Every evening, groups of foreign tourists walk through Taipei’s
carnival-like Snake Alley, watching meals being prepared at little
stands. Not shown on these tours, however, is the brothel area a few
blocks away, where prostitutes stand in dim, red-lit doorways.
A visitor to one of the dozens of small alleys in the area soon notices
that many of the girls are just teen-agers, and that some girls are no
older than 11.
No one knows exactly how many child prostitutes there are in Taiwan,
but one survey of 122 prostitutes found that 67 percent of them started
before they were 16 and 29 percent had not yet reached 13.
According to a survey by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, several
hundred of the more than 4,000 prostitutes in the area are from the
island’s aborigine tribes., and an estimated 60 percent are under 18.
The girls are confined to darkened brothels with no protection from
abusive brothel owners and customers. The situation is the same in
other cities around the island.
Bypassed by the miracle
While the problem of child and teen-age prostitution is not confined to
aborigines, many prostitutes are recruited from their villages. One
reason is that the island’s economic miracle, which has brought
prosperity to Taiwan over the past 10 years, has not filtered down to
the 310,000 aborigines who make up less than 2 percent of the island’s
19.5 million people and who lag far behind the ethnic Chinese
economically.
The majority of the aborigines working as prostitutes have been sold
into servitude, officials say.
“If disaster comes to a family, if someone is sick or needs an
operation, apparently the easiest way to get money is to sell the
daughter,” said Liao Pi-ying, director of the Rainbow Project, a
Presbyterian organization that provides assistance to aborigine youths.
Even if there is no problem in the family, parents are still tempted to
sell their daughters because there are few jobs in hilly areas and
girls are considered surplus population.
The middlemen
Often, the local agent or contact person is a prominent village figure,
such as an elected official, a teacher, or even a policeman’s wife, all
of whom have a civic status that may protect them from authorities
would their activities be found out.
These middlemen receive up to 25 percent of the $7,000 generally paid
for the girls, a huge sum in a country with a yearly per-capita income
of $5,000.
The physical abuse is severe.
Huang Hua-tse was 14 when her mother sent her to Kaohsiung to work as a
“servant.” The teenager was injected with hormones and soon found
herself working in a brothel outside a military base. Her only pay,
aside from the initial money given to her family, was a gold ring that
was taken back when she returned home several years later.
“It was worse than hell,” said Huang, now 34 and married. She is
working with the Rainbow Project to halt the trade.
While many girls may contemplate running away, escape is difficult. the
girls are under the watchful eye of employees 24 hours a day, and even
when they go tot he doctor’s office for check-ups, they are escorted.
And for those lucky enough to escape or those who are arrested, there
are only two rehabilitation centers on the island. The girls spend six
months in the rehabilitation houses, but once their confinement is over
there are only two places for them to go: back home, where they may not
be wanted, or back to the brothel. Officials estimate that 95 percent
of the girls who have been in the centers return to prostitution.
In March 1987, the government launched a campaign to crack down on
prostitution of girls under 16, but there has been little indication
that the problem has been reduced.
Without formal accusations, suspects cannot be taken to court.
Furthermore, when someone is convicted, the sentence is often a light
fine or probation.
