Prostitution, servitude and forced labour are the key trades that represent modern-day slavery - human trafficking, the most diverse nature of which can be seen in the Greater Mekong region.

A recent study commissioned by Governments of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) in Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam reveals that a flourishing human trade - involving men, women, children and families - exists within the region itself. The report emphasises that survivors of human trafficking are not provided ample support to help them reintegrate into their communities.

The importance of the study can be gauged by the fact that, the Greater Mekong region represents a very diverse pattern of human trafficking cases. Representative of the wider picture, the region has seen both internal and cross-border trafficking handled by both highly organised and small-scale traffickers with the involvement of both formal and informal recruitment mechanisms.

Thailand is a major centre of human trade, with men, women and children who find their way here from countries like Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Women and children get forced into prostitution and domestic servitude. Men are forced into labour to work in sweatshops, fishing boats, construction sites, plantations and farms. Girls and young women from Vietnam, meanwhile, are pushed into sex trade and virginity selling in Cambodia.

Children are forced into small trades like selling flowers on the streets of big cities in the region or even end up begging.

Women and girls continue to be the principal victims of human trafficking, with several of them from countries like Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam ending up as forced prostitutes or domestic servants.

The report finds that trafficked women from the region are also found forced into sex trade in far places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and farther in South Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the U.S.

The report, entitled "After Trafficking: Experiences and Challenges in the (Re)integration of Trafficked Persons in the Greater Mekong Sub-region" is based on in-depth interviews of over 250 survivors and was prepared by the NEXUS Institute, an independent international human rights research and policy centre supported by UN Inter-agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) along with the United Nations (UN) and civil society groups.

It's emphasis is on the reintegration process of survivors for which, the report emphasises that, the rehabilitation process must provide victims with a sense of being in control of their own lives.

"When support is provided in a way that does not respect the will of the victims, or is even provided against their will, this may result in further trauma and a continuation of their victimization," the report says.

Understanding Human Trafficking

Source: UNIAPasia/YouTube