Seoul Immigration Office and Foreigners Service, Couple Operating Thai Women’s Prostitution Business and Mediating Prostitution Sent to Prosecution

Loan Sharking Using Passports as Collateral Targeting Thai Women

Seoul Immigration Office and Foreigners Service Special Immigration Investigation Unit.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] A Korean husband and his Thai wife were caught and sent to the prosecution for illegally employing Thai women to run prostitution establishments and even arranging employment at other prostitution venues.

On the 8th, the Immigration Special Investigation Unit (Chief Kim Jae-nam) of the Seoul Immigration Office (Director Lee In-gyu) announced that the international married couple, Mr. A and Mrs. B (female, Thai), were sent to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office without detention on charges of violating the Immigration Control Act for employing Thai women whose stay period had expired at massage parlors and officetels and arranging employment at other prostitution establishments.

Investigations revealed that Mrs. B searched for prostitution women of the same nationality through Facebook advertisements, while Mr. A rented massage parlors and officetels under other people's names to operate the business, dividing their roles accordingly.

From November last year to May this year, they illegally employed 19 Thai women with expired stay periods as masseuses and prostitutes at one massage parlor and three officetels in Incheon and Osan, and introduced 11 Thai women to other prostitution establishments, according to the Seoul Immigration Office Immigration Special Investigation Unit.

In particular, they reportedly committed human rights violations by lending illegal loans at a high interest rate of about 33% secured by passports and other identification documents to Thai prostitutes in urgent need of money, threatening them by posting secret body photos and personal information of debtors who delayed repayment on Facebook, and arranging employment at other prostitution establishments as a condition for repaying the debt.

The Seoul Immigration Office Immigration Special Investigation Unit stated, "During the severe COVID-19 situation, we will continue to crack down on unauthorized decadent massage parlors, officetels, and brokers who employ foreigners to operate prostitution businesses covertly, and will take strict measures including criminal punishment against those involved."

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