On September 3, Jeju Women and Family Institute published a report on “the status of Jeju’s brothels and measures to create a female-friendly space.” This study was based on ▲ interviews with prostituted women, ▲ factual surveys, ▲ research results on other areas where brothels were closed down. The main results of the report are written below.

When Tamna Cultural Park was set up in 2017, it seemed the brothels had disappeared, but results of a factual survey showed that prostitution was still very much present in the Sanjicheon area. Accommodating facilities in the form of inns or residential houses were being rented out to operate prostitution in secret. It was also found that many of the sex buyers were males in their twenties, looking to buy sex at a cheap price.

During interviews with the prostituting women, many of whom had wound up in prostitution in their teens, they explained the physical and mental threat to safety caused by prostitution. “The remaining prostitutes are women who are in debt due to money paid in advance or from living in the brothels, with nowhere to go and no other way of living,” researcher Lee Hwa-jin explained. “They had lived under complete control in the brothels and were exploited economically by pimps, which made it difficult for them to make money under the system of prostitution.”

According to factual surveys on other areas, there is a need for ▲ a real interest and will for female-friendly policies, ▲ establishment of a sustainable gender governance that guarantees resident participation, and ▲ the formation of a sympathetic consensus among local residents.

To eradicate prostitution, we need to ▲ prepare self-support programs reflecting on previous experiences with prostituting women, ▲ provide education to improve awareness and empower local residents, ▲ find fundamental measures to eradicate prostitution in brothels, and ▲ run regular programs to revitalize the area.

Sources

Hong, Chang-bin. Prostitution still prevails in Sanjicheon area, Jeju ... must transition into female-friendly space. Headline Jeju (Sept 3, 2019)

Bae, Sang-cheol. Jeju unable to provide prostitutes with alternate measures of living ... self-support programs needed. Newsis (Sept 3, 2019)

Chung, Bong-oh. Illicit prostitution in Jeju’s Sanjicheon area still rampant. Dong-A Ilbo (Sept 3, 2019)

  * Translated by Yonjoo Hong

** The article which is written in Korean is attached in this post as a PDF file