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| Image: Flickr User - European Commission DG ECHO |
By Prashanth Parameswaran
City-state signs on to a new ASEAN convention against trafficking in persons.
Singapore has ratified an ASEAN convention against human trafficking, government officials confirmed January 26.
The city-state announced Tuesday that it had ratified the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), making it one of the first Southeast Asian states to do so.
ACTIP, a legally-binding document approved at the 27th ASEAN Summit last November, seeks to prevent human trafficking and protect its victims in part through greater cooperation among the ten ASEAN states (See: “ASEAN Creates New Community Under Malaysia’s Chairmanship”).
The convention, adopted during Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship, was a response to growing trafficking concerns in 2015 amid a humanitarian crisis where thousands of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants stranded in crowded boats in the Andaman Sea and Straits of Malacca as well as the discovery of mass graves on the Malaysia-Thailand border thought to be mainly Rohingya victims of human traffickers (See: “Can Southeast Asia Tackle Its Human Trafficking Problem?”).
Read the full story at The Diplomat