No one has been held accountable for the serious crimes committed by government security forces. Photo: UN Women/Stuart Mannion, Htoi Director Nang Pu started her journey as a religious leader, later becoming a social worker, activist and defender of women’s rights. The U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Luis CdeBaca, and Myanmar Police Chief Major General Zaw Win concurred in the need for government-civil society partnerships, health care, and prevention. The ethnic minorities from Myanmar working in Thailand were also found to have the lowest education in all minor workers surveyed, at about 1.3 years, and Burmese were found to have only a slightly higher education level, on average roughly four years. The lack of income-earning opportunities for survivors often puts them at risk of being re-trafficking or other forms of exploitation. A UN Women programme is supporting local partner, Htoi Gender and Development Foundation, in providing legal support and vocational training to survivors. The programme helps survivors and potential trafficking victims re-enrol in school or join vocational training programmes, where they learn both traditional skills like weaving, sewing and handicrafts, as well as new skills, such as fish farming and how to cultivate high-value crops, such as mushrooms, silkworm-mulberry and organic cotton. During the whole 2020, 167 people including 39 young girls were victimized while 339 traffickers were charged in connection with the cases. Human trafficking takes on various forms within Myanmar, including forced labor, the use of child soldiers for the Myanmar government, and sex trafficking and prostitution. As illegal immigrants, they are often arrested and deported back to Myanmar. In some areas, in particular international sex trafficking of women and girls, the Government of Myanmar is making significant efforts. Eventually, both girls’ families were able to pay a ransom of sorts for their return. On February 28, 2014, Myanmar officials decided to ban Doctors Without Borders from the state of Rakhine after the organization discovered and treated 40 victims of a rampage between Muslim and Buddhist citizens that the government denies took place. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday has given approval for the MoU between India and Myanmar on bilateral cooperation for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons; Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Re … [2] In 2009, the ILO continued to receive and investigate forced labor complaints; 93 cases were submitted to the Myanmar government for action, an increase from 64 cases in 2008; 54 cases remain open and are awaiting a response from the government. Not only political instability, but also the country's poverty favour the recruitment of children.[3][4]. Economic conditions within Myanmar have led to the increased legal and illegal migration of citizens regionally and internationally, often to destinations as far from Myanmar as the Middle East. Human traffickers charge 8,000-10,000 Thai baht (about 355,000 to 445,000 Myanmar kyats) to transport one person from border towns to the interior of Thailand. While the Myanmar regime has in the past been known to conflate illegal migration with trafficking, leading to the punishment of consensual emigrants and those who assist them to emigrate, the police reported some efforts to exclude smuggling cases from human trafficking figures during the reporting period, and improved their transparency in handling cases. Drivers who smuggle illegal workers into Thailand go to villages to recruit minors, and then transport them to the border. However, numerous children undoubtedly continue to serve in the Myanmar Army and in ethnic militias. In forced labor cases, some victims, notably 17 individuals in Magwe Division, were harassed, detained, or otherwise penalized for making accusations against officials who pressed them into forced labor. “Now, after meeting with other women trafficking survivors through the peer group organized by Htoi, I no longer feel alone and seeing that there are other women who went through the same experience gave me courage.”. [2] Police can be expected to self-limit investigations when well-connected individuals are involved in forced labor cases. Five of them were rescued, including Mun Pan. 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Myanmar has joined China, Syria and South Sudan as being among the countries doing least to tackle human trafficking, according to the US State Department’s latest annual Trafficking in … Myanmar law enforcement reported continued cooperation with Chinese counterparts on cross-border trafficking cases, including joint operations, as well as general cooperation with Thai authorities. Yangon [Myanmar], January 5 (ANI/Xinhua): Myanmar logged a total of 111 human trafficking cases in its states and regions last year, state-run media reported Tuesday, quoting the Anti-Trafficking Police Force's figures as saying. Those living in areas with the highest military presence, including remote border areas populated by ethnic groups, are most at risk for forced labor. In December 2009, the military of Myanmar reported that it dismissed a captain from the military via court martial and sentenced him to one year of imprisonment in a civilian jail for child soldier recruitment – the first ever criminal conviction of a military official involved in child soldier recruitment. November 27, 2020. The regime sustained partnerships with Mekong region governments and the UN in the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT), and hosted the COMMIT Senior Officials Meeting in January 2010. Young people are particularly at risk. Description: "Myanmar logged a total of 111 human trafficking cases in its states and regions last year, state-run media reported Tuesday, quoting the Anti-Trafficking Police Force's figures as saying. The United Nations states that its negotiations with Myanmar to allow Doctors Without Borders into the Rakhine state are of special importance, as citizens lack the ability to report human rights abuses for fear of becoming victims of the human trafficking or violence themselves. In one such case found in a survey, a girl was deceived by a driver, and sold into prostitution. Photo: UN Women/Stuart Mannion, In Hka Shi village, Waingmaw township, a woman enrolled in the catfish farming training says she is thankful she can do it from home, while caring for her baby. On World Day against Trafficking in Persons, three women survivors tell us their stories. She says in 8 out of 10 cases, women are trafficked as brides and another 20 per cent are trafficked to birth babies. Human Trafficking in Myanmar. Global New Light of Myanmar. Khawng Nu now owns a sewing machine and is looking for more start-up capital to set up a tailoring shop. These crimes include forced labor, child soldiers, and personal, including sexual violence.