Isis International Information Pack Series No. 3 March 1993

Permission to copy for general distribution, any of the articles in this Information Pack must be requested from original publishers. For the essay of Ms. Aurora Javate De Dies and the article of Lisa Go, kindly write to Isis International.

Copyright @ Isis International 1993

Editorial board: La Rainne Abad-Sarmiento, Domlnga Anosan. Belinda U. Calaguas,  Belinda Giron-Arclla, Marilee Kari, Elizabeth Reyes-Martlnez, Lucia Pavla Ticzon

Editor: Beilnda U. Calaguas
Adviser: Aurora Javate De dios
Cover illustration: Rica Palomo
Folder design: Chriku
Layout: Belinda U. Calaguas, Chriku, Lesley Stansfield
Production staff: Rhona Bautista, Bal Carreon, Judith Catubig, Genevieve Sta. Ara, Florian Taldo

Foreword

Across the countries of Asia, from its villages and cities, thousands of girls, young and old women are forced by grinding poverty and helplessness, by culture and tradition, by familial structures and expectations and by the so-called development strategies adopted by governments to work as bonded labor or sexual slaves, oftentimes both, in the affluent countries of the world.

The Asian female diaspora affects all countries of Asia. The patterns of migration criss-cross the globe, hundreds of thousands transcending international borders or provincial boundaries every month. And yet, we only get wind of this feverish human traffic when charred young bodies chained to bedposts make the headlines in Thailand, or a US serviceman's rotting broken vibrator is found in a dead little girl's septic vagina in the Philippines. 

Let our silenced voices be heard: The traffic in Asian women raises the cry of these mothers, these daughters, OUR sisters who are trapped in such inhuman and dehumanizing conditions because they are women. And as women, they are charged with the survival of families, of nations and traditions.

Isis International-Manila's third information pack introduces the reader to the forms, the means, and the extent by which Asian women are trafficked by male kin, international syndicates, and governments. It is Isis International's contribution to the international campaign to make the United Nations recognize women's rights as human rights. Consequently, abuses and violations of women's rights are human rights violations.

The many layers of human rights abuse that women in Asia and other LACAAP (Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Pacific) countries suffer are nowhere more evident than in the problem of trafficking in women. Poverty, the lack of opportunities for development and a decent living are main reasons for women falling into the trafficking trap. Once trafficked, the women are virtually devoid of any rights in much the same way as slaves in historical times were allowed no existence outside the oppressive and exploitative relationship they had with their masters.

Some have argued that women who are trafficked are not always naive victims. For many, being trafficked is a survival strategy. We hasten to add that trafficking is not only a survival strategy of individual women. It is also that of governments, both in the developing and developed world. When governments in industrialized countries allow the influx of women domestic helpers into their societies, they are doing so because it is ultimately cheaper than having to provide childcare and other services to its citizens. Governments in sender countries earn foreign exchange through the export of its women and men, as well as by prostituting its women to cater to foreign tourists.

These and other issues are discussed in Aurora Javate De Dios' essay which also provides a framework for understanding the problem of frafficking in women.

The other materials in this pack are divided into five main chapters :

Part 1, Forms of trafficking in women provides case materials on different forms and experiences of trafficked women. These span the practices of selling girls/women for bridewealth, the abducting of women for "comfort stations" or military brothels, mail-order brides, temple servants, domestic helpers, duping women to become entertainers and prostitutes.

Part 2, National experiences, provides reports from experiences of trafficking in Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Korea. In these reports we find how government's policy to trade in its woman resources in the name of tourism-led and export-led development facilitates the trafficking of women internationally.

Although the materials in Part 3, Fighting Back, are not as voluminous as in the other chapters, the two articles featured here provide us with a broad overview of the ways and means that women's groups have responded to the problem of trafficking in women, as well as the lessons to be learned from their actions.

In Part 4, Conventions and resolutions, we included a selection of conference statements and resolutions from the AWHRC, ACFOD, APHD, STV, Isis Wicce to underscore the fact that women all over the region are networking, strategizing and tacticizing on the issue. These resolutions are addressed not only to other women's groups and governments in sender and receiver countries but to international bodies like the United Nations as well.

Finally, the last part. Resources for organizing and action provides a directory of organizations working on the issue of trafficking in women. Included too is a selected reading list on the topic. All materials in this reading list can be found in the Isis International Resource Center and is available for photocopying except when covered by prohibitions on reproduction.

To end, we thank everyone who helped us prepare this information pack, Jean Grossholtz for her thoughts and feedback as well as the groups and publications that have generously allowed us to reprint from their magazines and journals.

Belinda U. Calaguas
Resource Center and Information Program
March 1993