A US advocate says most prostitutes in the Northern Marianas tourism district are coerced into sex work.
Pamela Brown, who set up Pacific Ombudsman for Humanitarian Law, says prostitutes in Saipan's tourist district of Garapan owe money to recruiters responsible for trafficking them.
She says their families are being threatened back home, including threats that their family's homes will be burned down and family members killed.
Ms Brown says she helps victims of human trafficking not only in the CNMI but across the region.
She says some of the current problems started just before the federal government took over immigration of the CNMI.
