Pak does not even comply with minimum human trafficking protection standards: US

Washington, June 17 (ANI): Pakistan does not comply with even the minimum standards set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the US State Department's Trafficking in person report 2009 has revealed.

he report which was released by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, stated that "Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation."

The report mentions that the Sindh and Punjab provinces were the two regions where the country's largest trafficking problem exists.

Teenage boys and girls are working in large numbers as bonded labourers in brick kilns, carpet factories, leather tanning, and glass industries, the report said.

Putting Pakistan in class 2 of the watch list, the report added that parents sell their daughters into domestic servitude, prostitution, forced marriages, and women are traded between tribal groups to settle disputes or as payment for debts.

"Pakistan girls are trafficked to the Middle East for sexual exploitation," The News quoted the report, as saying.

The report also added that most of the women and children from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, and Nepal are trafficked into Pakistan primarily for forced labor. (ANI)