Asia | Trafficking in Central Asian women

The rise in vice

Lure of the West

|almaty

THE number of Central Asian women going abroad to work as prostitutes is on the increase. In Russia and the former communist countries of Eastern Europe, most women are probably aware that the promise of a well-paid job as a waitress or dancer in a West European country may simply be a ruse to entice them into prostitution. But in post-Soviet Central Asia, where authoritarian governments try to control their citizens' knowledge of the world, not everyone is so sophisticated.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “The rise in vice”

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