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Sri Lanka’s Hidden Global sex trade
Current estimates reveal that about 35,000–47,000 female sex workers are operating in
Formal sex work establishments, spas, massage centres, private residences, hotels, and streets within Sri Lanka. However, according to Lanka News Line investigations, it could be revealed that in addition to this kind of sex work, which is relatively open, several sophisticated operations are connected to global sex trafficking rings.
Sri Lanka has been identified as a country of origin, a transit country, and a destination country for victims of trafficking. Mostly women are trafficked from Sri Lanka to the West, South East, and South Asian countries and Europe for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.
According to the International Labour Organization, there were 4.8 million sex trafficking victims experiencing commercial sexual exploitation around the world. Globally, 99% of victims were women and girls.
Small but expanding:
On the grand scale of things, the Sri Lankan operation is small but rapily expanding. During the Corona pandemic, most of the foreign sex workers left the country because they could not find enough work.
The Chinese, Thai, and Russian sex workers who operated from the hotels on Galle Road and left the country during the Corona virus pandemic are now back in work.
The international escorts operating from casinos and gambling parlors, which are now in full swing, provide services to the upper class and visiting businessmen. Some of these casinos are Board of Investment (BOI)-approved ventures, and escorts have the BOI licence.
As per the 2023 US TIP Report (a comprehensive US report on human trafficking), Sri Lanka does not fully meet the minimum standard for the elimination of trafficking but is making a significant effort to do so; and demonstrates overall increasing efforts in comparison with 2022.
The international escorts operating from casinos and gambling parlours which are now in full swing, provide services to the upper class and visiting businessmen. Some of these casinos are Board of Investment (BOI)-approved ventures, and escorts have the BOI licence.
The Russian Ring:
An international prostitution ring involving Russian, Thai, and Taiwanese women using Colombo as their main base has been busted by police on several occasions, but they have gotten used to these raids, and in most instances, the matter is resolved by fining a few women who are ordered to be deported. However, a waiter at one of these hotels remarked, the know how to return to the profession within weeks. This is because the operators are well connected.
The high-class operation of foreign sex workers does not come cheap.
A Russian sex worker’s average service costs about 200 dollars and there have been instances where the sex worker has received only around 10 dollars
According to police officers who had first-hand information from these women, in most cases, the only income that these foreign sex workers get is the tip given by the customer.
Many of these women have their passports taken as soon as they arrive in the country, and they are in a vulnerable situation.
Detectives have been looking for a Russian identified as ‘Ingar’ who is believed to be the main pimp in this international prostitute ring, without success for some time.
More recently, there have been instances where the Sri Lankan Police has intervened in rescuing Uzbek women from human traffickers operating between the former Soviet states and Sri Lanka
In a previous operation led by the Kollupitiya police, they found that about 40 foreign women were involved in a call girl network, and most of these girls were subjected to inhumane treatment
‘I had to fulfil degrading demands, and whenever I refused or broke down, I was locked up for days’ a testimony given to a lawyer revelled.\
Sex Work in Other Countries:
Some Sri Lankan women are subjected to forced prostitution in Cyprus, Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and elsewhere. Within the country, women and children are subjected to sex trafficking in brothels. The Foreign Employment Bureau had uncovered a prostitution ring involving Sri Lankan women in the Maldives. According to information received around 70 to 100 Sri Lankan women have been smuggled to the Maldives on tourist visas to work as escorts and prostitutes.
It has been noted that the prostitution ring that has been operating for a very long time is still very active. It is learnt that several employment agents dupe Sri Lankan women with prospects of lucrative employment in Singapore and Malaysia.
Prostitution is not barred by law in Singapore, and many women were coaxed into prostitution and are stranded there without a means of returning home, but they don’t seek out help as they fear the pimps, said a Sri Lankan who spoke to LankaNews Line.
These women operate in the Geylang District under the watchful eyes of Sri Lankan pimps and are in internal fear as they have overstayed their visas, said the Sri Lankan who spoke to Lanka News Line.
An officer from the Immigration department who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that these sex workers come under the guise of learning English and most of them are legitimately enrolled in academic programs, so we are not in a position to refuse visas.”
In most cases, foreign steelworkers enter the country on holiday visas and later obtain an extension. The sex workers are known to be rotated and after three months, another batch is brought in while the others are circled in the Maldives, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India, according to Colombo-based police sources.
International Observations:
As per the 2023 US TIP Report (A comprehensive US report on human trafficking), Sri Lanka does not fully meet the minimum standard for the elimination of trafficking but is making a significant effort to do so and demonstrates overall increasing efforts in comparison with 2022.
The government recorded just 28 cases of trafficking, while the nongovernmental organization SAFE claimed that it had evidence of 322 cases in the past month. SAFE works in 12 districts with 120 grassroots partners to educate people on the meaning of human trafficking and illegal migration
Sri Lanka has two main criminal laws relating to trafficking: the Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution and the Penal Code. Despite strengthened criminal laws to combat human trafficking, the number of recorded criminal investigations and prosecutions is small, according to the UN.
“However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government prosecuted fewer trafficking cases, and sentences for convicted traffickers remained inadequate. The US TIP report was added.
