Posted By: HeathersLuv4u
After the Asian financial crisis in the late 90s, the South Korean government implemented an economic stimulus program to boost domestic economy. The program allowed many South Koreans to borrow and spend regardless of their credit scores. This allows anyone to sign up for a credit card and spend without limits.
The resulting South Korean debt collection laws and the aforementioned stimulus plan both contribute to South Korean women being forced into sex trade around the world.
Unlike most other countries, credit card users in South Korea have no option to pay off their debt over months or even years. Instead, they must pay off the full balance in 30 days, which makes it easy for borrowers “paying 25% plus annual interest rates to fall behind.”
It is not uncommon for lenders to take possession or even repossess borrowers homes to pay their debts.
When a poor woman like Xxxxxx , becomes delinquent, she often turns to private lenders for quick cash. Many of those private lenders are connected to organized crime involved in human trafficking and prostitution, making a naïve college woman like You Mi Kim vulnerable to sex slavery.
Though the Korean debt collection law prohibits collection of debt using threats or violence, it is rarely enforced. In 2009, a young college woman was forced into prostitution after she failed to pay back $2,500 to a loan shark. When she couldn’t afford to pay her college tuition, she turned to the loan shark for the money to continue with her education.
When her father later found out, he attempted to cancel the loan. Then, when he failed, he killed himself and his daughter.
Even when the law is enforced, legislative loopholes still make young women vulnerable. In March 2011, police arrested a woman who trafficked over 70 South Korean females for prostitution in Tokyo, Japan. Traffickers recruit the women, all heavily indebted, through loan sharks.
In order to pay off the debts, traffickers offer victims jobs at massage parlors in Japan. Upon arrival in Tokyo, however, the victims were locked up and forced into prostitution under debt-bondage while the trafficker profited approximately $304,000 a month.
-- Modified on 4/1/2012 4:00:29 PM