hankyoreh

Prostitution involving Korean fishermen and local women in the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, an issue serious enough for the island to ban Korean ships from docking there two years ago, is on the rise again.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries announced on February 23 that the National Youth Commission traveled to Kiribati, north of Fiji on the equator, in December 19-29 of last year to study the problem, and confirmed that Korean sailors are again buying sex in the small country. Of the 24 Kiribati women who in the most recent study said they had sold sex to Korean men, seven were under the age of 18. One was as young as 14.

In 2005, the problematic behavior of Korean fishermen became so serious that Kiribati authorities decided to prohibit Korean ships from docking there. The decision came after the head of Kiribati's Roman Catholic Church urged the government of President Anote Tong to step down if it could not solve the prostitution issue in the country.

Youth commission investigators found that when the Kiribati government again began allowing Korean ship workers to go ashore and Kiribati women to board Korean vessels in 2006, the activity continued just as before. Local Kiribati activists estimate that between 40 to 50 Kiribati women are engaged in prostitution with Korean men there on port calls, and that every year the women engaged in such activity are getting younger.

Investigators said the Korean government needs to do something for the children born as a result of the activity, noting that, currently, two women are pregnant after sexual contact with Korean men and that another woman is already raising a child born through such contact.

Investigators also noted that the problem is gradually becoming an international embarrassment for Korea. The South Pacific section of UNICEF issued a report last December critical of "prostitution with Korean ship crews."

In addition, an article in Pacific Magazine last November quoted a Kiribati nurse who said that HIV/AIDS incidence was on the rise on the island. According to the article, the HIV/AIDS clinic at Tarawa General Hospital, Kiribati (population 92,000) had 43 confirmed AIDS cases at that time, of which 26 had died.

The officials with the youth commission and maritime affairs ministry say they are working on ways to give ship crews "preventive education" in the hope they stop sexually patronizing Kiribati women. The commission said it was also coming up with ways to help the women and children caught in the cycle of prostitution.

Besides the 2005 ban, Kiribati authorities also prevented Korean fishing boats from calling to port during a period in 2003 because crews consistently tried to buy sex there.

Prostitutes in Kiribati are referred to as "korakorea" because of the nationality of their most frequent clients. There exists no criminal provision for overseas child sex tourism and prostitution in South Korea’s laws, and no laws against prostitution in Kiribati.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]