NGOs estimate that between 5,000-7,000 Nepali girls are trafficked every year to India. NGOs in Bangkok say at least 10,000 girls and women entering Thailand from poorer neighbouring countries end up in commercial sex work. Now girls are trafficked for cheap labour, begging chains and the organ trade as well. In Asia alone about a million women and children are trafficked every year. In the former Soviet states and Eastern European countries there are job placement agencies and marriage bureaus which serve as fronts for prostitution rings.

Trafficking -- especially for commercial sexual exploitation -- has become a worldwide, multi billion-dollar industry. Boys and girls are favoured targets for sexual exploitation and groups with low social standing are often the most vulnerable, such as minorities and refugees. Illicit traffic is expanding through the use of child pornography on the Internet, and low-cost Internet advertising of the commercial sex trade, attracting sex tourists and peadophiles

UNICEF's Carol Bellamy has called on governments to enforce both their national laws and to accept their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Every government in the Asia-Pacific region has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, legally binding them to protect their children from all forms of economic and sexual exploitation.

Societies must recognise that the root causes of trafficking often lie in unequal treatment of women and girl-children, discrimination against minorities, and economic policies which fail to ensure universal access to education and legal protection.

There are, however, positive movements against child trafficking in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia and Sri Lanka. These include creating special bodies to protect child rights, the reform of juvenile justice systems, the training of police and judicial authorities and crackdowns on those who sexually exploit children.

These movements need to be supported with larger budget allocations with special emphasis on prevention and protection programmes. Advocacy and awareness programmes and peer-education have been very successful in Nepal and Thailand. Protection of the survivors of trafficking and supporting them and their families in the process of law enforcement have been very useful in nailing criminals. A demand for transparency and accountability of spending on these issues would take the budget further.

Article Sections:

• Introduction
  
• Nature of the Issue
  
• UNICEF Policy
  
• Measures Adopted