Trafficking of women, children on rise worldwide-UN
Tue Aug 30, 2005 04:59 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Human trafficking is on the rise worldwide, with millions of women and children ending up as sex slaves, beggars and mine laborers each year, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, speaking at an Asia-Pacific human rights conference in Beijing, called trafficking in humans horrendous.

"By its very nature, it constitutes an acute violation of human rights and reports today suggest that more people are being trafficked than ever before," she said.

The International Labour Organization estimated more than 2 million people were trafficked worldwide every year, the head of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said.

"No country or region is immune," UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman said.

"Children are forced into prostitution, begging and soliciting, labor on plantations and in mines, markets, factories and domestic work."

In the Asia-Pacific region, especially in Southeast Asia, the sex trade is a major factor behind the smuggling of people.

Girls from poor villages in Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and elsewhere are lured into cities or neighboring countries and end up at massage parlors or karaoke bars, or are flown as far as Australia, Japan, South Africa and the United States to be kept as slaves in brothels.

Arbour urged countries in the region to ratify international human rights agreements to combat trafficking.