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Palau Supreme Court Convicts "Carnival Four" In Forced Prostitution And Human Trafficking Case

Four foreign nationals have been convicted in the Republic of Palau of forty-seven criminal counts for offenses relating to prostitution, human trafficking and exploiting trafficked persons, marking Palau's first trial for human trafficking violations.

The charges were brought in September 2006 after waitresses at Carnival Restaurant and Karaoke, located in Koror, Palau, fled their employment to escape abuse at the hands of the owners and managers of the bar.  The victims alleged they were deceived into coming to Palau to work as waitresses, only to end up serving up drinks – and themselves – in a karaoke bar.  The prosecution charged that the waitresses were forced into prostitution through a whole host of coercive tactics, including food deprivation, confinement to barracks and illegal salary deductions.

During a trial that spanned four weeks, ten former waitresses testified through tears of the abuses and indignities they endured, which ranged from underwear inspections and regular weigh-ins to being paraded in a line in front of customers to be chosen for sex – a practice referred to as a "show up."  The waitresses also stated they were forced to hide in the restrooms of the bar in order to eat and were only permitted to leave their barracks for two hours per day.  A ledger maintained by the manager of the bar, which was obtained during a search warrant, revealed that the waitresses suffered constant salary deductions, some months earning as little as $7 in salary.

Assistant Attorney General Erin E. Johnson filed the charges in "ROP v. Eriich, et al.", Crim. Case. No. 06-212 (consolidated), naming Teng Feng Chiang, BaiYue Wang, Katherine Manio, and Lolita Pamentuan, who were the owner, manager, mamasang and recruiter, respectively.  The criminal information charged multiple crimes related to the abuse, including advancing prostitution, human trafficking offenses, tax violations, labor violations and foreign investment violations.  The prosecution also charged the Palauan individual that served as a front for the business, Tilde Eriich, who pleaded guilty prior to trial and testified for the prosecution.

The case presented the first occasion for the Palau Supreme Court to interpret Palau's newly enacted human trafficking statute, which seeks to hold all participants in the trafficking chain criminally liable and provides for stiff penalties, including up to $250,000 in fines and 25 years in jail.  In a written verdict, filed April 23, 2007, Associate Justice Kathleen Salii held that "recruiting individuals to work in Palau through false pretenses and then forcing them with coercive measures, such as threats and salary deductions, into prostitution constitutes People Trafficking under the Court's interpretation of the Act."  The convictions place Palau on the world stage as among a growing trend of countries prosecuting karaoke bars for deceiving and trafficking waitresses into forced prostitution, a practice particularly common in the Pacific region.

Lead prosecutor Erin Johnson stated, "this case is a huge step forward in the global fight against human trafficking.  The Court recognized that trafficking is not limited to physically kidnapping and smuggling individuals, but also encompasses more subtle and nefarious tactics such as those used by the defendants in this case – deceiving and preying upon the unsuspecting and unsophisticated to gain control over them and send them into the sex trade.  These karaoke bars are the new face of human trafficking and we intend to keep prosecuting those that would use these bars to exploit human beings."  Sentencing in the case is scheduled for May 8, 2007.

The Republic of Palau is a small island nation in the Pacific that sits between Guam and the Philippines.  A former United States Protectorate and member of the Trust Territory of the Pacific, Palau has been an independent nation since 1994.  Palau most recently gained notoriety as the location for the tenth installment of the popular United States reality television show, "Survivor."

For a copy of the Court's written findings or to obtain more information about the case, contact the Office of the Attorney General for the Republic of Palau at (680) 488-2481 or agoffice@palaunet.com.  Ms. Johnson may be contacted directly at  erin.johnson.pw@gmail.com.

Adapted from: "Palau Supreme Court Convicts "Carnival Four" In Forced Prostitution And Human Trafficking Case."  26 April 2007.