'Nowhere to go': At US base, S. Korean ex-prostitutes face eviction

More than 70 aging women live in a squalid neighbourhood near the rear gate of a U.S. Army garrison in Anjeong-ri, South Korea, are facing eviction. They once worked as prostitutes for American soldiers in this “camptown” near Camp Humphreys, and they’ve stayed because they have nowhere else to go. Now, the women are being forced out by developers and landlords eager to build on prime real estate around the soon-to-be-expanded garrison. Many of the women want the government to take greater responsibility for their well-being and financial stability. They believe they played an important role for South Korea.

My landlord wants me to leave, but my legs hurt, I can’t walk, and South Korean real estate is too expensive.

Cho Myung-ja, 75, former prostitute

In the decades following the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War, South Korea was deeply dependent on the U.S. military. In 1962, the government formalised the camptowns as “special tourism districts” with legalised prostitution. That year, some 20,000 registered prostitutes worked in nearly 100 camptowns. Jang Young-mi, 67, who was orphaned as a girl and worked in a military camptown for nearly two decades. Plagued by disease, poverty and stigma, the women have little to no support from the public or the government.

Maybe because I lived for so long with American soldiers, I can’t fit in with Koreans. Why did my life have to turn out this way?

Jang Young-mi, 67

Asia-Pacific