Anti-Trafficking NGO to Set up Shop in Korea

Not For Sale, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 to end human trafficking and slavery, will establish a branch in Korea this year amid news that Korean women widely work as prostitutes overseas.

On a visit to Korea on Wednesday, Prof. David Batstone of the University of San Francisco, who heads the NGO, said the new branch will aim to help victims of the sex trade in Asia to stand on their own feet. In Korea, the campaign will put an emphasis on preventing the sex trade associated with private money lending, he added.

In recent years, an increasing number of Korean women have started working in the sex industry overseas. They account for 23.5 percent of all foreign sex workers in the U.S. and 17 percent in Australia, statistics show.

The sex industry in Korea itself is worth an estimated W15 trillion (US$1=W1,143). There are over 46,000 brothels across the country with 270,000 women working in the industry.