Ranked as Tier 1 in 10 Consecutive Years. Experts from Almost 40 Countries Attend the 2019 International Workshop on Combating Human Trafficking

• Date： 2019-07-25
• Source：Anti-Human Trafficking Section
• Hit：3415

The opening ceremony of 2019 International Workshop on Combating Human Trafficking organized by the Ministry of the Interior was held in this morning of July 25.  More than 200 experts and officials from almost 40 countries gathered to convene on the matters related to human trafficking prevention. Vice President Chen addressed the ceremony and revealed that Taiwan has been ranked as Tier 1 country in the TIP (Trafficking in Persons) report of the U.S. Department of State for its 10th consecutive year.  He announced it a fruition of joint efforts by this country’s private sectors and the government.  The Vice president also said that Taiwan is glad to share its experience and join hands with the international community in combating human trafficking.

Minister of the Interior, Hsu, pointed out that Taiwan is a top choice for people to move in, get married, take employment or come to study.  In recent years, Taiwan has progressively worked out a series of anti-discrimination measures.  In this May, the purpose of residence on Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) for migrant workers was changed from “foreign labor” to “migrant worker”.  The move was to encourage the general public to use friendlier language toward migrant workers.  In addition, Taiwan is to work more closely with the migrants’ country of origin to render a safer workplace and make the migrants’ home country feel at ease.

As noted by the Ministry of the interior, in response to the advices of the 2019 TIP Report and in conjunction with the United Nations' International Day of Anti-Human Trafficking on July 30, the two-day international workshop was held to discuss subjects including four major topics “The Global Trend of Human Trafficking Prevention”, “Corporate Social Responsibility and the Fishery Exploitation”, “Regional Joint-Prevention of Human Trafficking” and “Anti-Human-Trafficking Case Studies”. The domestic and foreign experts and scholars were invited to serve as moderators and speakers in the discussion sessions.

Honorable guests in the first day of the event included Vice President Chen, Chien-jen, Minister without Portfolio Lo, Ping-cheng, Minister of the Interior Hsu, Kuo-yung, Acting Director of American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Raymond Greene, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis Aloysius John, and Former Ambassador of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi. More than 250 experts and scholars from almost 40 countries attended the convention.  Also among the attendees are members of Caritas Internationalis from over 20 countries, making Taiwan an important field to discuss the human trafficking issue internationally.

The Ministry of the Interior emphasized that partnership is crucial for the strategies of human trafficking prevention. The event of this year invited two special guests, Mr. Kim Jong Chul, a lawyer of the Public Interest Law Promotion Organization in South Korea and also one of the 2018 TIP Report Heroes, and Ms. Hanh Dang, Trafficking in Persons Specialists of AACT, Vietnam, signaling Taiwan’s intent to improve its regional prevention strategies, continue to strengthen cooperation with international partners, and implement protection of human rights.