HumanTrafficking.org | Lao PDR Government Agency: Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW)

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Lao PDR

Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW)

Address

Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
P.O. Box 347
Vientiane
Lao PDR

Contact Information

If calling from Lao PDR:

Tel: 021 213 005
Fax: 021 252 685

If calling from overseas:

Tel: +856 21 213 005
Fax: +856 21 252 685

Email

twclaos@laotel.com

Activities

The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW) has a unit devoted to children with special needs, including protection of trafficking victims and prevention of trafficking. The MLSW also maintains a small-scale repatriation assistance transit center for returned victims of trafficking with IOM support, and in partnership with a French NGO AFESIP, opened in October 2006 a shelter providing psychological social medical educational and vocational services funded by Anesvad. Another shelter should be built in Savanakhet with the support of ECPAT Italy, and other fundings are still being solicited.

The LWU opened a second center for trafficking victims, funded by The Asia Foundation, the Japanese government, and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

UNIAP Lao PDR is currently working with NGO partners on a media education project, whose main objective is to increase the knowledge of radio, print and television journalists on human trafficking issues. A secondary objective of this project is to increase the quantity and quality of human trafficking information and stories in local newspapers, on the radio and television. As a part of this project, UNIAP along with the MLSW, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), and World Vision are co-funding a trafficking prevention radio programme targeted at youth. The goal of this project is to raise the awareness of Lao youth about the dangers of illegal migration, and how to avoid trafficking situations.

The MLSW and the Lao Women's Union, in conjunction with UNICEF, have conducted pilot studies on anti-trafficking information campaigns and are now pursuing more active interventions in conjunction with NGOs. Financial constraints limited the contributions the Government could make, but it did offer the services of ministerial personnel and venues to NGOs doing anti-trafficking work.

The MLSW repatriates children and women who have been working as prostitutes in Thailand and Malaysia.

Almost all government action to address trafficking is concentrated in the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. As a first step, the ministry has provided some limited training to law enforcement officials.

The MLSW coordinates government action on trafficking, including the Lao Immigration Department's 2003 opening of an Australian government-supported anti-trafficking office.

The Main responses of the MLSW concerning migration has been its leading role within the UN Interagency Project on Trafficking of Women and Children (UNIAP) in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, its administrative support for a repatriation and victim protection program, its alternative vocational training, and its negotiation of cross-border MOUs with the Thai Government, intended to mitigate the effects of TIP. The component of the UNIAP initiative called the National Project on Trafficking, involves a National Steering Committee (NSC) chaired by the Needy Children Assistance Section of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW).

In 2001, MLSW and UNICEF conducted a study which found that Chinese girls and women work largely in Northern Laos, and Vietnamese girls in the South. These girls are generally trafficked and usually serve clients from their home countries.

Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and UNICEF released a study on 26 October 2004 which shows that child trafficking in Laos is a problem which must be addressed urgently. The study, entitled 'Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams,' found cases of child trafficking from each of the seventeen provinces surveyed, from the far north to the far south of the country. Trafficking occurs both internally and across borders, particularly to Thailand. 'Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams' is a qualitative study based on interviews with 253 victims of trafficking, their families and key informants. The study found that most trafficking victims (60 percent) are girls aged between12 and 18 years, and that 35 percent of these girls end up in forced prostitution. A significant proportion of trafficking victims come from non-Lao ethnic backgrounds.

Related Items: Child Trafficking Study in Lao PDR