The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime regional office for The Middle East and North Africa held a press conference in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo (UNIC) to launch the global report on human trafficking 2014.
Dr Khawla Mattar opened the conference by welcoming the journalists and emphasising the importance of this issue because of its serious social, health and economic consequences.
A documentary with Arabic subtitles addressing human trafficking and featuring interviews with victims and specialists was screened.
Masood Karimipour, UNODC Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa said the report shows there is no place in the world where children, women and men are safe from human trafficking, with at least 152 countries of origin and 124 countries of destination involved. “In some regions such as Africa and the Middle East child trafficking is a major concern, with children constituting 62 per cent of the victims.
“Trafficking for forced labor in the industrial and construction sectors, domestic work and textile production has also increased steadily in the past five years,” Mr karimipour said. “About 35 per cent of the detected victims of trafficking for forced labor are female.”
Mr Karimipour lamented that, according to the report, impunity remains a serious problem: 40 per cent of the countries recorded few or no convictions, and over the past 10 years there has been no discernible increase in the global criminal justice response to this crime, leaving a significant portion of the population vulnerable to offenders.
Watani International
29 November 2014