Aceh warned of human trafficking

Aceh warned of human trafficking

JAKARTA: A national movement sponsored by the State Ministry
of Women's Empowerment reiterated a call on Tuesday for
authorities, relief agencies and community leaders to step up
security efforts to prevent women and child trafficking in
tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

Dewi Hughes, spokeswoman for the movement called the Campaign
to Eliminate the Trafficking of Indonesian Women and Children,
revealed that during her two-day visit to the province she
learned that there had been several cases in which Acehnese
children had gone unexplainably missing from refugee camps and
hospitals.

"Although there is no hard evidence, the potential is really
there because security at the camps is so lax," she said in a
press statement.

Hughes, also a television presenter, said she found out that
even before the tsunami devastated Aceh on Dec. 26, young women
and girls had reportedly been trafficked from villages to Banda
Aceh or to Malaysia and Thailand, where they were forced into
prostitution or slave-like labor.

"Human trafficking is now an even greater danger to innocent
Acehnese women and children than ever before. We need to ensure
greater security against traffickers," she said. -- JP