REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Country Manager of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Troels Vester said that the Indonesian government was taking positive action to prevent and combat people trafficking.
"Indonesia is fully concerned in preventing and combating trafficking in persons," Troels Vester announced in the sidelines discussion "Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons" on Friday.
Troels pointed out that Indonesia had a lot of concerns and actions in eradicating human trafficking.
"Thousands of Indonesians are being exploited, and it must be prioritized in government's policy further," he affirmed.
He noted that UNODC has been cooperating with Indonesian government to eliminate human trafficking in Indonesia.
"We will provide training on trafficking in persons to representatives from ministry or mass organization in October. If the exploitation takes place abroad, then Indonesia must have international cooperation," he noted.
Moreover, he said the world is still far from eradicating modern slavery, so that children and women continue to be particularly vulnerable to this perfidious trade.
"Organized criminal groups continue to generate billions of dollars by preying on people's hope for a better life. A major step forward in tackling this crime is the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime," he noted.
He said that when the protocol was adopted in 2003, less than half of countries in the world had legislation criminalizing human trafficking. Now, more than 90 percent of the countries do.
UNODC's forthcoming 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons reveals that about 15 percent of countries did not record a single conviction between 2010 and 2012, while 25 percent only recorded between one and 10 convictions.
UNODC's 2012 Global Trafficking in Persons report found that the vast majority of trafficked persons were women, accounting for 55-60 percent of victims detected globally.
Recent data from the forthcoming report, however, suggested that more and more detected victims were children, particularly girls under 18 years. Together, women and children account for three quarters of human trafficking.
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