Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Associated Press - Friday, December 6, 1996 4:53 pm EST.
Patrick McDowell Associated Press Writer
The International Labor Organization announced a three-year drive to draft and ratify a regional convention against the child trafficking that has tarnished Asia's economic growth.
"There is evidence that child trafficking problems are on the increase," Guy Thijs, an ILO coordinator in Asia, said at a news conference. "The prosperity and economic development that Asia has been going through has, ironically, been a contributing factor."
Mobility between countries has helped, as has the availability of jobs and money in countries -- such as rapidly industrializing Thailand -- surrounded by poorer neighbors.
The Geneva-based ILO hopes to forge a regional agreement on child slavery, servitude, prostitution and forced and bonded labor.
The announcement precedes this week's inaugural meeting in Singapore of the World Trade Organization, which developing countries -- Asian nations in particular -- insist should not link trade issues to corruption and labor standards.
The ILO says child trafficking is rife in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos and Vietnam, and the south Asian nations of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The organization will use $130,000 donated by Britain to prepare reports identifying the scope of the problem, what countries are already doing, and a regional strategy.
Thousands of girls from Bangladesh and Nepal are sold into brothels in India every year, according to the ILO. Nepal estimated in 1992 that some 200,000 Nepalese women and girls were prostitutes in India.
Trafficking of children from Burma, Cambodia, China and Laos feeds Thailand's notorious brothels, the ILO says.
In many cases, professional recruiters deceive young girls and boys from poor rural areas with promises of legitimate jobs.
The organization cited reports of Burmese children commonly found in Thailand working in construction sites, gas stations, restaurants and fishing boats.
Some children work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, in Thailand's garment factories, Thijs said.
Middlemen can be found in villages around southeast Asia feeding child-trafficking networks, he said. They sometimes ask a teacher about certain children, then negotiate a cash payment with the parents.
The ILO hopes to have a convention drafted by 1998 and ratified in 1999. Its aim would be to involve governments on a regional basis, harmonizing disparate national laws and strategies for better enforcement
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