Marian Chiquette Tanizaki of the PPF-Global Alliance (Japan) said the plight of many Filipino migrant workers in Japan illustrates the need for international protection given the sexual and domestic violence, mistreatment and exploitation they are subject to.

The Philippines is among the world's largest exporters of labour, with 4 million or so workers overseas. Japan is a major destination for Filipino workers, especially women.

Many women from poor backgrounds also come from countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and end up as entertainment workers. Many work in poor conditions, are denied proper wages or forced into sexual work, activists' groups say.

"There is a strong feeling amongst women activists that trafficking in women and girls must be mentioned by the ICC statute as a crime specific crime against humanity," added Raquel Edralin-Tiglao, executive director of the Manila-based Women's Crisis Centre and member of the Asia-Pacific section of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women.

The proposal is bound to be a touchy matter, though, as is the subject of rights of migrant workers.  For example, a UN convention on migrant workers still lacks enough signatories to come into force because many host countries are wary that it could encourage more permanent immigration.

But Tanizuki says it is time for more action on the plight of migrant workers like Filipinos. "Assuring Filipinas, who form between 65 to 70 percent of the world's migrant workers their human rights is still a very long-term goal," said Tanizaki, a Filipino married to a Japanese national.

"The mafia-controlled trafficking in migrant Filipinas that took off in the booming 1980s and early 1990s in Japan is a business worth $18 billion dollars per year to the Philippine economy, which would not have survived in the area without it," she added.

Tanizuki says young Filipino women from poor rural areas and urban slums are often recruited by mafia-controlled 'cultural entertainment' and 'promotion' agencies. First-timers may sign six-month contracts paying 300 US dollars a month, plus free housing and food allowance while second-timers 600 dollars a month.

Agency representatives meet them in Japan and "auction" them off to the highest bidders, who are usually club operators and for the "unluckiest women", brothel owners. "This is where their nightmare begins," Tanizuki added.

The women are often housed in sub-standard, overcrowded accommodation, forced to work long hours from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. "Some deaths have been reported," Tanizaki said. "Many women working as cultural entertainers are being forced into prostitution to survive economically."

Yet to earn enough, women working in clubs are forced to have as many drinks with customers to earn commissions and harm their health in the process. Clubs' 'point-systems' and 'dohan' ("I must date my customer") 'motivated' women to spend as much time as possible with customers, and in some cases forced them into sex, Tanizaki added.

Filipinos who marry Japanese nationals also often face difficulties, not least when they get divorced.

"As many as 80 percent of women who married Japanese men are now divorced. Marriages generally don't last more than give years - after then, the economic advantages no longer suffice," Tanizaki explained.