, Aug. 20, 1998
The writer is associate director of communications at the Center
for Reproductive Law and Policy.
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