Through interviews with dozens of Youngdeungpo sex workers, Key found that criminalization often had unintended effects. Fear of arrest — Korean police apprehended over 200,000 workers, clients and brothel owners between 2004 and 2009, according to the U.N. Development Programme [PDF] — intimidated providers and clients, leading to lost wages and a “push” effect: Sex workers “ended up being trafficked. And that’s one of the dangers of not having decriminalization,” she said. “They go to Japan, Australia, Canada or the U.S., through brokers who will send women abroad to brothel houses.”

The Sex Workers Project (SWP) at the Urban Justice Center, an advocacy group in New York, adds that criminalization deters women from reporting assaults and organizing for better conditions. “In another job, you might have a union or colleagues you can speak to, but with sex work you’re prohibited by law,” said Melissa Broudo, a lawyer with SWP, referring to statutes against “promoting” prostitution.

Yet legalization can make things worse, said Matthias Lehmann, a researcher and activist who’s studied sex work in Germany and Korea. In his native Germany, he said, sex workers oppose a new law requiring mandatory enrollment and government health exams: “Registration is a pretext to persecution.”



By refusing restrictions on their labor, said Key, those who provide sex for money insist on their status as workers. Brothel activists in Seoul have “closely modeled themselves on workers’ movements,” she said, but while “sex workers align themselves with ‘workers,’ it doesn’t go the other way.” Korean unions have been silent on the issue, and the same has been true internationally: Neither the International Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella labor group, nor the AFL-CIO, which represents 12.5 million workers in the U.S., would comment on the Amnesty resolution.

It's this disconnect that Jang, Lee and other sex workers hope to overcome. Following Wednesday's rally, Hanteo led a march toward the constitutional court — where the appeal of the anti-prostitution law is pending — and hosted an international symposium on commercial sex. The message was clear, Jang said, “Sex work is work, too. Recognize our rights as sex workers!”

