It takes an emphatic and continuous cooperation among Greater MekongSubregional (GMS) nations to tackle the problem of human trafficking,Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng has declared.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the GMS Ministerial Meeting onApril 30 in Phnom Penh, the Deputy PM, who is also Cambodia’s Ministerof Internal Affairs, made it clear that human trafficking is a bigburden affecting all the region’s nations and governments.

He stressed the need for a commitment, jointly made by stakeholders,to act against human trafficking. The ministerial event presents theperfect opportunity for involved nations to work together and crackdownon the problem, he added.

One of the event’sobjectives is to approve the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiativeagainst Trafficking (COMMIT) for the 2015-2018 period.

The third COMMIT communiqué is also expected to be signed during theevent, authorising the use of wider approaches and resources toeliminate human trafficking in the region.

According to a survey conducted by the International Labour Organisation(ILO), some 20.9 million people across the world have suffered fromforced labour, with nearly 20 percent of them being children. A majorityof them are from the GMS.

The GMS cooperationprogramme consists of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar andChina’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.-VNA