Senior officials from the six nations in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) held a meeting here Wednesday to coordinate their strategy on fighting human trafficking.
The two-day meeting, the Fifth Senior Officials Meeting of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT), groups ministers from China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The first meeting was held in October in Yangon, Myanmar.
Since the signing of the historic COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding in 2004 by Ministers of the six countries, the Governments have been active in laying the foundation for a network of cooperation to stop traffickers and to prosecute them, said Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of Public Security (MPS) in China.
He added that the governments also aimed to protect victims of trafficking and assist them to return safely home, and launch efforts to prevent others from sharing the same fate.
"The Chinese government and the MPS strongly emphasize the COMMIT cooperation project, and will continuously combat trafficking crimes and strengthen collaboration with other nations in the region," Zhang said.
"Combating human trafficking effectively is a difficult task faced by GMS governments, which calls for joint efforts from all countries," said Subinay Nandy, China Country Director of the United Nations Development Program.
The United Nations, as well as partners from NGO and civil society, can provide support including technical expertise, Nandy said.
The meeting, with the theme of "Strengthen Cooperation and Promote the COMMIT Process", will review the implementation of the memorandum of understanding on strengthening cooperation between GMS countries in cracking down on trans-national human trafficking signed at the first meeting, and the plan of action (2005-2007) on combating trans-national crime.
The meeting will also discuss and pass the second-phase action plan, scheduled for 2008 to 2010, and sign a joint declaration on the process of cracking down on human trafficking in the GMS, which is globally regarded as a hotspot for human trafficking.
Tens of thousands of local women and children in Vietnam, one member nation of the GMS, have been trafficked abroad, mainly for disadvantaged marriage, child adoption, and labor and sex slavery, over the past decade.
Myanmar, also one member of the GMS, exposed 748 human trafficking cases from July 2002 to June 2006.
"No government could singly solve the trans-national trafficking problems except to cooperate through agreed issues, and multi-ministerial cooperation is the only way to fight against the crime," Zhang said.
The Second Ministers' meeting will be held following the senior officials' meeting, sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
Source: Xinhua
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