Tackling Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

Human trafficking is a serious crime that affects men, women and children around the world. It involves putting or keeping someone in an exploitative situation, usually for profit. Exploitation can involve situations including forced or debt-bonded labour, child labour, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude or armed conflict.

The Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) is made up of six countries connected by the Mekong River: Cambodia, China, Laos PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. With limited opportunities for safe and legal migration in the GMS, irregular migration is widespread, creating a fertile breeding ground for the trafficking and exploitation of migrants.

GMS governments, UN agencies, and many non-governmental organisations, including World Vision, are working hard to combat human trafficking. World Vision’s End Trafficking in Persons (ETIP) Programme, a regional antitrafficking programme, is being implemented from October 2011 to September 2016. Working in and across the six countries of the GMS, ETIP is the largest anti-trafficking programme of its kind.