Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
They may operate outside the law, but they exist – the shadowy karaoke bars with flashing lights. Walk in, and you might find a young girl there, down on her luck. Many of them come from rural areas, but their presence is not noted, until they get caught.It is a fact noted in country reports and books on trafficking in Sri Lanka – many women are lured from rural areas, hoping to find jobs overseas, only to be forced into prostitution. And while many organisations recognise the problem, there seem to be little to no statistics on the severity of the issue.
Look up child abuse or rape in Sri Lanka and you get dozens of hits, along with figures. Over 700 incidents of rape or abuse of children were reported in the first six months of last year. Four children under 16 are raped daily, it is reported.
Lack of reports
But there are no reports on the number of women who are shepherded into Colombo and end up in the sex trade.
The female ward of Welikada Prison was filled with song and dance as the inmates celebrated International Women’s Day. According to sources from within the prison, 500 to 600 prisoners at any given time are arrested because they are in the sex trade. In one of the wards, around 160 female prisoners are already serving their sentence for the very same reason.
Apart from this ward however, the women who are admitted are usually bailed out in two weeks, or else they end up being released within the same time frame – it’s a vicious cycle. Anywhere between 15 and 50 female prisoners daily enter Welikada prison because of their involvement in the sex trade, according to the sources and many of these women are from rural areas.
An International Labour Organisation (ILO) paper titled “Victims of human trafficking in Sri Lanka: Narratives of Women, children and youth” presented in China in 2011 looked at some narratives of sex workers, including on why they were forced into the trade, but had no figures to determine the scale of the problem.
Palermo Protocol
In the year 2000, the United Nations adopted the Palermo Protocol (which aims to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in persons, especially women and children). Sri Lanka too ratified the protocol, but despite this commitment, the ILO study found, the US Department of State had placed Sri Lanka on a Tier 2 watch list – just one level above the worst category- in 2010. Much of this is due to Sri Lanka’s bad record when it comes to child abuse.
Yet the section dealing with women’s narratives on how they entered the sex trade are equally chilling. The ILO study interviewed subjects in Puttalam and Galle, and their stories involve a litany of misfortunes, including poverty and rape by family or a trusted friend.
Many of the women interviewed said poverty was the driving force behind their gut-wrenching decision – from the 20-year-old who was addicted to drugs and sold her body to a Navy officer to finance her habit for just Rs. 1000 (she is now over 40) to the 26-year-old who was abandoned by her husband, and had no job or savings. She was tricked by one of her friends, forcibly locked in a guesthouse and made to have sex for Rs. 200- including a tip.
Trapped in desperation
Others were approached by women when they were in desperate circumstances and offered a chance to make money – like the 17-year-old who was raped by her stepfather when she was 16. While she was in hospital another patient offered her a job at a brothel with food and lodging – Rs. 2000 for less than an hour. Many had no parents, had lost their jobs or had abusive partners. All of the women from Puttalam said they would like to stop their current occupation, but felt they had no other choice, but to continue since they had no other opportunities to make money and no one to rely on.
While the report concluded that Sri Lanka was probably in the low to medium range for trafficking overseas, it was acknowledged that the prospect of migrating for work, either within Sri Lanka or overseas, left women vulnerable, as unscrupulous subagents often tricked girls to leave their homes, only to force them into the sex trade. In some instances, even trishaw drivers in the South acted as go-betweens for prostitutes.
Considering these desperate stories, it might seem surprising that there has not been in-depth study into the issue, but that does appear to be the case.
The National Programme Coordinator of Trafficking in Persons and Forced Labour at the ILO, Chandrika Karunarathna said that the organization was planning to conduct a study on this issue, as there was no statistical data on trafficking of women within the country, even though it was an emerging problem.
There had been some study of returning migrant workers, some of whom had been trafficked and forced into labour overseas, but it was not yet known how bad the problem actually was, Karunarathna said.
Global Issue
This problem was not just confined to Sri Lanka – it was often difficult to find data on such issues worldwide because women including those hired as domestic workers were ‘hidden labour’. “There is no protection mechanism for these women,” Karunarathna said.
