Lao PDR

TheSituation
Lao PDR is primarily a source but also a transit and destination country for human
trafficking. Many Lao victims are recruited by local persons who have cross-border
experience but not connected to any organized crime syndicates.
Source
Lao men, women, and children are trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation in Thailand.
Many of the trafficking victims were from the lowlands. Men are trafficked for forced labor
in factories and the fishing industries.
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A small number of Lao women are trafficked for
forced marriages with Chinese men. While there are no reliable estimates on the number of
Lao who are trafficked, the Thai authorities estimate that at least 180,000 undocumented Lao
worked in Thailand.
3
World Vision Laos reported that 44 percent of parents do not know
where their children are. Of children who returned home, half reported their experience was
terrible, and 40 percent reported being locked up, and 13% report they were raped.
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Transit
Laos is a transit country for victims trafficked from Burma and Vietnam to Thailand.
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Destination
Laos is a destination country for women who are trafficked from Vietnam and the People's
Republic of China for sexual exploitation.
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In Lao PDR commercial sexual exploitation
usually takes place in nightclubs or small beer-shops.
7

InternalTrafficking
Laos has internal trafficking of women and girls from rural to urban areas for sexual
exploitation.
8
Internal trafficking of minority women and girls has increased in the northern
part of Laos.
9

Causes
There are many causes of human trafficking in Laos. Many argue that the economic
differences in the Sub-Mekong region encourage people to migrate to relatively wealthier
neighboring countries like Thailand.
10
An ILO supported study by the Lao Government
found that nearly 7 percent of households in three border provinces had family members
working in Thailand. With more than half of the population under the age of 20, young Lao
migrate to fill unskilled jobs and become vulnerable to trafficking.
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World Vision argues
that the rural to urban migration increases the urban poor and population at risk of
trafficking.
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The Lao Government
The Lao Government was placed in Tier 2 in the 2007 U.S. Department of States Trafficking
in Persons Report for not fully complying with the Trafficking Victims Protection Acts
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but making significant efforts to do so.
There are reports of local government officials who are complicit in trafficking.
13

The 2004 Law on Women, the Law on the Protection of Children, and other provisions of the
Lao criminal code criminalizes most forms of trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation.
Penalties are commensurate with those for rape. In late 2006, the Lao government drafted the
National Plan of Action to Combat Human Trafficking.
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Prosecution
In 2006, the Lao Government reported 27 trafficking investigations, 15 arrests, and 12
prosecutions, and three convictions with sentences averaging six years in prison. There have
been no reported prosecutions of government officials complicit in trafficking.
15

Protection
The Lao Government has two small transit centers for returning victims and collaborates with
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the victims return and reintegration.
The Lao Womens Union and also runs a shelter which provides legal, medical, and
counseling services; they assisted 17 trafficking victims in 2006. The Lao government does
not adequately identify all its trafficking victims. Some trafficking victims have been
incarcerated in immigration detention facilities. In 2006, the Ministry of Labor and Social
Welfare (MLSW) assisted 259 trafficking victims.
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Prevention
The Lao government has an array of prevention efforts through print, radio, and media
television. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW), with funding from NGOs,
produced a drama program and billboards on trafficking in Lao, Hmong, and Khu languages.
The Law Womens Union also raised awareness of trafficking among government officials
and women and girls in several provinces.
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InternationalCooperation
The Lao Government has many regional agreements for anti-trafficking, including the
1. Regional Commitment and Action Plan of the East Asia and Pacific Region against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Asia Pacific Consultation, Manila
Process, Bali Ministerial Meetings on Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, and the
Bangkok Declaration on Irregular Migration, Memorandum of Understanding on
Labor Migration with Thailand.
18
In August 2006, the Government hosted a meeting
of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking and also held its
first national workshop on anti-trafficking.
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Recommendations
The U.S. Department of State recommends that the Lao government should pass and enact
comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, eliminate the practice of fining returning
trafficking victims, increase efforts to combat internal trafficking, and make greater efforts to
prosecute and convict public officials who profit from or are involved in trafficking.
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Prevention
Domestic
Governmental
The Government of Laos utilizes government-controlled party organizations to alert Lao
citizens to the dangers of potential trafficking abuses.
1

Most anti-trafficking projects are carried out by international organizations and NGOs, and
include consciousness-raising and skills development for at-risk groups. The government
cooperates with UN agencies, specifically the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human
Trafficking (UNIAP) to monitor, document and suggest remedies for trafficking-related
problems, and has provided salaried employees to work on IOM and ILO Projects to gather
data on prevention and protection statistics.
2

UNIAP had supported radio shows about the dangers of trafficking in minority languages.
The Main response of the MLSW concerning migration has been its leading role within the
UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.
The component of this initiative called the National Project on Trafficking, involves a
National Steering Committee NSC) chaired by the Needy Children Assistance Section of the
Department of Social Welfare (DSW).
Prosecution
Domestic
Governmental
There is no specific anti-trafficking law in Laos , but there are laws against kidnapping and
prostitution. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare addresses trafficking in Laos. The
ministry has provided some limited training to law enforcement officials.
3

An inter-ministerial committee is drafting an anti-TIP law, which it plans to present to the
National Assembly in September 2004. Law enforcement is decentralized and the central
government does not keep data on efforts of local officials to prosecute traffickers. The
government does not normally make public information on trials or their results, but three
prosecutions were reported in 2003, two of which resulted in convictions with sentences of
one to three years imprisonment.
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Protection
Domestic
Governmental
The Government of Laos signed a border control and labor memorandum with Thailand that
addresses the repatriation of Lao trafficking victims, which is the first of its kind in the
Mekong sub-region.
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The Asia Foundation is assisting the Lao Women's Union in a project to reconcile domestic
laws with the Convention on the rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the
Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Programs raise the
awareness of government officials on the nature and scope of the problem. This sets the stage
for using the country's ongoing legal reform process to establish a legal framework to protect
victims of trafficking and prosecute traffickers.
The Asia Foundation has also supported the first-ever counseling services for victims of
trafficking and violence in Laos . In the first five months, more than 80 women received
counseling. The Foundation also continues to support the Lao Youth Union to videotape and
broadcast their street drama series in four provinces with high rates of migration. The videos
educate the general public and youth in particular on safe migration and prevention of human
trafficking.
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