International cooperation is essential to stop the trafficking of
women and children, said senior officials in charge of women's
affairs as well as those from the Ministry of Public Security.
Gu
Xiulian, vice-president of the All-China Women's Federation,
praised the achievements reached by a project of the federation and
the International Labour Organization (ILO) in southwest China's
Yunnan Province, which combats the trafficking of women and
children.
"The project established an effective pilot mechanism in China to
prevent human trafficking through wide-ranging cooperation among
government authorities and communities," said Gu.
"It proves human trafficking can only be effectively curbed when
the whole of society, instead of just the public security
authority, makes an effort. Development should be given equal
importance as safeguarding the rights of women and children in this
cause," said Gu.
The project was highlighted at the meeting of the ILO and the
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
that took place on Thursday and Friday last week.
The ILO-IPEC Mekong Subregional Project to Combat Trafficking in
Women and Children has successfully eliminated human trafficking in
some remote villages of the province, since it was launched in June
2000.
The villages' persistent poverty used to make the inhabitants easy
victims of human traffickers. But the poverty has been effectively
reduced by the project through training in agricultural skills and
direct financial assistance.
Fu
Zhenghua, vice-director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau under
the Ministry of Public Security, also hailed the success of the
Yunnan project.
He
said he was glad to see that "the anti-trafficking struggle in
China has been transformed from one-sided action by public security
organs to multi-dimensional co-operation, from mere resistance to
the combination of resistance and prevention.''
(China
Daily November 4, 2002)