PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng has appealed for cooperation from other countries to fight human trafficking.
He said the government had enhanced efforts to educate the public to be more vigilant of perpetrators.
“Authorities at all levels and the media play a crucial role in tackling the problem.”
He added that there were numerous types of human trafficking, such as cross-border cases, which coerced victims into marriage, sex or slavery.
According to the Phnom Penh Post, migrant workers were often targets of forced labour, while others were sex-trafficked through online channels in urban and rural areas.
Women’s Affairs Minister Ing Kantha Phavi said human and sex trafficking was a global issue rooted in the lack of access to education, employment opportunities, ineffective law enforcement and increase in traffickers.
“Human trafficking does not only happen through sex and labour exploitation.
“Other forms of trafficking, such as the illicit trade of human organs in the black market and commercial surrogacy, also occur.”
She noted that the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT) was working on establishing measures, conducting investigations and studying legal regulations to effectively stop the proliferation of human trafficking.
Sar Kheng urged NCCT to continue to put in place legal measures and promote the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Countering Trafficking in Persons 2019-2023.