New Study Released on Human Trafficking in Burma

From Mizzima.com:

August 5, 2008

Economic hardship and poverty have caused several young women in Burma, particularly in regions where ethnic minorities are residing, to be an easy prey of human trafficking, an ethnic Kachin women group said in a new report.

The Thailand based Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT) in a new report release today reveal that several young women from northern Burma's Kachin state are being sold by traffickers to Chinese men, who forcibly marry them or use them as maids and slaves.

The report titled 'Eastward Bound', which is based on interviews with 163 human trafficking victims from 2004 to 2007, said nearly 37 per cent of the trafficked women ended up as wives of Chinese men, while about 4 percent are sold as housemaids or to the sex industry.

Julia, who did the research on the report said, about 64 percent of the women trafficked are missing while about 17 percent are found to have made their way home back after escaping from the traffickers.

She said, most of the women trafficked are below the age of 18 and are made vulnerable to traffickers due to difficult economic conditions at home to keep them and their families alive.

Julia said several of the girls are sold while they are working to earn a living for themselves or for their families, or while seeking for jobs, due to severe economic conditions at home.

While several girls are smuggle from Burma to China by the traffickers, many of the girls left their hometown voluntarily and migrate in search of better jobs and better living, the report said.

Shirley Seng, spokeswoman of KWAT said, the main causes of human trafficking are economic hardship and deterioration, fear of human rights violations committed by the military junta and forced relocation.

She also added that rising commodity prices has also become a major driving force to young women to migrate.

Read the full article

Human Trafficking Expert Warns of Risks to Children in Disaster Zones

From the International Herald Tribune:

Natural disasters such as the cyclone in Myanmar can put children at risk for abuse and exploitation, a human trafficking expert said Monday.

Eva Biaudet, of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said she had no specific information about the situation of children in Myanmar, but noted that similar disasters, as well as conflicts, have put minors at risk of being taken advantage of and abused.

"When there are these kind of catastrophes — when the state fails, when there are no systems — children are extremely at risk for not only of course being just abandoned ... but also for abuse and exploitation," Biaudet told reporters on the sidelines of a two-day OSCE human trafficking conference that began Monday.

"It is a very good place for traffickers to be when the state sort of fails," Biaudet said, adding that children in conflict zones were also at the risk of falling prey to such criminals. Last week, UNICEF said it believed the number of children left without guardians in Myanmar because of the cyclone is more than 600 and could rise.