NEW YORK, 20 October 2008: A new report commissioned by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) calls for strengthening laws and criminal justice mechanisms to combat human trafficking in Lebanon, a destination country for victims smuggled from Eastern European countries such as Moldova.
Only 60 cases involving victims of human trafficking are officially identified every year in Lebanon, according the report, which is the result of research conducted between 2005 and 2007 by Statistics Lebanon, a Beirut-based organization, in cooperation with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
These include cases that are either processed through the courts or through the national Complaints Office.
– There could be more, but we cannot responsibly estimate unknown numbers, says Cindy Smith from the University of Baltimore, who assisted with the report.
A major difficulty in identifying victims is the lack of any law in the Lebanese penal code concerning human trafficking.
Læs mere: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28627&Cr=Human+trafficking&Cr1=
