New campaign to crack down on cases of human trafficking

A special campaign has been launched nationwide to crack down against the trafficking of women and children. It will be carried out from March 1 to Dec 31, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Public Security.

According to the ministry, the campaign will focus on women and children of unknown origin, in particular vagrants and beggars, women and children with mental health issues or those who are hearing or speech impaired to ensure they were not trafficked.

Police and officials will go deep into communities, including villages, welfare institutions and rescue management agencies, even families, to get a clear picture of the situation.

The ministry is proposing to set up a mechanism that makes it easier for people to expose or offer clues relating to human trafficking or abductions.

It also asked for DNA and other information of people who are believed to have been abducted and those claiming to be their relatives to be collected as soon as possible for matching.

There have been renewed calls for serious crackdowns against the trafficking of women and greater penalties, even the death penalty, for those found guilty of human trafficking.

Some have also called for punishing the buyers as much as those involved in trafficking on the premise that there would be no traffickers if there were no buyers.

In most cases of human trafficking, it is the buyers who subject trafficked women or children to maximum harm, they being the ones who illegally detain them, rape them, cause mental injury and other crimes.

Given the enormity of the crime, the current three-year sentence for the "buyers" as a minimum penalty is not enough. It would be best if the authorities consider raising it to 10 years, which is the minimum sentence that is meted out to kidnappers.

Also criminal responsibility for trafficking or buying should not be covered by the statute of limitations, those responsible should be held accountable for life.