Myanmar strengthens fight against cross-border human trafficking

September 13, 2004

Yangon - Myanmar will set up anti-trafficking liaison offices in three of its border towns to strengthen the fight against transnational human trafficking crimes, a local news journal reported Monday.

The three border towns where these offices will be established are Tachilek and Myawaddy opposite to Thailand and Muse connectingChina's Ruili, said the Myanmar Times quoting a high-ranking police official.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is drafting a law on suppression of trafficking in persons and a workshop involving three related ministries, the Women Affairs Federation, officials of the Mekong Delta region, United Nations organizations and non-governmental organizations as well as local and foreign experts, was held recently to produce a complete draft.

After the draft, which is in accordance with the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, is finalized, it is expected to be enacted soon.

These anti-transnational human trafficking measures came a month before Myanmar is to host a regional conference in October on human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion comprising China's Yunnan Province, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The regional meeting is expected to coordinate a ministerial initiative against the crime.

The country formed a 24-member working committee for preventionagainst trafficking in person in July 2003 and has stepped up combating such crime as well as commercial sexual exploitation of children.

According to official statistics, the authorities has exposed atotal of 795 human traffickers, including those trafficking women and children, in 412 cases in two years since 2002. It also rescued 2,181 victims, including 1,047 women during the period. Besides, since 2001, the government educated over 700,000 people living in border areas and had prevented about 16,000 from going abroad illegally.

Meanwhile, a memorandum of understanding between Myanmar and Thailand on cooperation in workers employment has been in force since June 2003 and the document is regarded as an effective instrument in dealing with trafficking problems.

Besides, Myanmar has also agreed with Australia as part of its international anti-human-trafficking and anti-illegal migration cooperation.

Moreover, Myanmar enacted the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Law in April this year to serve as a legal basis for the country's international cooperation in crime suppression includinghuman trafficking.

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