The UN yesterday condemned as uncoordinated and inefficient global efforts to counter human trafficking, saying the crime implicated nearly every country in the world.
"Virtually no country in the world is unaffected by the crime of human trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labor," the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its first study on the scale of the phenomenon.
"Efforts to counter trafficking have so far been uncoordinated and inefficient. The lack of systematic reporting by authorities is a real problem. Governments need to try harder," UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa said.
He said it was "extremely difficult" to establish how many victims there were worldwide but added that "the fact that this form of slavery still exists in the 21st century shames us all."
The UNODC has identified 127 nations, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe, as sources of trafficking victims, and 137 as destinations. The latter include the EU, North America, the Gulf states, Israel, Turkey, China and Japan.
A massive 77 percent of trafficking cases involve women. A substantial 33 percent involve children and just 9 percent involve men, according to the UNODC. Sexual exploitation is a factor in 87 percent of cases and other forms of forced labor in 28 percent.
The UNODC, which relied solely on public sources of information, stressed the incomplete nature of the data, saying this was mainly due to a lack of cooperation from some governments.
The UNODC is calling for improved international cooperation to combat human trafficking and protect its victims.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other