MTV is to broadcast a new documentary on human trafficking cases related to Taiwan tomorrow to draw more attention to the issue and call for greater efforts to fight the problem, the cable TV station said.
Tara Dermott, head of development of MTV EXIT, a multimedia initiative launched by the channel to end exploitation and human trafficking, said the documentary would hopefully help people “understand it’s an important issue and if we all join together, we can end human trafficking.”
MTV EXIT has organized activities in Taiwan for several years, but this is the campaign’s first documentary featuring traffickers as well as victims of the human trafficking chain in Taiwan, she said in Taipei on Thursday.
The 30-minute documentary tells the stories of a Vietnamese woman who was tricked into coming to Taipei to work in a karaoke bar, a Taiwanese prisoner who trafficked Chinese women to Taiwan to provide sex services, a Cambodian man exploited in Thailand and an Indonesian woman who was sold in Malaysia, where she was subsequently abused.
National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said he hopes the public will understand more about the impact of human trafficking through the documentary.
Different Taiwanese government agencies and local non-governmental groups have been working to fight the problem, Hsieh said, adding that positive results have been achieved.
For example, as a result of its anti-trafficking efforts, for three consecutive years since 2010 Taiwan has been listed on Tier 1 in the Trafficking in Persons Report compiled by the US Department of State, he said.
Tier 1 countries are those whose governments fully comply with the Department of State’s Trafficking Victims protection act.
However, more work is needed to reduce the number of victims and provide better protection to those who have fallen victim to human trafficking, he added.
Christopher Marut, director of the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan, one of the sponsors of the documentary project, said millions of people around the world are being forced to work against their will, and he expects the documentary will help increase people’s understanding of the issue.
The documentary, which was completed last week, is to premiere on MTV Taiwan tomorrow. It will be reshown three times throughout the month, the channel said.
The documentary on cases involving Taiwan is part of a series that includes more than 10 Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, according to MTV.
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