Korea Times Profiles Juicy Girls Working TDC Ville Outside of Camp Casey

Another year and yet another article claiming the at Filipinas working in bars in South Korea were tricked into working there.  In today’s age of the Internet a simple Google search can inform Filipinas what they are potentially signing up for by applying for one of these visas.  What is ironic this article from the Korea Times is very similar to one written in 2012 by the Korea Times and they are still saying these girls don’t know what they are getting into coming to South Korea on these visas:

Bargirls, mostly Filipinas, working in the entertainment district near United States Forces Korea’s Camp Casey in Dongducheon hardly go a day without alcohol. With bars opening after 6 p.m. and not closing until the last patrons leave, usually in the early morning, the girls treat customers to whatever they want ― from canoodling and lap dancing to oral sex. Some customers suggest heading out for the night-off, which is not so good for the girls, but good for the bar owners because a customer must pay a bar fine to take out a bargirl.

These migrant women’s desperate business depends on about 2,000 soldiers from the camp, about 60 kilometers north of Seoul. The soldiers’ curfew is 11:30 p.m., previously 1:00 a.m. When they return to camp, migrant workers replace them, but there are not so many.

Job agencies have told the bargirls, working with a Hotel and Adult Entertainment Visa, or E-6-2 visa, they would find work as singers, with most of the girls unaware they would end up in red light bars.

“There are about 200 foreigners in prostitution working at some 70 clubs in Dongducheon,” Joyce Kim from Durebang, a NGO dedicated to helping bargirls working near USFK camps, told The Korea Times. Having watched over the migrants for more than five years, she said bargirls, some of whom are Russians, live above the bars with only one day off every month. The visa allows them to stay in Korea for two years if they do not quit and keep their working contracts valid.

The bars are owned and managed by Koreans, who do not hesitate to threaten the girls and push them to earn more money, forcing them to work through until as late as 10 a.m. This affects their girls’ health, including their menstruation cycle.

Bargirls are paid based on a monthly quota. All Dongducheon bars use this system, which requires the bargirls to collect 300-350 points every two weeks.

“Otherwise the bar owners cannot earn enough,” Kim said. “Owners use points to humiliate the girls with poor sales records by comparing them to girls who earn more points.”

The system works like this: a $10 glass of “juice” that a girl sells to patrons is worth one point. To complete the quota, each girl must sell $3,000-$3,500 worth of juice in two weeks. If girls reach their quota, they get paid a bonus called “drink back” worth around $300-$350 in addition to their regular monthly wage of 400,000 won ($354).   [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but every USFK soldier knows that participating in prostitution is illegal and has extreme consequences if caught.  This is not a USFK problem, this is a South Korea problem.  If South Korea really wants to stop the human trafficking of Filipinas they should just end the entertainment visas for them.