[5]. [2], While forced labor is widely considered to be the most serious trafficking problem in Myanmar, authorities reported that most trafficking cases investigated and prosecuted involved women and girls subjected to forced marriage or intended to be subjected to forced marriage. In less than a year, the programme has already trained 125 trafficking survivors, women in at-risk communities and in Internally Displaced Peoples camps and villages, imparting financial management and marketing skills, linking beneficiaries to training centres and markets, and providing business start-up grants once training is complete. [2] Economic con… Khawng Nu’s parents had to borrow from neighbours to pay the 10 million MMK (USD 6,320) ‘fine’. The Myanmar regime rules arbitrarily through its unilaterally imposed laws, but rule of law is absent, as is an independent judiciary that would respect trafficking victims’ rights. Despite a report of a child labor case involving as many as 100 children on an agricultural plantation near Rangoon, the regime did not report any efforts to investigate the allegation. The programme ran between 2017 and 2019, with funding from the UK Department for International ... transparency and the use of child workers in the cocoa and textile industries in Myanmar, Ghana, the Dominican Republic and Bangladesh. [8], Conversations between the US and Myanmar have been more frequent in recent years. Many of the 2.5 million migrants from Myanmar came to Thailand to find low-paying domestic jobs during the militaristic regime previously in place. There, she met Mun Pan*, who was barely 18 years old when she was trafficked from the village of Naung Mun, northern Myanmar. Many men, women, and children from Thailand, Malaysia, China, Bangladesh, India, and South Korea who migrate abroad for work are trafficked into conditions of forced or bonded labor or commercial sexual exploitation. There are few job opportunities in the conflict affected and impoverished state, so when a woman from her village offered her work in a factory in China, Khawng Nu happily accepted. The regime cooperated with the ILO on the issue of the military's conscription of children, resulting in the return of 31 children to their families. Since September … Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. “As a Kachin woman, I was driven to advocate for the equal rights of women in Kachin,” explains Htoi Director Nang Pu. Human Wrongs Watch In 2005, Myanmar passed an anti-trafficking law, but trafficking is still rampant in the conflict-affected state, especially in the northern region, where it borders China. According to Htoi, in 8 out of 10 cases, women are trafficked as brides and another 20 per cent are trafficked to birth babies. Thet Naung said he was disappointed by Myanmar’s ranking in the TIP report and maintained his unit was trying to tackle trafficking more effectively. The Myanmar regime reported investigating 155 cases of trafficking, prosecuting 410 individuals, and convicting 88 offenders in 2009, an increase from 342 reported prosecutions in 2008; however, these statistics included 12 cases of abduction for adoption, which are not considered “trafficking” by international standards. Victims were sheltered and detained in non-specialized Department of Social Welfare facilities for a mandatory minimum of two weeks, which stretched into months if authorities could not find an adult family member to accept the victim. “Human trafficking is common not only in border areas. Military and civilian officials systematically used men, women, and children for forced labor for the development of infrastructure and state-run agricultural and commercial ventures, as well as forced portering for the military. 84. [2], The military of Myanmar engages in the unlawful conscription of child soldiers, and continues to be the main perpetrator of forced labor inside Myanmar. [2], The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017. This is monumental for ASEAN as the ACTIP is the first legally-binding regional instrument to tackle human trafficking. June 11, 2015. Myanmar signed a 2004 anti-trafficking agreement and passed a law in 2005, but procedures are unclear, anti-trafficking police have little budget, and the existing law “is still weak and not fully implemented,” says Ms. Li Htwi. She hopes to set up her own tailoring business. [2] Furthermore, due to the large number of people living below the national poverty line, many women are forced into illegal prostitution. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Myanmar's military government, has not acknowledged the prevalence of human rights issues within their country, specifically human trafficking. Although the government reported four officials prosecuted for involvement in human trafficking in 2009, the government did not release any details of the cases. Htoi also organizes peer mentoring groups for survivors to connect and support one another. It’s all part of a project on preventing and mitigating the impacts of trafficking through women’s empowerment and livelihood training, supported by UN Women and funded by the Government of Japan. Children are threatened with jail if they do not agree to join the army, and are sometimes physically abused. Tackling Southeast Asia’s Migrant Crisis. Chinese men come here and give money to parents for a forced marriage. The government continued awareness campaigns using billboards, flyers, and videos during the reporting period and state-run television aired a documentary on human trafficking produced by the MTV EXIT Campaign. Like other Mekong countries, human trafficking in Myanmar is seriously rising in scope and numbers. Jakarta: IOM Philippines recently launched two projects aimed at increasing access to ethical recruitment and reducing the prevalence of human trafficking among Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), through funding from the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) and the US Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP). It is believed that the children from Myanmar make up the largest sector of foreign working children. In order to tackle increasing transnational crimes, it is very important to tackle the root of the problems. A UN Women programme is supporting local partner, Htoi Gender and Development Foundation, in providing legal support and vocational training to survivors. In 2005, Myanmar passed an anti-trafficking law, but trafficking is still rampant in the conflict-affected state, especially in the northern region, where it borders China.