Publication Date : 20-08-2014
Myanmar plans to amend its anti-human trafficking law or enact a new one to meet international standards, in light of a growing number of cases involving foreign traffickers and local officials.
The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law, enacted in 2005, needs to be updated, said Lt-Colonel Khin Maung Hla of the Anti Human-trafficking Police Force.
"More details will be added into the law, and this will be done in accordance with national and international standards," he said, without elaborating.
The process comes at the time when Myanmar is witnessing a growing number of reported cases of human trafficking.
Sixty human-trafficking cases, involving 134 people, were reported by police between January and July. Seventeen of the victims were children. Some trafficked women were found in China, where they had been forced to marry local men. Many others were transported to Thailand and Malaysia.
Khin Maung Hla said that to step up prevention efforts, the Ministry of Home Affairs would seek more cooperation from the Embassy of China in Yangon.
Since 2012, the government has taken efforts to combat human trafficking. The country was put in Tier 2 Watch List in the US Trafficking in Persons Report 2014, though its neighbour Thailand fell to Tier 3.
In the report, it said Myanmar was a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour, and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking in other countries. Poor economic conditions within the country continue to drive large numbers of people to migrate through both legal and illegal channels for work primarily in East Asia, as well as destinations including the Middle East, South Asia, and the United States.
Women are transported to China and subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude through forced marriages to Chinese men. There were isolated reports of Myanmar government officials being complicit in this form of trafficking.
The large numbers of migrants seeking work in Thailand's fishing and domestic work sectors do so outside formal channels. They are subjected to debt bondage, passport confiscation, or false employment offers. Some are also subjected to physical abuse and are forced to remain aboard vessels in international waters for years.
"The government of [Myanmar] does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so," the US report said.
The country is urged to vigorously prosecute and punish wrongdoers.
The report also noted that denying citizenship to some 800,000 people in Rakhine State who call themselves "Rohingyas" could worsen the situation.
Meanwhile, it praised the Ministry of Home Affairs' creation of a specialised division with a one-year budget of US$780,000 to lead anti-trafficking law enforcement activities. Training was organised. The Anti-Trafficking Squad also attended the Asean meeting on anti-human trafficking in Kuala Lumpur, aimed at enhancing regional cooperation to better protect victims.
Early this month, the Thailand-Myanmar Bilateral Meeting on Strengthening Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Co-operation in Combating Trafficking in Persons was hosed in Phuket, Thailand.
At the event, Brig Gen Win Naing Tun, the Head of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, Joint Secretary of Central Body for Suppression of Trafficking in Persons, Myanmar Police Force, dismissed that Rohingyas were of any concern to Myanmar officials.
"Rohingya are not Myanmar nationals. They are people who live in a neighbouring country," the Phuket Gazette quoted him as saying.
Royal Thai Police Assistant Commissioner-General ML Pansak Kasemsant then said that the Rohingya issue was not discussed at the conference. The Thai side rather urged their Myanmar counterparts to launch a public-awareness campaign to make Myanmar nationals aware of the dangers of slavery by accepting to work illegally in Thailand.
"The problem we [Thai police] always encounter is that human-trafficking victims decline to give information to us. They have good reasons for this, but without us knowing, there is little we can do to improve their situation. We cannot even identify the traffickers," he said.
The campaign, if launched, would also explain all the benefits Myanmar nationals receive if they work legally in the Kingdom, Pansak said.
"If we can get cooperation from Myanmar to explain this to their nationals, I think the problem could be resolved," he added.
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmar-to-amend-anti-trafficking-law/
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