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Government Action Plans

Government of Burma's Plan of Action To Prevent, Protect, Prosecute and Reintegrate

A National Task Force on Trafficking in Women and Children has been established, which comprises personnel from the police force, Attorney General's office, departments of Health, Immigration, and Social Welfare, border areas department, and NGOs. The National Task Force has adopted the following interventions.

Prevention

Talks to raise awareness on the issue of trafficking, suspected traffickers, ways of recruiting, trafficking routes and the fate of victims are held at schools as well as in the community. In doing so, traffickers are warned of the legal consequences.

Protection and Enforcement

Training programs for police, judicial, immigration and related officials to help in prosecution and restrictions on border crossing have been established.

Prosecution

Advocacy meetings are held for prosecutors and judges to be aware of the amended trafficking laws. They are urged to speed up prosecutions and trials. In addition, transnational assistance is being sought to prosecute traffickers.

Reintegration

The responsible departments are being urged to receive trafficking victims warmly and give vocational training and any other support to strengthen their reintegration into society.

Training programs are also arranged for service providers such as police, prosecutors, judicial personnel, health officers, social welfare officers, NGO members, and administrative officials to increase their awareness about the causes, consequences, and mechanisms through which violence against women occurs.

Counseling centers have been established in each township to help victims. Complaint letters from victims have been scrutinized and channeled to the respective sectors for prompt action (including a reply to the victims) to be taken. Young women under 25 years of age are not allowed to cross the border unless accompanied by a guardian.

Local and international NGOs are combating trafficking by giving vocational training programs to uplift income generation. These agencies are also giving credit and loan schemes to start micro-enterprises. The sub-committee on Violence Against Women is planning to hold a series of workshops to write a manual titled: The Myanmar Initiative Against Trafficking.

Despite the existence of a task force on human trafficking and laws that could be effective in reducing prevalence of trafficking, there is not much evidence of prosecution of traffickers or persons associated with the trafficking of persons.