Saturday, October 20, 2007

U.S. funds program to combat human trafficking in Sri Lanka

The U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development are funding a $500,000 program to help train Sri Lankan government officials to combat human trafficking in Sri Lanka. The program will be implemented by the International Organization on Migration (IOM).

At a press conference yesterday U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake announced that a recent U. S. State Department report found Sri Lanka to be a country of source and origin for men, women and children trafficked for domestic labor and sexual exploitation.

While commending the Sri Lankan government for amending its penal code last year to criminalize trafficking Blake said that Sri Lanka needs a better trained network of law enforcement professionals to establish legal grounds to identify and prosecute the traffickers.

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