PESHAWAR, Nov 17: Speakers at a seminar have expressed concern over the increasing incidents of human trafficking and asked the government to implement the Anti-human Trafficking Ordinance, 2002.The two-day seminar titled Countering Human Trafficking was organised by the Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (Camp) in collaboration with the European Union for training and capacity building of selected journalists working with different private organisations and government departments in the NWFP.

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) project coordinator Mohammad Amin, Camp chief executive Naveed Ahmed Shinwari and adviser to Camp Asghr Ali Khan spoke on the occasion.

Mr Amin said every year about 450,000 people were trafficked to different countries and among them 300,000 were taken out without any legal documents.

Most of the people, he said, were poverty stricken and went abroad in search of jobs. Various factors were involved in human smuggling, he added.

The speakers highlighted the role of media, police, non-governmental organisations, lawyers, and other segments of society in combating human trafficking.

They pointed out that under the Anti-human Trafficking Ordinance only the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) could take steps to counter human smuggling and police had not been given a role. Although, they added, police were the largest law enforcement agency and could play important role in this regard.

The speakers regretted that no proper statistics were available about human trafficking and this illegal practice continued unabated.

The participants of the seminar raised some points about the involvement of travelling agents and influential people in human trafficking.

They said some people went abroad to attend cultural and sporting events but did not return.

They were of the view that lack of an effective enforcement of laws was the main reason for illegal migration.

They said many people, mostly children, were smuggled from different parts of the northern Punjab to be used as jockeys in some Gulf countries.