Since 1945, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea). Currently, about 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed on military bases throughout the country. Beginning in the 1950s, U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) identified the need to provide entertainment in order to maintain high levels of morale among U.S. troops stationed there. The USFK and South Korea cooperated to establish centers of “rest and relaxation” for American troops called kijichon near American military bases. What began as a well-meaning effort to keep homesick American troops amused, and Korean citizens employed, resulted in an exploitative network that has spanned international borders and four decades. [Read more →]

The brochure is available in English, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese

The issue of illegal brothels posing as legitimate massage parlors is tied to Polaris Project’s first moments as an organization.  Our founders, Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman, became passionate about the issue of human trafficking after learning about one of these brothels in Rhode Island, which operated a couple blocks from their college apartments.  Over the past nine years, our organization has focused on combating all forms of human trafficking, but we’ve always maintained an expertise and understanding of this particular network. [Read more →]

Sex trafficking thrives when landlords comply, turn a blind eye, or fail to monitor how their properties are being used.  This was the central message behind the DC Stop Modern Day Slavery group’s online petition on Change.org that launched on Friday March 4, 2011.  More than 300 community members have signed the petition, calling for Jerry Schaeffer, the property owner of the four-story building at 1215 Connecticut Ave., NW, to take action by closing down a brothel disguised as a legitimate massage parlor on the fourth floor. [Read more →]

As many people in the anti-trafficking field know, commercial-front “massage parlors” throughout the United States can sometimes be a cover for illegal prostitution activity and also for human trafficking.  These places have one reason of staying in business, the profits, and the profits only come from one place, the johns.  These businesses cater to johns, and sadly, there are so many people who buy sex that it’s easy to understand why the massage parlors stay open at all costs.  There’s just too much money to be made from the johns.

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On January 13 Peter J. Nickles, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, announced that his office successfully shut down a number of illegal brothels either based in residential homes or those posing as legitimate massage parlors. [Read more →]

Two popular strip clubs in Providence, RI

I went up to Rhode Island a few days ago to visit some family friends.  Having heard a great deal in debates in the human trafficking field on the local sex industry in Rhode Island, and taken part in them, I made a point to talk to people about the situation there.   I wanted to confirm recent reports on how bad the enabling environment for sex trafficking had become.  What I found was indeed alarming. [Read more →]

The anti-human trafficking movement has been calling attention to how businesses can stop being enablers of the slavery of our time.  Polaris Project has shown recently this is not just true for labor trafficking and supply chains, but in the sex trade.  We’ve challenged craigslist to eliminate the Erotic Services section with ads of women and children for sale; and The Washington Post to drop ads for massage parlors, some of which have been shut down for sex trafficking.  The leaders of each have agreed to meetings with Polaris Project in the near future. [Read more →]

The Washington Post has been advertising massage parlor ads consistently for at least 15 years. This advertisement for Hong Kong Spa appeared in the paper in 1994. The Washington Post also published a news article that described Hong Kong Spa as a sex trafficking location.

In my previous post, I referred to a policy report on “Paper Pimps,” describing advertisers for the commercial sex industry.  Paper pimps are the enablers of the sexual slavery and exploitation that occurs within the context of the broader industry.  Brothels disguised as massage parlors have been advertised in The Washington Post, which I learned through public postings online from the men who seek commercial sex, based on their reading of those advertisements in The Post.

During a meeting with representatives of The Washington Post’s Advertising Department in 2005, they said that if they knew there was illegal activity occurring in these “massage parlors,” they would take the advertisements down.  Did they know that journalists within The Washington Post have already reported on the illicit nature of these massage parlors advertised in their own paper? [Read more →]

Last year, I spoke with Nomi Levenkron, an attorney with the Israel-based Hotline for Migrant Workers that produced a policy report on “Paper Pimps.”  The report, supported by the European Union, presents research on the scope of sex trafficking in Israel and its enabling support structure, namely the advertisers of commercial sex operations, referred to as “paper pimps” for facilitating the exploitation of victims of sex trafficking.  It asserts the importance of freedom of expression, but the need to balance it with values for protecting other fundamental human rights.

During our conversation, I realized that I have come to know many American “paper pimps” quite well in the last seven years of work in the U.S. anti-trafficking movement.  My first introduction was to one I read every day:  The Washington Post. [Read more →]