Monday, August 1, 2011

S'pore taskforce on human trafficking responds to report

Aug 1, 2011

AFTER poring over a recent United States report on human trafficking, the Singapore Inter-agency Taskforce on trafficking in persons released a detailed response to it yesterday (Aug 1).

The five-page response - which reiterates and points out new 'inaccuracies and misrepresentations' in the annual US State Department report on human trafficking - was sent to the US yesterday (Aug 1).

The taskforce, which includes representatives from the Singapore Police Force and the Immigrations & Checkpoints Authority - is co-chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Manpower.

In its reponse, a ministry spokesman cited as untrue the report's claim that the Government did not make proactive efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts here.

Pointing out that Singapore has criminalised various commercial sex activities, it said that the taskforce conducted 3,608 anti-commercial sex operations in 2010 that led to the arrest of 94 commercial sex agents or 'pimps'.

Also inaccurate were claims that there were 'no criminal prosecutions or convictions of employers or employment agencies who withheld passports of foreign workers' in 2010.

Source: straitstimes.com
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