Beijing - Ministers from the six nations in the greater Mekong River area on Friday agreed a tougher stance and closer coordination against human trafficking. The officials from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam issued a joint declaration promising to strengthen their existing cross-border border cooperation against trafficking of women and children.
Zhang Xinfeng, China's vice minister of public security, said his ministry was investigating more than 100 cases of cross-border people trafficking involving China.
"Though the number is small, we think such crime is on the increase. Ministers from the six countries agree on this," Zhang said at a joint press conference of the Greater Mekong Sub-region nations.
"Strenuous efforts have to be made to save more lives in the region," he said.
Ing Kantha Phavi, the Cambodian Minister of Women's and Veteran's Affairs, said police in her country had solved 110 cases this year, arrested 55 suspects and rescued 134 people, including three Thai nationals.
She said "difficulty in getting evidence" was hampering Cambodia's efforts to curb trafficking.
Officials from the six nations held three days of talks this week to coordinate strategy against trafficking under the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking, which was agreed in principle in 2004.
On Thursday, they adopted an action plan for 2008 to 2010, covering prevention; legislation and enforcement; and victim identification, protection and recovery.
Matthew Friedman, regional manager of the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, which provides the secretariat for COMMIT, said the focus of the second action plan is prevention.
"Crackdowns, rescue and recovery are not enough," China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Friedman as saying.
"We should enhance measures to identify the vulnerable groups and help them protect themselves," he said.
