Sources indicate that most child prostitution is connected to “sex tourism,” an industry catering priericans and other westerners who travel to Sri Lanka specifically for purposes of sex. Sri Lanka, along with Thailand and the Philippines, is reportedly regarded as an “international center” for prostitution and pedophilia (Inter Press Service 10 Dec. 1991; Star Tribune 21 Nov. 1993). Many of these tourists are regular visitors who reportedly prefer Sri Lanka precisely because child prostitutes are so readily available (ibid.; Inter Press Service 10 Dec. 1991). As well, sources indicate that Sri Lanka is popular with western “marriage bureaus,” firms that specialize in supplying western men with Third World and eastern European wives. Reportedly there are 60 such agencies in Germany, with annual revenues totalling $25 million (Star Tribune 21 Nov. 1993). Bandarage states that women forced to marry Japanese farmers are often put to work in the fields, while women exported to western countries sometimes end up as “servants” or are “turned into the prostitution or pornography business” (Bandarage 25-27 May 1988, 162-63).
Authorities officials suggest that merely 2000 children are working in prostitution (Xinhua 8 Late. 1993), but nonetheless had been gonna present rules when you look at the July 1993 (ibid. 18 July 1993). One supply demonstrates that it will be early 1994 in advance of software are located in place (ibid. dos The fall of. 1993).
Large numbers of Sri Lankan women of all of the ethnic and you may religious groups, really between the age 18 and you will forty-five, are widely-used because domestics around Eastern. A few of these ladies are rooked by Bangladeshi a position representatives, several of just who costs as much as forty,000 rupees (US$4000)–almost fifteen times just what legislation it permits–due to their features (Reuters 24 Annual percentage rate. 1990). Also, due to the fact a healthy body and you may childlessness is actually prerequisites to own a position regarding Middle east, many women is confronted with uncomfortable and potentially dangerous medical procedures and you will medication. According to one to resource,
women can be medically examined and you may immunized up against various illness prior to its departure. Many women are injected with the questionable hormonal birth control Depo Provera, commonly without its studies otherwise agree. Certain female think they are getting considering a normal inoculation; they don’t understand the harmful effects regarding Depo Provera otherwise this has been banned from the You.S. . (Bandarage 25-twenty seven Can get 1988, 160-61).
The abuse does not end when the women arrive in the Middle East. Many more are abused by their Middle Eastern employers, including being forced to work 12- to 15-hour days (Reuters 27 June 1990; Chi town Tribune 21 Mar. 1993) or refused the agreed upon wages (Bandarage 25-27 May 1988, 160-61), to outright physical, psychological and sexual abuse. For example, one Sri Lankan housemaid was “beaten and burned with a cigarette and had her hair cut off” by her Kuwaiti employer (U . s . Now 21 Feb. 1992), while in another case an angry Kuwaiti employer reportedly dragged a woman by her hair out of the Sri Lankan embassy compound as two Kuwaiti policemen “turned their backs” (ibid.). Many domestic mail ordre websteder workers are sexually assaulted by their employers (ibid.; Inter Press Service 10 Apr. 1990; Reuters 24 Apr. 1990; Chi town Tribune 21 Mar. 1993). In February 1992 as many as six cases of sexual assault were being reported to the Sri Lankan embassy in Kuwait each day (United states of america Now 21 Feb. 1992) and some 69 women were in “hiding” in the embassy, with up to eight more arriving each day. One source, quoting the Sri Lankan labour secretary, states that some domestics working in the Middle East end up in such desperate circumstances that they must “turn to prostitution to survive” (Reuters 27 June 1990).