LAHORE: The Bonded Labour Liberation Front has launched an advocacy campaign to raise awareness about trafficking in persons and demand the government to take effective measures to prevent it.

The campaign was launched through a rally outside the press club here on Wednesday marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. It was attended by BLLF General Secretary Syeda Ghulam Fatima, Mazdoor Kisan Party General Secretary Taimoor Rehman, Farhat Parveen, Gulzar Nasir of All Pakistan Trade Union Federation and others.

Fatima said the government is taking measures against international trafficking in which people from one country are illegally sent to another under the guise of better employment opportunities, butis inactive on internal trafficking, in which the trade of cheap labouris common practice from one city, district and province to another.

She added that young girls and women are taken out of villages by blackmailing and promising them greener pastures and then supplied to posh areas in urban centres.

Rehman said that trafficking in persons is a serious crime and its perpetrators should be punished strictly.

The participants demanded a research to revealrooteauses oftrafficking, its impact on society and also identify gaps in the implementation of the law, creating a mechanism for the protection of victims of trafficking, initiating social protection schemes especially for women as rising unemployment is a major cause of trafficking in persons, and blacklisting agents who buy and sell labourers and discourage others by taking action against them.