Interrogating the Absence of HIV/AIDS Interventions for Migrant Sex Workers in South Korea

Abstract

W ith a focus on HIV/AIDS prevention, this commentary discusses the marginalization of migrant sex workers' right to health by both the state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in South Korea (henceforth Korea). It first examines how state policy on migrant workers and migrant entertainers, in the sex industry in particular, engenders human rights violations on multiple fronts. It then explores how relevant NGOs fail to intervene because of both ideological and practical preoccupations. The avid concern of anti-prostitution NGOs to position migrant women as victims of trafficking, together with the lack of intervention from HIV/AIDS NGOs and migrantworkers NGOs, effectively ignores the health needs of these women, relegating them to the regulation and deportation approach of the government, exacerbating their vulnerability, and violating their basic rights to health information and services. In order for HIV/AIDS interventions to be integrated into NGO advocacy and state policy for migrant sex workers, it is essential that both NGOs and the state adopt a rights-based approach to sex work, migrant issues, and HIV/AIDS for both Koreans and non-Koreans. This analysis draws in part on the author's fieldwork