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medical and financial assistance and safe passage to the country of origin for victims. It is important for EU nations to share information on traffickers and punish those responsible for trafficking. Based on their domestic policies, European states favor international punishment guidelines and enforcement policies for traffickers. The EU also supports intelligence sharing with respect to information on trafficking routes and known traffickers.
Asia Debt bondage and child labor are serious problems across Asia. In India, adults who take out loans are often forced to sell their children to work in sweatshops in order to pay off the high interest of these debts. In China and Southern Asia, poverty has forced children to work in factories and sweatshops as well.32 Human trafficking within the region is widespread as factories and companies relocate, and Asia has a significant sex industry that fuels human trafficking into prostitution.
Unfortunately, many Asian
nations have turned a blind eye to these problems, not wanting to interfere with industrialization or modernization. It would be difficult to compete with developed stated and keep prices low if these nations followed international child labor laws, and many Asian states such as China are very focused on developing their economies. In 2004, the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN) signed a declaration against human trafficking, calling for more secure travel documents, the sharing of information on trafficking routes, and more effective border security.33
These states are very
conscience of national sovereignty, and do not want the UN to interfere with their domestic policies in its effort to combat trafficking.
These countries are generally
unwilling to admit the severity of the trafficking problems in their own nations, but are likely to support the implementation of aid to help the situation in Africa.
32
Van den Anker, Christien, ed. The Political Economy of New Slavery. NY: Palgrave Macmillian, 2004. “ASEAN Signs Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons.� Humantrafficking.org. 29 November 2004. http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/126 33