[Mb-civic] CBC News - HUMAN TRAFFICKING A THREAT TO PAKISTAN QUAKE SURVIVORS

Tue Nov 22 05:29:22 PST 2005

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING A THREAT TO PAKISTAN QUAKE SURVIVORS 
WebPosted Mon Nov 21 13:02:08 2005

---An international aid agency is working with the Pakistani government
to help survivors of last month's earthquake fight the threat of human
trafficking.

The quake, which killed more than 73,000 people and left 2.5 million
homeless, has raised fears that gangs will move into the devastated areas
and trick families into letting them take women and children.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which plays a key
role globally against human trafficking, is helping Pakistan's government
launch an information campaign against trafficking in many of the tent
villages scattered around the quake zone.

"Very often we see traffickers taking advantage of people's desperate
situation, moving into a situation where families can be persuaded or
compelled to part with their children," Brunson McKinley, head of the Geneva-
based IOM, told a news conference in Islamabad on Monday.

Traffickers swoop into a disaster zone and offer to take a child or a
woman away with them to a safer location. They claim the survivors
will be working and earning money to send back home to their families.
Instead, they often end up sold into child labour or prostitution,
said McKinley

"We have noticed in other emergencies, including also the [Asian]
tsunami, there's a kind of new opportunity for traffickers,"
McKinley said.

McKinley said the information campaign is a preventive measure as the IOM
has not yet heard of any cases where traffickers had successfully lured
away quake survivors.

Pakistan has also frozen adoptions of Pakistanis, he said.

"When the door is open for adoption of orphans, it's another avenue of
approach to this problem by unscrupulous businessmen, gangs and
traffickers," he added.