BEIJING - CROSS-BORDER human trafficking between China and its southern neighbours is a growing problem, officials said at a meeting on Friday.
Combating the trafficking will require greater cooperation among police from the different countries as well as among different departments within each country to identify and track criminal gangs dealing in humans, said officials from six countries at the closing day of a conference on the problem.
China uncovered 2,500 cases of human trafficking last year, including domestic and international cases, Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Zhang Xinfeng said.
Most involved criminal gangs, he said.
Mr Zhang said the number of cross-border cases was still small at about 100.
But he added the trend was for that 'to grow and we need to further strengthen our cooperation and carry out further joint actions to combat this tendency.'
A lack of reliable data makes it a difficult problem to track and tackle. This is often due to varying definitions of trafficking, which often includes forced labor and prostitution. The data mainly comes from those who have been arrested and caught.
Representatives from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, who first signed an agreement on human trafficking in 2004, met in Beijing this week to sign a declaration aimed at eradicating the problem.
Cambodian Minister for Women's Affairs, Ing Kantha Phavi, said the problem was not only a matter of criminal prosecution but of prevention too.
'We need an ... approach where all ministries can work together,' she said.
Myanmar's Minister for Home Affairs, General Maung Oo, said his country had stiff penalties of 10 years in prison to death for trafficking in humans, but had difficulty fighting the problem because of its porous borders.
US President George W. Bush's administration has determined that Myanmar is ineligible for US aid for failing to meet minimum standards of fighting human trafficking or making significant efforts to do so.
The meeting ended a day after five people were jailed for abducting and trafficking eight boys in southern China's manufacturing centre Guangdong province.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the five enticed boys with snacks. It said they then wanted to sell the boys in south-east Fujian province for a total of 13,000 yuan (S$2,603). -- AP
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Human trafficking a growing problem in China, S-E Asia 
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