Asian children's forum demands protection from slave trade

October 18, 2004

Children from five Asian countries are demanding their governments provide greater protection from the modern-day slavery of human trafficking.

The call came at a United Nations forum in Bangkok involving youths from Cambodia, southern China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

They gathered for the first Mekong Children's Forum on Human Trafficking and called on their governments to shut down karaoke bars linked to the sex trade and crack down on corruption.

They drafted a six-page agenda calling on governments to introduce harsher punishments for traffickers and those who use child labour.

It's estimated that up to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, more than half of them for sexual exploitation.

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