by Anuradha Bhattacharjee
Development Gateway Foundation
"Young women and girls in Asia who are trafficked for commercial sex work are emerging as an HIV/AIDS risk factor, according to a report released by the United Nations Wednesday at the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific ... An estimated 8.6 million people living in the Asia-Pacific region are HIV-positive.
... The report ... focused on the estimated 150,000 to 2000,000 people from South Asia trafficked and forced into labor annually, usually as sex workers
... the number represents only 50% of the people who are trafficked in all of Asia.
Click on the title for the whole article.
Comments:
FemFatal said...
As a student of women's issues, I have been repeatedly saddened by the U.N.'s half-hearted attempts to fight the trafficking of women in Asia. I have become a subscriber to the belief that nations will only act in their self-interest and that until the trafficking of women becomes a significant problem for the nations involved, no serious effort to thwart these crimes will take place. While your latest post about the spread of AIDS through trafficking worries me, I also can't help but wonder, will the spread of AIDS wake up the governments in some of these countries to take serious action against trafficking? Could this be, dare I say, a blessing in disguise?
