By IPS Correspondents
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 2007 (IPS)

Somaly Mau of Cambodia was sold into sexual slavery at such a young age that she does not remember her parents and does not know how old she is.

Mau, a Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year in 2006, now runs Acting For Women in Distressing Situations (AFESIP), a Cambodian NGO that provides shelter, medical care, psychiatric therapy, legal advice and reintegration programmes for victims of trafficking and the sex industry.

Working at the grassroots level in Cambodia since 1996, AFESIP has rescued more than 3,000 girls. According to the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, 1.8 million children are currently being exploited by the sex industry.

“I am surprised, there are a lot of people here at the U.N. talking about the problems of trafficking,” Mau said at the International Conference on Women and Girls at the United Nations Monday. “In my country, children are still sold into slavery every day.”

Coinciding with the 51st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which this year is focusing on discrimination and violence against the girl child, the conference discussed ways to step up national, regional and global coordination of efforts against human trafficking – especially of women and children.

Mau expressed sadness that when she is in New York her work gets a lot of support, but when she goes back to Cambodia the situation remains the same.

Despite growing international awareness, and outrage, about the scourge of human trafficking, the number of victims is rapidly rising, watchdog groups warn.

Seven hundred thousand people are trafficked across borders every year, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

“This number will reach 12 million in 20 years,” said IOM’s Deputy Director-General Ndioro Ndiaye.

In 2006, IOM helped 1,879 trafficking victims worldwide, 82 percent of whom were female.

“Sexual exploitation is the most likely outcome for trafficked women,” said Kyung-wha Kang, U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights.

Traffickers often confiscate girls’ passports and force them to work as prostitutes to pay off their “debt”.

Participants at the conference – national delegations, representatives of international organisations and non-governmental organisations – agreed that all too often attention is paid only to the supply side of the trafficking problem.

Poverty, inequality, food insecurity , violence, conflict and migration cannot be considered simply as the cause of trafficking, Ndiaye said, though of course they are contributing factors. Trafficking is also the result of the demand for cheap labour and sexual services in destination countries, she said.

Ndiaye points to a “major shift” in demographics as the root cause of trafficking. Developed countries’ populations are aging and their birth rates are declining, whereas the opposite is true in developing countries.

“Economic growth has not been matched by evolution of migration policy,” Ndiaye stressed. “Goods and services now move across borders more easily,” yet migration policy has become more strictly regulated.

“Human traffickers have stepped into the breach,” she said, exploiting the labour shortages in the developed world to their benefit.

Ndiaye was joined by others at the conference in questioning the disconnect between some countries’ “words and deeds”.

“Some countries generously fund the supply side of the problem, yet fail to expand labour laws to protect their migrant work force,” Ndiaye said.

Ndiaye pointed to the government of Quebec’s agreement with Guatemala to protect migrant agricultural labourers from that country as an example of a labour policy that could be emulated by others.

Participants recounted the horrific stories of trafficked women and girls, some kept in cages for many months, some put on display, yet others traumatised into thinking that the traffickers are safeguarding them from local authorities.

In 2000, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. The document came into force on Dec. 25, 2003, and has been signed by 117 states and ratified by 111 states.

Last December, the General Assembly passed a resolution calling upon U.N. member states to form a global partnership against the slave trade and to consider the advisability of developing a U.N. strategy or a plan of action to prevent trafficking in persons, punish criminals and protect victims.

In line with the resolution, an interagency group for the coordination of efforts against slave trade is being set up. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will coordinate efforts of the group.

Speaking at the conference Monday, Kristina Kangaspunta, chief of the UNODC Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, pointed out that “though legislation exists to convict traffickers, there have been very few convictions.”

“We are analysing this,” Kangaspunta said, adding that the lack of convictions may be the result of a “lack of interest” of the criminal justice systems.

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