A group of Gen Y activists has urged the Federal Government to act on the issue of human trafficking by appointing an ambassador to demonstrate Australia’s impact and commitment to this issue globally, establishing Australia as a global leader in the fight against human trafficking .

A group of thirty young leaders delivered 110,000 signed cards to the Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, outside Parliament House this week, asking that Australia take the good work it is doing in South–East Asia and make it global.

The group are part of a delegation to MPs called Trek Against Trafficking, organised by Vision Generation, the youth volunteer network of development agency World Vision Australia.

World Vision CEO Tim Costello said the Australian Government has already played a significant role in the fight against trafficking in the region, especially in developing an effective criminal justice response to trafficking in Southeast Asia– through ending impunity of offenders and securing justice for victims.

[pullquote]Rev Costello said that the young leaders were advocating on behalf of an estimated 12.3 million people worldwide who are enslaved in forced or bonded labour and sex trafficking.[/pullquote]

Mr Rudd announced a $7.5 million project led by Australia’s aid agency AusAID to help countries in the Mekong region prosecute travelling child sex offenders, including Australians, and to help prevent people in vulnerable communities, especially children, becoming future victims. AusAID’s Project Childhood – covering Cambodia, Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam – will be jointly implemented by World Vision Australia, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and INTERPOL.

“World Vision welcomes the Government’s commitment to help protect children in these Asian countries from sexual exploitation,” Rev Costello said.

“However, the ILO estimates that for every trafficking victim subjected to forced prostitution, nine people are forced to work. Government, businesses and individuals need to do more to tackle labour trafficking head on.”

“We urge the Government to take stronger international action, appointing an Ambassador on trafficking, developing more robust domestic legislation that prohibits all methods and types of trafficking, and ensuring that Government procurement policies avoid suppliers that produce goods using child labour and forced labour.

Rev Costello said that the young leaders were advocating on behalf of an estimated 12.3 million people worldwide who are enslaved in forced or bonded labour and sex trafficking.

The Vision Generation delegates were joined by Australian actor and World Vision Ambassador, Damian Walshe–Howling, who visited World Vision projects in Cambodia and Thailand last year where children at risk of being exploited were being protected, and those that had survived trafficking situations were being cared for and in rehabilitation.

“It’s hard to believe there are still places in the world where children are traded like products in a shop, but this practice is widespread, particularly in Asia where I saw first–hand the harrowing trauma these children live with every day,” Mr Walshe–Howling said.

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EthicalLiving.com.au

1 Comment for Gen Y lends voice to human trafficking issue

Luke

hi all,
just a quick comment. i am a child protection worker who lives in cambodia and who was involved in observing damien and film crew when they visited last year.

all i want to say is that they worked like dogs – and that damien and his team each gave of themselves, right up to the full extent of their personal limits, in listening to, documenting, and spending time with children who have survived the unspeakable.

as an ambassador on this issue, damien speaks from the heart.
luke