A group of female North Korean workers has been forcefully repatriated from China, where they were asked to work as prostitutes to gain foreign exchange revenue. According to a local source of RFA, they had officially been hired to work at a food factory.

The women, who worked at a food production factory in Liaoning's Donggang city, left their compound at night to engage in prostitution at the behest of their handler.

The source from the local community said that an executive of the Chinese company who owns the food factory ran a prostitution ring and had instructed the North Korean handler to select women from his group, allowing them to leave the premises at night to work as sex laborers.

Another source from China also reported that North Korean women working in the country are frequently forced into prostitution. He blamed the North Korean handler’s “lack of morality” for the recent deportation of the female food factory workers.

Furthermore, multiple sources said North Korean workers and waitresses who are sent to China find it hard to refuse unreasonable requests from corrupt handlers, for fear of repatriation.

The US State Department's 2013 Trafficking in Persons report stated that although China is a destination for women and girls who are sometimes subjected to forced marriage and forced prostitution through trafficking upon arrival, “The government continued to treat North Koreans found in China as illegal economic migrants.”

SOURCE: RFA