BEIJING -- China held its first nationwide forum to raise awareness of Chinese children affected by human trafficking on Thursday in Beijing.

Thirty-eight children from nine provinces worst affected by human trafficking, officials from the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), the Ministry of Public Security and international non-government organizations attended the two-day Children's Forum on Human Trafficking, organized by the ACWF.

Tian Feifei, a 12-year-old girl from Henan - which has seen a large number of human trafficking cases due to its large gender imbalance - said the forum gave Chinese children an opportunity to air their opinions on human trafficking and called on the government to do more to stop it.

"Since Chinese children are still facing the risk of being abducted and trafficked, we hope the government will stipulate more policies that take the situation of children into account when making decisions," Tian said.

During the exposure of last month's brick-kiln scandal that shocked the nation, many children were found acting as forced laborers in kilns and mines. In the area around Xinxiang alone, north of Zhengzhou, police rescued 23 people during raids on June 9 and 12, of whom 16 were children.

Laborers were enticed or kidnapped and transported to the kilns by human traffickers. Upon arrival they were beaten, starved and forced to work long hours without pay.

During the two-day forum, children will attend discussion on topics related to human trafficking prevention and analyze the causes and consequences of human-trafficking. They will also have the opportunity to put forward their suggestions, according to organizers.
Constance Thomas, director of the International Labor Office for China and Mongolia said, "We have always heard the opinions of adults on the protection of women and children, now we need to listen to the opinions of children."

Zhao Shaohua, ACWF vice chairman, said the Chinese government had strengthened international cooperation in its fight against human-trafficking with Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

According to Zhao, the children's opinions will be submitted to the Mekong Sub-Region Second Inter-Ministerial Meeting and Fifth Senior Officials Meeting which will be held in Beijing in December.

From 1991 to 2000, China launched four nationwide campaigns to address human-trafficking and from 2001 to 2005, the campaigns targeted Guangxi, Henan, Hunan and Sichuan, according to MPS official Yin Jianzhong.

Yin said that, in 2006, human-trafficking cases decreased to 2,100 in 2006 from 2,400 in 2005.