‘Freeze human traffickers’ assets’
MINISTER of Interior Sar Kheng ordered relevant authorities to freeze the assets of those found to be involved in human trafficking and illegal logging.
Sar Kheng was speaking at the annual Interfaith Forum on Combating Human Trafficking in the capital on Wednesday.
The forum was attended by representatives of t he Ministr y of Cults and Religion, Caritas Cam
bodia, and Buddhist, Muslim and Catholic spiritua l leaders, as well as NGOs working on human trafficking issues in the Kingdom.
He said human traffickers were generally greedy and enriched themselves by deceiving their poor, illiterate and innocent victims with promises of a better life.
“Be it drugs, human trafficking or illega l timber dealing, it is not enough to just arrest and bring them to justice. That would be useless, so we a lso have to stop t heir dirt y money circulating. We need to freeze t heir assets,” he said.
A report issued by the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT) said police tack led 78 cases of human trafficking and saved 263 v ictims in t he first si x months of t his year. That represented an increase of 25 and 148 per cent respectively, compared to the same period last year.
Phnom Penh municipal and prov incia l courts, t he report showed, had sentenced 101 people to prison and released 25 on bail. Another 63 cases are pending.
Sar Kheng a lso urged the relevant aut horities to step up t heir ef forts in combating human tra f ficking. The appeal came after the US Department of Defence downgraded Cambodia’s ranking in its human trafficking report, placing t he Kingdom in its Tier2 Watch list.
The minister f urt her ca lled for collaboration bet ween t he aut horities and t hose in religious circles to help fight against such trafficking to improve the countr y’s ranking.
NCCT’s permanent v ice-chairwoman Chou Bun Eng said at the forum t hat human trafficking had affected t he v ictims and t heir fa milies.
“In Cambodia, the government has striven to overcome hurdles in suppressing trafficking, punishing traffickers, rescuing v ictims and actively protecting them.
“In the first six months of this year, we have put greater effort in promoting education and public awareness and implementing action plans to prevent and stop it. We have tried all means to spread the word – directly and indirectly,” she said.