Cases were also difficult to identify – the organisation would have to visit homes and interview women, who might be pressured by their employers to remain silent. There was some information that could be gleaned when brothels were raided, if the women could be interviewed on how they ended up working there.
In the meantime, the ILO was calling for the passing of convention 189 on domestic workers, which would help women not just within the country, but also those migrating overseas in demanding for mandatory arrest period for perpetrators involved in entrapping women.
Karunarathna also spoke of unscrupulous subagents who lured women in with the promise of lucrative jobs and then sold them into the sex trade.
Nisha Arunatilaka of the Institute of Policy Studies said that up to date data had not yet been released from the census on the trafficking issue, so the figures the IPS had were out of date.
Head of the Lak Sava Vanitha Unit, Shanthini Kongahage said that trafficking was a terrible crime against women, as was forcing them into prostitution, in a statement in the run up to her rally for women’s rights in Kandy on Friday. She added that even the figures for rape were inaccurate, as some women did not report their traumatic experiences, perhaps out of shame.
Minister for Children And Women’s Development, Tissa Karaliyadda said there was no information immediately available on the number of women being transported into Colombo and into the sex trade. Nor was he able to specify if there would be any fact-finding missions on the issue.
UNP parliamentarian, Ranjan Ramanayake, who has often intervened on several cases infringing on women’s rights, said that he had received several complaints of young girls being lured into the sex trade on the pretext of giving them jobs.
Parliamentary low attention
“Dr. Harsha de Silva gave me many documents to be presented in Parliament. Ironically the new MPs do not have the privilege of presenting issues in Parliament as many useless issues are presented by certain politicians. Even when we pose a question the reply is given only several months later. Therefore, it has not been possible to raise this issue in parliament recently,” he said.
Ramanayake also stated that as many migrant workers had been discouraged to seek foreign employment subsequent to the execution of Rizana Nafeek, and furthermore with the GSP issue forcing many garment factories to close down, many of the females from the rural areas were left without work and no source of income. “Due to their desperation these females are falling prey to unscrupulous elements and end up in brothels operating under the pretext of being karaoke bars or massage clinics. Ramanayake added that in some instances brothels also operated under the pretext of being aerobics centres and gyms, where many very young girls are exploited.
“This trend of luring young girls into the sex trade is flourishing in this country. In certain foreign countries, Sri Lanka is marketed as a destination where sex is available freely and cheaply.”
Massage parlous
When these massage parlours or brothels are raided, these innocent girls are being arrested and remanded, Ramanayake said. Sadly, the young girls’ families were often unaware of how their children made a living. Taking advantage of their helplessness, the owners of these ill- famed establishments themselves paid the fines and bailed the girls out, thus ensuring they remained in their debt.
“In addition these girls are forced to work free for these establishments in order to repay the money that was spent to bail them out. This is a huge injustice that has affected many of the young girls from rural areas. This is the miracle of Asia, where the future of innocent young girls is destroyed,” Ramanayake added.
The UNP MP added that there were reports of very young girls being brought to Colombo to be sent to the Middle East for employment, who were forced into working at massage parlours until their documents were sorted out.
A few young girls who are employed at garment factories are also said to engage in the sex industry and work part time in massage parlours for a few hours per day, he said.
He further stated that in order to bring in more tourists to the country the government is attempting to make Sri Lanka into Bangkok. “Organisations like the Bodu Bala Sena make a big noise about other issues, but on this issue even they are silent. I challenge them to take action against the provincial Councillor of the Akuressa PS Sarwa Sunil who is said to be operating a house of ill fame. This character who has publicly boasted to having raped over 100 underage girls had also thrown a party celebrating his shameless achievement. There were reports that he had an album with the faces of these innocent victims and was seen showing it to two senior government ministers. Today we have a society and government that supports and encourages this sort of unethical and shameful acts,” he said adding that this terrible trend is destroying the younger generation of this country.
Although most women’s rights activists acknowledge that trafficking within the country is a problem, it remains a disturbing fact that there are no figures to indicate the depth of the problem. Hopefully this issue will be solved in time- but until then, young girls will continue to fall through the cracks in society, trapped by poverty and their own helplessness.
sundayleader.lk