The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the All-China Women Federation (ACWF) have been working in close partnership over the last four years to reduce the trafficking of women and children for labour exploitation. With the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the ILO is proud to launch the second phase of its Project to Prevent Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in China (CP-TING – Phase II) in Beijing on 17 March 2010.

A growing proportion of China’s 150 million migrant workers are young women or children who have dropped out of school out of economic necessity. Each year, tens of millions of girls and young women move to cities in search of work. They often have little awareness of the risks involved in living and working in a city such as being sexually exploited or abused in the workplace or being duped by traffickers who force them to work for little or no wages. The ILO’s Safe migration for decent work strategy aims to prevent trafficking and other kinds of rights abuses against migrant workers.

As part of this strategy, the Project to Prevent Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in China promotes improved labour rights of women and youth in China with the objective of reducing trafficking for labour exploitation through the following actions:

• strengthening Chinese provincial action plans against trafficking, advocating for international labour standards, and supporting international frameworks, such as Education for All, and the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking;
• strengthening civil society organisations, media, and research institutes to effectively engage in anti-trafficking policy dialogue;
• educating vulnerable youth on their labour rights and equipping them with life skills before they migrate for work;
• setting up trafficking prevention mechanisms and safe migration services, including training and referral services for vulnerable women, children and communities through Migrant Women’s Homes;
• consulting with target groups to facilitate peer-to-peer support networks;
• disseminating information on legal and labour rights and how to exercise them via targeted information, education and communication campaigns;
• working with employers and workers associations to protect the labour rights of migrants in the workplace;
• developing and implementing inter-provincial arrangements for safe migration.

The Project to Prevent Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in China will focus on the migrant worker-sending provinces of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan and the migrant worker-receiving provinces of Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong. The March 17 launch event offered an opportunity to hear the perspectives of the ILO, ACWF and CIDA, the National Committee of the National Plan of Action, and young migrant women on how best to raise awareness and combat trafficking.

For more information, refer to the project website: www.preventtraffickingchina.org