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Child Trafficking Study in Lao PDR1

According to the first national study on child trafficking released on 26 October 2004 by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and UNICEF, it is a problem for Lao PDR which requires urgent action. 

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.

While approximately one-third of global trafficking in women and children occurs in or from East Asia, and the Mekong sub-region in particular, it is only now that the extent of the problem in the Lao People's Democratic Republic is being grasped. '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 between 12 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.

The new study describes the types of exploitation trafficking victims from Lao PDR are subjected to:

• Domestic Service. A large percentage of trafficking victims to Thailand find themselves locked up in private homes, as domestic servants. Victims surveyed experienced some of the most extreme cases of violence and abuse.
• Commercial sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation is a major aspect of trafficking, and the physical appearance of the girls is a major factor in assessing their value as a commodity. Trafficking victims may be kept in brothels, and forced prostitution is often combined with work in the entertainment industry, particularly beer shops, bars and nightclubs.
• Factory work. Much of the internal trafficking within Lao PDR involves factory work in the nation's urban centers, with most trafficking victims having to work long hours with little if any compensation for over-time.

Traffickers are usually familiar to their victims, often from the same, or nearby villages. They use this familiarity with the victims to build trust, making empty promises of lucrative work to persuade them to leave home. 

The Government of Lao PDR is undertaking new initiatives to combat trafficking in collaboration with partners, with UNICEF supporting the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare in the following areas:

• Support for trafficked victims.  The Lao Women's Union runs psycho-social counselling in Vientiane and plans to expand the service to almost every province.
• Social work. UNICEF supports training for Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare staff notably on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and family tracing.
• Child protection networks. Community networks exist in 75 villages to monitor children vulnerable to a range of hazards, including trafficking.
• Youth prevention A package of communication materials is being produced employing Lao youth personalities to convey anti-trafficking, drugs and HIV AIDS prevention messages.

Ruth Landy, UNICEF Communication, Mobile 856 20 551 9681, rlandy@unicef.org
Amanda Bissex, UNICEF Child Protection, Mobile 856 20 550 7815, abissex@unicef.org

¹ http://www.unicef.org/media/media_23871.html