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South-east
Asia Gets Badly Needed Help
Yokohama,
Dec 19. - South-east Asia has made key successes in improving
the quality of life of children in recent years, but could do
more if it had more resources to fight the factors that make
them vulnerable to sexual exploitation, government officials
and child experts said here Tuesday.
''Asia is
perhaps the region with the biggest problem'' with this, especially
since its situation had spurred the convening of the first world
congress against commercial sexual exploitation five years ago,
said UNICEF East Asia chief Mehr Khan.
Most countries
in South-east Asia have achieved notable success in reducing
child mortality and in improving education levels, ''but they
still have many serious child protection concerns'', Maria Burani
Procaccini, president of the Italian Parliamentary Commission
on Children who is attending the Yokohama congress.
Explaining
the Italian government's 4.6 million U.S. dollar contribution
to UNICEF for child protection programmes -- apparently the
only fund commitment announced here, Procaccini said the funds
would be used to help ''children who are at high risk of being
trafficked, abused and sexually exploited due to poverty, lack
of education, breakdown of the family or other problems''.
These programmes
are for Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and the
Philippines. According to UNICEF, South-east Asia and South
Asia together have one million children in the sex trade. One-third
of sex workers in the Mekong subregion are estimated to be 12
to 17 years old.
Officials
in Thailand, a transit point and recipient of trafficked youngsters,
estimated that there was a 20 percent increase in child prostitutes
in 1999. Antonio Verde, counsellor for development cooperation
at the Italian foreign ministry, said that improving access
to education is one of the best ways of preventing trafficking,
abuse and exploitation.
''Programmes
need to sustained and their coverage increased if we are to
reach the majority of children now at risk,'' Khan added.
