NGOs urge greater responsibility during Taiwan’s international anti-human trafficking workshop.

The Diplomat
Date: July 31, 2018
By: James X. Morris

Last week Taiwan hosted the 2018 International Workshop on Strategies For Combating

Human Trafficking (IWSCHT). While a workshop, it highlight’s Taiwan’s activity as a stakeholder in addressing global human trafficking, probably much to Beijing’s chagrin. The event was hosted by Taiwan’s Immigration Agency, and while productive, the international gesture didn’t go without protest at home.

This year’s IWSCHT participants included envoys, academics, and NGOs from three continents, including representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. The workshop unveiled a new “4P” strategy for fighting human trafficking, focusing on prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership.

A press release on IWSCHT indicates that Taiwan has signed Memoranda of Understanding and cooperation agreements on countering human trafficking with 17 countries; an additional MOU will be signed with a European country later this year.

In the IWSCHT press release, Taiwan’s Minister of Interior Hsu Kuo-yung stated the growth of globalization has generated greater migration, and along with it, international crime. Cultural differences, particularly in labor standards, create gaps in which exploitation and human trafficking can occur.   [FULL  STORY]