Dunya: Challenges remain for Maldives in eliminating human trafficking

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon has said that Maldives still faces a multitude of challenges in eliminating human trafficking.

Dunya made this remark at a ceremony at Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, 28 December 2015, for the signing of the instrument of accession to the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children’, supplementing the United Nations Conventions against Transnational Organised Crime.

She said that the Maldives’ accession to the protocol reflects “the government’s on-going efforts to curb and stamp out offences related to trafficking throughout the country and towards the promotion and protection of the rights of those vulnerable to trafficking including the migrant workers.”

She added that being a small island developing state with limited means, Maldives needs to develop and strengthen efforts in identifying potential victims of human trafficking.

‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children’ is a protocol to the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 and entered into force on 25 December 2003. It has been ratified by 169 countries.