Taipei (AsiaNews) - Representatives from over 20 countries gathered in Taiwan to discuss new strategies in the fight against trafficking in human beings, with particular attention to the trafficking of children. The island has for four years ranked first on the U.S. State Department's list of the nations best combating this phenomenon.
Brent Christensen, Deputy Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) stressed that "Taiwan and the United States have worked closely to prevent and combat trafficking in children", and that "the fruits of this work have been very satisfactory, although they can still be improved". Among the means adopted over the years are tougher penalties for those who collaborate with human trafficking and creating multilingual phone lines for immediate reporting of suspected or evident cases.
The guidelines discussed in the meeting, which was attended by more than 200 experts, aim at preventing the use of travel companies that operate in areas where sex is practiced with minors, and at encouraging support for agencies that bring tourists to shops that sell products made by disadvantaged women and children. The Taiwanese vice president Wu Den-yih stressed his satisfaction at the fact that Taiwan is a model in Asia in this field and for the opportunity to collaborate with so important an international project.
Trafficking in human beings represents a turnover of 32 billion US dollars per year. United Nations statistics speak of a growing phenomenon, with an annual average of 2 and a half million people involved. As regards children, it is mostly families in extreme poverty who "sell" their children to repay debts or have alternative income. The children end up then in the area of child labour, prostitution or illegal adoptions.
Among the countries most involved in this market is China, where the one-child law and an ageing population have caused an increase in cases of abduction and sale of children. A few days ago there was announced the release of nearly 100 children, who ended up in the net of a trafficker who sold them in the southeast of the country.