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Taipei: Foreign workers brought to Taiwan through bogus marriages or restrictive work contacts are being forced to work as prostitutes because of poor enforcement of laws, the US State Department said in a report on Thursday.
Some of the immigrants from China, Vietnam and the Philippines have been sold off at auctions while others have themselves turned to prostitution, the US government's 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report said.
"Some women who are smuggled onto Taiwan to seek illegal work were sometimes sold in auctions to sex traffickers and subsequently forced to work in the commercial sex industry," the report, which also covers other regions, said.
"Many foreign workers remain vulnerable to trafficking because legal protections, oversight by authorities and enforcement efforts are inadequate."
Last year, the State Department took Taiwan off a list of regions that it was watching as hotspots for human trafficking and harsh treatment of migrant workers.
Taiwan faced the prospect of sanctions if it remained on the list, but the government approved a broad plan to tackle trafficking, toughened visa rules and prosecuted more violators.
About 340,000 foreign workers lived in Taiwan in 2007. That year courts handled 144 migrant sexual exploitation cases.
Non-governmental agencies have reported a "sharp increase" in boys rescued from prostitution over the past year, the State Department report said.
A government official said more money and personnel were needed to crack down on "sexual exploitation."
The biggest difficulty is the evaluation to see whether a person involved is really a victim," Lee Ling-fong, deputy director of the island's National Immigration Agency.
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