From anti-trafficking to social discipline or, the changing role of “women's” ngos in Taiwan

The central figure in the initial formation of the anti-trafficking cause was the politically militant Presbyterian Church of Taiwan. It is significant that at this initial stage, the anti-trafficking cause limited its targets to the evil traffickers and the inept police, and maintained a rather pragmatic attitude toward the tenacious existence of the sex industry as a whole. As public demonstrations gained increasing legitimacy under the rubric of democratization after the lifting of martial law, the anti-trafficking cause also found more grounds to work from than simple religious humanitarianism. It is a historical irony that, as the original anti-trafficking fervor dissipated and transformed into a large-scale project of social discipline, the actual “trafficking” of humans in Taiwan at the present moment is being conducted on a much larger scale than ever imagined. Since 1995, the once-anti-trafficking NGOs have evolved into mainly children's welfare or child-protection agencies, with more than two dozen subsidiary care centers or halfway houses.