Six Asian nations sign human trafficking pact

November 1, 2004

China and five Southeast Asian nations have signed a landmark accord here to fight the modern day slavery of human trafficking in the region.

The United Nations-brokered agreement between Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and host Myanmar is the first of its kind in the world, UN officials have said.

"We will challenge the traffickers that we mean business," Myanmar's newly installed premier, Lieutenant General Soe Win, told the representatives to the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT).

"We will break the vicious cycle of trafficking in the region."

The memorandum of understanding lays out areas of cooperation "to combat all aspects of human trafficking," the grouping, which includes UN agencies, said in a statement at the conclusion of the one-day meeting.

The plan is expected to be in place in the first quarter of 2005.

Some 800,000 men, women and children are estimated to be trafficked annually across borders worldwide in a billion-dollar illicit trade. Most victims of trafficking are severely exploited and many are sexually abused.

Human trafficking is considered a surging crisis in Asia, and several countries of the region have been strongly criticized for failing to recognize the scale of the problem.

"This gathering today underscores the Greater Mekong Sub-Region's commitment to addressing a transnational problem that has serious national implications," said Charles Petrie, the UN's resident coordinator in Myanmar.

In July the UN warned that the cross-border framework could be hampered by the "two-edged sword" of socio-economic development in Southeast Asia, which is shifting towards greater mobility for the purposes of promoting economic opportunities and jobs. The result can often be illicit trafficking of people and drugs, it said.

A senior officials meeting on the anti-trafficking pact is scheduled for either next March or May in Hanoi.

Thailand has been acknowledged as the main "destination" country for migrant workers in the region, where an estimated 1.5 million legal as well as illegal workers from neighbouring countries head.

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