Premier pledges to strengthen crackdown on human trafficking - CNA ENGLISH NEWS

2010/03/25 16:09:12 Taipei, March 25 (CNA) Premier Wu Den-yih pledged Thursday to step up a crackdown on human trafficking as part of the government's efforts to improve human rights protection and maintain public order. Wu said in a weekly Cabinet meeting that since 2006, the government has adopted various measures against human trafficking, which include enacting a law on human trafficking prevention and control, cracking down on related crimes and strengthening protection for victims. In addition, the government has been providing more guidance and paying more attention to foreign spouses, and has reviewed the country's policy toward foreign workers and strengthened the regulation of labor brokers, he said. According to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report by the U.S. Department of State, Taiwan is placed in the Tier 2 ranking, which is for governments that are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking prescribed by the U.S. law that guides anti-human trafficking efforts -- the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The report said Taiwan has made some progress in combating human trafficking over the past year but should do much more, including extending labor protection to all categories of workers to prevent labor trafficking. According to a report delivered by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) in the Cabinet meeting, justice authorities uncovered 88 cases of human trafficking in 2009. While 46 of the cases involved labor exploitation, the other 42 cases involved sexual exploitation. Meanwhile, 355 local people were indicted in 118 human trafficking cases. The MOI said that in the future, the ministry will require law enforcement officers to strengthen the identification of victims so that they can be provided with proper protection. It said the ministry will continue the shelter and protection services provided by authoritized civic groups and will also expand its crackdown on human trafficking. (By Chiachen Hsieh and Y.F. Low) ENDITEM/J

Premier pledges to strengthen crackdown on human trafficking - CNA ENGLISH NEWS

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