But instead, the Chinese immigrants were turned into high-seas sex slaves.

Male passengers aboard the smuggling ship Jung Sheng No. 8 were forced to submit to sexual abuseincluding masturbation sessions to entertain Chinese gang members, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.

Life was so bad aboard the smuggling ship that as many as 35 of the 147 Chinese passengers contemplated killing themselves while another 30 were sick with urinary tract infections from dehydration before the U.S. Coast Guard and military intercepted the Jung Sheng south of Hawaii last month.

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It was pretty awful, said Robert Perito, head of the State Department’s Office of International Criminal Justice.

Perito, who monitors anti-smuggling efforts for the State Department, said the level of violence and abuse aboard the Panama-registered ship was the worst ever encountered by U.S. investigators.

So many had been beaten and abused, sexually and psychologically, that many were contemplating suicide, Perito said Tuesday about the passengers. They told federal officials they were ultimately headed to New York, he said.

One target for the sexual abuse was a slender 16-year-old Chinese boy from Fukien province who told investigators the smuggling enforcers on the ship forced him to perform masturbation on them numerous times.

A copy of translated statements from the youth and other passengers was obtained by Newsday.

Seven women were among the passengers, but did not report being the object of any abuse, Perito said.