Human sex trafficking is nothing new in the Asian American community.
It’s no secret there is an illegal pipeline of exploited workers coming from Asian countries of women being lured to the United States, incurring huge debt to immigrate and then being forced to pay off their debt by working in massage parlors or as cheap labor.
Now health workers are warning an increasing number of Asian American children are being recruited as sex workers.
Doctors and nurses at Asian Health Services in Oakland, CA say they are seeing a startling growth in the number of Asian American children who are repeatedly coming in for treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and who have had multiple sex partners and a history of sexual abuse.
“As providers, we have the unique and crucial opportunity to prevent children from becoming victims of sex trafficking,” said Dr. Kimberly Chang, AHS physician and a co-author of the study. “Patient clinical patterns and sexual health are key indicators in identifying children who are victims of or at risk for commercial sexual exploitation, and routine screening and increased patient and community education is necessary to curb the rising CSEC epidemic.”
Their findings were published in the International Journal of Social Science Studies.
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