Unicef
report calls for stricter laws to help stem the trade
Human trafficking now an
epidemic
HUMAN trafficking is beginning to
rival the drugs and arms trades, creating an estimated $16 billion
in revenues for crime gangs every year, the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) said in a report yesterday.
Attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in Manila,
Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy said governments around the
world, with the help of legislators, should enact more laws and
enforce them in a bid to reverse the trend.
Ms Bellamy attended the conference to provide IPU delegates with a
handbook that would help them in their legislative efforts to
counter human trafficking, particularly of children and women.
She says statistics of how many
children are being smuggled across borders are not available
"because this is an issue that is so often not recognised and hidden
even though it is actually going on".
However, Ms Bellamy says "this is a US$10 billion-plus ($16.5
billion-plus) criminal business around the world," by Unicef
estimates. . While there have been some inroads in countries such as
the Philippines, which has passed a law against human trafficking,
Ms Bellamy said the government there had not "done all that it could
do".
She urged all governments to cooperate to combat human trafficking
and called on legislators attending the IPU meet to pass laws
against it.
She says those most vulnerable are women and children in poor
countries who are often lured by promises of education or a better
job abroad. Once out of the country, they are often forced into
prostitution, child labour or slavery. The AFP Unicef report calls
for stricter laws to help stem the trade
AFP
5 April 2005
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/43633.asp
