KARACHI, June 14: A comprehensive law be formulated to curb trafficking in women and children, demanded the chief of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), Zia Ahmed Awan, here on Friday.

He was speaking at a press conference to launch a national report on Trafficking of Women and Children in South Asia and within Pakistan.

The countrywide two-year study, sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency, was organized by the LHRLA and carried out by Dr Khalida Ghaus of Karachi University with the help of more than 65 researchers throughout the country.

Mr Awan said the study had revealed causative and augmenting factors of human trafficking in South Asian countries. The causative factors included famine/drought, floods and weak economy that made families desperate and vulnerable, inflation and withdrawal of subsidies, economic, legal and illegal migration, violation of international law, breakdown of administrative structures and negligence by border security officials.

The augmenting factors included prevalence of feudal/tribal culture, exploitative social practices such as bride price, political instability, discriminatory laws and corruption in law-enforcement agencies.

He said, at the regional level, the regional governments should also initiate efforts and adopt a three-pronged strategy — at the international, regional and local levels — to counter the menace. He said the regional countries should set up temporary homes for the trafficked victims and necessary steps be taken for their repatriation and their reintegration into society.

He said at the country level the government should acknowledge the existence of the issue and inter-provincial, as well as inter-departmental steps, be taken to effectively deal with the growing menace. He said the discriminatory laws should be abolished and laws pertaining to family and society be brought on a par with the international humanitarian and human rights laws.

He demanded that victim-sensitive laws be formulated as these would help in bringing forward the victim as witness; and that whatever laws were in existence their effective implementation be ensured. He demanded that an awareness campaign be launched so that the people became aware of the menace and it was debated widely.

Referring to the pattern of trafficking in the region, the LHRLA chief said, at the regional level, Vietnamese and Myanmarese women were brought into Cambodia from where they were sent into Thailand for prostitution. Bangldeshi women were trafficked into Pakistan through India, and Nepalese women were brought into India.

He said, unfortunately, instead of being seen as a victim, the victim was often treated as a perpetrator of an illegal act and prosecuted for violating immigration laws or booked under the Vagrancy Act.

He said the study revealed that 51 per cent of the victims had been trafficked within Pakistan, 24pc came from Bangladesh, 19pc from Afghanistan, 4pc from India and 2pc from Myanmar.

Mr Awan said 48pc of the victims were illiterate, 50pc did not have a bad childhood, 50pc worked as domestic servants and only 7pc worked as prostitutes.