Child trafficking on rise due to weak laws, lax enforcement.
BANGKOK, March 9 KyodoChild trafficking in South and Southeast Asia is rising due to lax enforcement and the inadequacy of laws established to fight it, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Thursday.
"The increased number of projects and governments involved in combating child trafficking has not stemmed the tide of children who fall prey to traffickers," said an ILO report released at a three-day international conference on child labor that began Wednesday in Jakarta.
"In fact, accounts in many South and Southeast Asian nations show the problem is growing," it said.
In South Asia, the report said, children are being trafficked for forced or bonded labor, as well as for camel jockeying, forced marriages and even the sale of organs.
Sexual exploitation is also rife, with recent research suggesting there are about 200,000 Bangladeshi children in the brothels of Pakistan and another 300,000 in the brothels of India, where there are also tens of thousands of Nepalese children working in the commercial sex business.
In Southeast Asia, most trafficking victims are forced into prostitution, though others are trafficked for bonded labor, domestic work, forced marriages, adoptions, and more recently to work for begging gangs in Thailand, a phenomenon also seen in Vietnam.
The report said an influx of pedophile tourists has increased the demand for child prostitutes in Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
It said the age of child prostitutes is dropping, in part due to the misconception that young children will not carry or transmit HIV/AIDS.
Moreover, many men believe that having sex with young girls will improve their virility or perhaps even cure a sexually transmitted disease or make them more successful in business. Child prostitutes as young as five are thus in high demand, the report said.
While all South or Southeast Asian countries have laws relating to the trafficking of children, those laws are generally incomplete and ineffective when it comes to implementation, the report said. With the possible exception of Thailand's laws, none meet international standards, it said.
For example, several countries do not define children as under the age of 18, the guideline set in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nepal defines children as below age 16, while in Pakistan there is no single clear definition of a child.
In Cambodia, legal provisions relating to trafficking are so unclear, and judicial processes so cumbersome and time-consuming, that many offenders escape prosecution. In Bangladesh, alleged perpetrators walk free because overwhelmed courts cannot prosecute them within the statute of limitations.
Another problem the report cites is that child victims of trafficking are often treated first as illegal aliens and second -- if at all -- as victims of crime.
In Pakistan, a girl who has been sexually assaulted can be jailed, whipped or even stoned for what others charge is adultery and premarital sex, which are criminal offenses there, while police often arrest victims of trafficking rather than the traffickers.
In Thailand and Cambodia, children trafficked from other countries are generally detained as violators of immigration laws and are deported.
The report said that in much of the region, corrupt officials, police or military are involved in child trafficking and prostitution, with some owning brothels themselves or protecting those that they personally frequent.
Recruiters also form networks with law enforcement officials in order to get protection.
On the bright side, however, the report said governments throughout the region have been revising their trafficking laws, with Nepal and India considering new bills on trafficking, and Laos examining how to bring relevant legislation in line with international standards.
Some countries have increased penalties for child trafficking. In Bangladesh, the offense now carries a penalty of life imprisonment or death, while in Sri Lanka and Thailand the maximum penalty has been raised to 20 years.
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| Publication: | Asian Economic News |
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| Date: | Mar 13, 2000 |
| Words: | 634 |
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