Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs here on Friday launched the kingdom's first national task force to tackle human trafficking.

"The first national task force has just been established to help resolve the huge concerns of the Cambodian government in fighting human trafficking effectively," said You Ay, secretary of state of the ministry.

The national task force is a major step forward for the Cambodian government's efforts to coordinate a unified campaign to combat all forms of trafficking of men, women and children for slave labor, begging, prostitution and other exploitations, she said.

"Cambodia will not tolerate exploitation," she added.

The force comprises 14 ministries and institutions and its members will be organized into three working groups to respectively address the problems of human trafficking, protection and reintegration of trafficking survivors and justice for victims through prosecution, said a ministry statement.

"The force has a broad mandate to implement agreements and bilateral memoranda of understanding to eliminate trafficking and assist victims," said You Ay.

According to official reports, over 180,000 migration laborers toiled irregularly in Thailand, while hundreds or even thousands of Cambodians are exploited to work as sex slaves in Malaysia, Japan, China's Taiwan and Hong Kong, Qatar, Somali, and Saudi Arabia.

Source: Xinhua