The trafficking of women and girls in Taiwan: characteristics of victims, perpetrators, and forms of exploitation

BMC Women's Health

Research Article

Lanying Huang¹ 

[1] Graduate School of Criminology, National Taipei University, 151 University Rd., San Shia District, 23741, New Taipei City, Taiwan;

关键词: Human trafficking;    Women and girl victims;    Exploitation;    Immigrant workers;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12905-017-0463-2

 received in 2017-03-14, accepted in 2017-10-31,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPrior to the passing of 2009 Human Trafficking Prevention Act (HTPA), human trafficking was underestimated in Taiwan. In the past, domestic trafficking in women and girls often targeted vulnerable groups such as young girls from poor families or minority groups. Since the 1990s, an increasing flow of immigrant women, mainly from Vietnam and Indonesia and some from China, into Taiwan has created a new group of Human Trafficking victims. The current study intends to identify, describe, and categorize reported and prosecuted human trafficking cases involving women and girls according to the HTPA in Taiwan.MethodsUsing the court proceedings of prosecuted trafficking in women and girls cases under Taiwan’s HTPA from all 21 districts in Taiwan from 2009 to 2012 under the title keyword of ‘Human Trafficking’, this current study aims to categorize different patterns of existing trafficking in women and girls in Taiwan. The analysis is based on 37 court cases, involving 195 victimized women and girls and 118 perpetrators.ResultsThis study identifies six forms of Human Trafficking victims according to their country of origin, vulnerability status, and means of transport. This study found that women and girls suffer from both labor and sexual exploitation, from mainly domestic male perpetrators. While sexual exploitation is more evenly distributed among citizens and immigrants and affects both adults and minors, labor exploitation seems to be an exclusive phenomenon among women immigrant workers in the data.ConclusionsHuman Trafficking cases in Taiwan share many of the similarities of Human Trafficking in other regions, which are highly associated with gender inequality and gender-based vulnerability.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017