By Lee Hyo-sik

A growing number of Korean prostitutes are flying to Australia on a working holiday program, following harsh government crackdowns on brothels here over the past few years, foreign ministry officials said Monday.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which administers the work-and-travel program for mostly university students, over 1,000 Korean nationals are estimated to work as prostitutes in Australia, accounting for about 17 percent of the some 6,000 foreign sex workers.

The ministry suspects that the majority of Korean sex workers went to the Oceanic country on the working holiday program.

The program, designed to give Korean students an opportunity to gain international experience, allows those aged 18-30 to stay in one of 11 partner countries to work and travel during a limited time period. The partners include Australia, Denmark, Canada, Germany, France, Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and Sweden.

Australia has been the most popular destination for the one-year work-and-travel permit, allowing participants to gain employment to supplement their travel expenses. Currently, about 35,000 Koreans travel on working holiday visas.

Passport invalidation

"Since 2004 when the Korean government launched a full-fledged clampdown on brothels and other sex businesses in accordance with the anti-prostitution law, sex workers here have either gone underground or moved to foreign countries. It was uncovered that prostitution by Korean women has recently become a social problem in Australia," a foreign ministry official said.

He said the number is estimated to exceed 1,000.

"We suspect that not only prostitutes, but also some young women unable to find jobs here are lured by organized crime rings. They are told that they would be able to earn handsome salaries if they work as a prostitute in Australia for a short period of time," he said.

Many of them went to the country through the working holiday program, the official said, adding some women who initially headed abroad to work and travel have ended up prostituting, tempted by the promise of "quick, easy money."

Against this backdrop, the foreign ministry dispatched senior officials to Australia Sunday to boost cooperation between the two sides to deal with the situation.

The two discussed a range of ways to prevent Koreans on work holiday visas from being involved in the sex business there, as well as to crack down on crime organizations trafficking women.

The ministry also plans to invalidate passports of those who were found to have engaged in prostitution in Australia and other countries.

Besides Australia, an increasing number of Korean women on working holiday visas have recently been caught working as prostitutes in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.

It is estimated that more than 5,000 Korean females are employed by illegal sex businesses in the U.S.