8th Mekong regional workshop on assisting victims of trafficking held

March 11, 2018

The 8th Mekong regional workshop on the topic, “Assisting Victims of Trafficking in Building New Lives: Exploring Successful Social Reintegration for Victims of Trafficking and Good Initiatives to Promote It” was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 7 to 9 March.

The workshop was held as per the project on “Capacity Development on Assisting Victims of Trafficking in Persons in the Greater Mekong Sub-Regional Countries”, jointly conducted by Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The workshop was attended by 36 government department representatives from the Mekong region countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia and Japan, including Myanmar representatives, led by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Department of Rehabilitation, Director-General U Win Naing Tun. An additional 67 representatives that include representatives from China, which was attending the workshop for the first time as an observer, and representatives of government departments from Thailand, UN agencies and civil societies also attended the workshop.

At the workshop, Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security Technical Advisor Suwaree Jaiharn and JICA Thailand Chief Representative Hiroo Tanaka delivered the opening speeches.

Norms to be followed in reintegrating trafficked persons back to society, legal assistance to trafficked persons, and policy and co-ordination works of attending countries were discussed at the workshop. Based on the outcome of the workshop, strengthening co-operation among the countries of the region against human trafficking will be implemented.

Starting from 2018, JICA will implement with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement a project on “Capacity Development and Promotion of Networking on Assisting Victims of Trafficking” in Myanmar.

The project will raise the capacity of those providing services to victims of trafficking, establish a network to increase the connection between service providers, set up an information-sharing centre and increase regional co-operation works, it is learnt.

Ref; The Global New Light of Myanmar