Asia-Pacific
Trafficking threatens children in Mekong area
By He Dan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-30 13:24
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Youth forum calls for measures to crack down on 'modern slavery'
BANGKOK - Children in the Greater Mekong Sub-region are becoming one of the most vulnerable targets for human trafficking and exploitation mainly in the forms of forced labor and the commercial sex trade due to the accelerated trend of migration, international children's rights organizations warned.
In Bangkok, 30 youth delegates from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam attended the Third Mekong Youth Forum, which opened on Oct 24 and will last for a week, exchanging views on human trafficking and migration.
She explained that while human trafficking happens all over the world, cross-border trafficking within the Mekong region has become prevalent due to economic disparities and because people can easily travel to neighboring countries.
"Children are very vulnerable to human trafficking because of their age, and because of the fact it is harder for them to protect themselves in dangerous situations," said Edel Silan, regional cross-border program director of Save the Children UK.
Since trafficking usually happens during migration, strategies to help ensure safe migration will be an effective way to prevent human trafficking, said Gibson.
"Educating people on safe migration about the risks to look out for, and about what human trafficking is, and about who to call when they get into trouble, taking actions to prosecute those who are traffickers and so on. There are a lot of different steps you can take," Gibson said.
Meanwhile, raising public awareness of human trafficking is also a crucial strategy to crack down on this kind of "modern slavery".
Silan told China Daily that the forum intended to highlight the value of listening to children, and to engage them in tackling serious social issues such as human trafficking and let young people be a part of the solution.
The youth leaders discussed reasons behind human trafficking including poverty, poor education and the lack of development opportunities. They also drafted a proposed action plan.
"It is a precious experience in my life to come here and address the important issue of human trafficking with young friends from different countries," said Chen Xuanri, 18, a participant from Central China's Hunan province.
On Friday, the youth delegates met government officials from the six Mekong region countries, and made suggestions on how to better prevent children from being trafficked.
The proposals prepared at the youth forum will be submitted to the third inter-ministerial meeting of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking, which will be held in Bangkok in January 2011.