PROVIDENCE — The global problem of human trafficking in the sex industry touched down in Providence last night as a ranking police official outlined the growth of brothels masquerading as massage parlors in the city in recent years.

Maj. Stephen Campbell, commander of the Providence police investigative bureau, informed a rapt audience that there are about 75 to 100 South Korean women providing sexual gratification to men in “10 to 11 brothels” scattered across Providence.

Campbell said the women work, sleep and eat in the dingy massage parlors that are run from storefronts near the State House, downtown and on South Main Street.

“They work from the time they get up til the time they go to bed,” he said. “They don’t go home at night.” Campbell said the women, mostly between the ages of 20 and 50, sleep on mattresses and cook from Sterno cans in the back rooms.

He said his detectives have tried to question the South Korean women who work in the local brothels, but their work is difficult because most of the women don’t speak English, and, even if they do, they are reluctant to speak to a police officer.

Still, the investigators have gleaned some information. Campbell said many of the women come to Providence for a few weeks or months, while others are here for just a weekend or a few days. Asked whether they know they are in Providence, the women respond, “I don’t know what city I’m in.”

Campbell said it’s also clear that there is a sophisticated network in place with contacts that transports the women in vans to cities along the East Coast.

The localization of a global problem was brought to light last night at a public forum called “Look Beneath the Surface,” a discussion on human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex industry. The forum, at the Providence Marriott hotel, was sponsored by Mayor David N. Cicilline and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Helene Hayes, a nun and expert on the global trafficking of women, told the crowd of more than 100 about her research in the Far East, Europe and the United States on women who have been enslaved in the sex industry. Gathering the material for a book, Hayes said she interviewed 59 women from 18 countries about their harrowing lives.

She asked the women what was the hardest part of their lives of servitude.

“Being treated violently. Being drugged and beaten,” said one. Another woman said, “He treated me like a dog, a slave. He had no feelings for me. I complied because I did not want to die.”

She also asked the women about their greatest fear.

Said one, “Getting AIDS or getting killed by street boys.”

“I was most afraid of sadistic clients,” said another.

Donna Hughes, a professor in the women’s studies program at the University of Rhode Island, provided some startling statistics about human trafficking. She pointed out that figures are sketchy because victims are reluctant to come forward, but she cited numbers from the U.S. government that show about 5.2 million people are trafficked annually in their countries or across international borders. She said most of those trafficked – 70 percent are women and children – are from East Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa.

Hughes also said that in the criminal world, the profits from the sex trade rank third, behind drugs and gun-running.

“It’s a low-risk, high-profit enterprise,” she said.

Instead of arresting and prosecuting women for sex crimes, Hughes said it’s imperative to go after the pimps, traffickers and the abusers. “We have to start making men accountable for their behavior,” she said.

Historically, the prostitutes, not the Johns or pimps, are arrested.

Hughes also condemned aspects of our culture that tend to glorify or minimize the exploitation of women. She pointed out that young people host theme parties with “pimps and ho’s” and the subject is a staple among rap artists.

In Rhode Island, it is illegal to solicit sex on the street but the law does not apply to paid sex indoors. In the past, city officials have lobbied to have the law changed.

Recently, the Providence police, instead of arresting the women, have been going after the managers of the massage parlors and the owners of the buildings for violating nuisance ordinances. He said the managers have been getting slapped with $1,000 fines and up to 30 days in jail.

Cicilline emphasized that he wants Providence to be in the forefront of tackling the issue of human trafficking.

“This is a very, very serious issue nationally and a serious issue in Rhode Island,” he said.

The Providence police and federal agencies, including Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, have been huddling to find ways to address the larger problem of human trafficking. “We are only beginning,” Campbell said.