East Java haven for trade in women

TULUNG AGUNG, East Java: Women and children living in the regency of Tulung Agung along the southern coast of East Java face a higher risk of falling prey to traffickers in the sex worker trade, as most migrant workers in that area are women.

Although workers placement agencies abound in the regency, many of them only seek to exploit women and children as overseas sex workers, said Umu Hilmy, the secretary of the Law and Gender Development Center at the University of Brawijaya.

"The government is still complacent in regards this problem," she said on Monday.

East Java immigration officials, she said, recorded that six to 20 East Java sex workers were deported monthly and returned to Indonesia.

Umu added that Indonesian women made up the biggest share of sex workers in Japan. Quoting a survey by the United Nations Ecosoc, she said that "out of 10,000 sex workers in Japan, 5,000 of them come from Indonesia." -- Antara