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WASHINGTON - Military officials have taken steps to prevent troops stationed in South Korea from patronizing bars and clubs suspected of forcing female employees into prostitution, a Pentagon report says.
The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General found that many of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea visited such establishments because they lacked on-base recreational opportunities and were ignorant about the crime of human trafficking.
For as long as American troops have been in South Korea, so-called camp towns, or commercial districts, have catered to servicemen around bases. Prostitution has always been a part of the scene, researchers say.
But in recent years, South Korean entrepreneurs have reportedly lured Russian and Filipino women to their clubs for work, then confiscated their passports and coerced them into the sex trade.
Thirteen members of Congress requested a Pentagon investigation last year after a Cleveland television station broadcast a report about the camp towns. Fox affiliate WJW found that the military dispatched "courtesy patrols" to the districts, in effect providing security for brothels.
A courtesy patrol member, asked if it was his job to keep the area safe for troops, said on camera: "Yeah, that's what we do. That's our job."
As he stood outside one of the establishments, the patrol member said: "All these bar owners buy girls at auction. These girls have to earn however much money it takes to get their passports back."
Military patrol members were "overly friendly" with bar owners and staffs and did not act in a manner "that denotes being on official duty," said the report, released earlier this month.
Leaders of the United States Forces Korea moved quickly to address the problem after Pentagon investigators visited the country last December, the report said.
More than 660 establishments suspected of involvement in human trafficking or prostitution have been placed off-limits to military personnel, and new programs are under way to educate service members about human trafficking and laws against it.
In addition, new funds are being spent to improve on-base recreational facilities and living conditions, which the report called "so unpleasant that service members wanted to spend as little time as possible in the barracks."
In the past, military law enforcement officers overlooked evidence of prostitution, such as the same woman leaving a bar repeatedly with different men, because of a "misperception that they could only report improper activity rising to the level of evidence admissible in criminal courts," the report said.
But now, plainclothes military officers conducting counter-narcotics surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations in the clubs will be required to report evidence of human trafficking.
"These officials are a key part of the "eyes and ears' of military commanders, and help form the basis of a decision to add an establishment to the "off-limits' list," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., author of a 2000 law against human trafficking and one of the lawmakers who requested the inquiry.
A related investigation of the U.S. installations in the Balkans is continuing.
"This report is only the first phase of a much larger examination of how our military can best wage the fight on human trafficking," Smith said.
Among the military installations visited by Pentagon investigators were Osan Air Force Base, Camps Casey and Bonifas and the Itaewon District outside the Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul.