Migrant sex work
Sex work and sex trafficking conflation is also a heavily debated legal topic. Several scholars argue that existing legal provisions aimed at combating human trafficking, such as the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the 2000 United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, do not adequately account for the variety of sex worker conditions and contexts, voluntary or involuntary. For instance, Filipina hostesses who migrate to Japan to work as entertainers must give up their legal documents to their recruiters during the migration process. While the law considers the process of giving up a passport to a third party intermediary as a condition of human trafficking, several scholars, activists, and the sex workers themselves do not regard this to be human trafficking, particularly when individuals consent to this component of the migration process.
Human rights in East Asia
Human trafficking is unfortunately on the increase in Asian countries. Women and children appear to be the most vulnerable to become the victims of this black market trade. They are generally trafficked with the intention of being used for commercial sex, domestic work, and construction work. Children are also in demand for factory or farm work or in the entertainment sector. Trafficking amounts to a severe breach of human rights, victims are obviously forced into situations unwillingly, suffer physical and mental abuse and social stigmatization. Traffickers target families who are socioeconomically poor. Human trafficking in the area of Eastern Asia is a very serious problem, especially in Southeast Asia, and one of the region’s biggest human rights issues. Human trafficking is not just a problem in the Asian region, it appears to grow as a black market sector in areas that suffer from poverty, yet are also affected by globalisation, meaning many areas of the world are being affected by a rise in the trade. A mix of disadvantaged individuals placed underprivileged situations and manipulative people in a position of wealth and power create an environment for trafficking to develop. Many eastern nationals have attempted to take measures to end trafficking within their country by increasing security measures and imposing harsher penalties on traffickers, but so far attempts have been largely unsuccessful. In 2014 a study was conducted which established approximately two thirds of the victims of human trafficking were from the Asian region.