Trafficking in Persons

The cross-border peace and security landscape in Asia and the Pacific has evolved dramatically in recent years. Trafficking in persons and other transborder crimes are increasingly becoming critical security concerns for women in the region.

South-East Asia is witnessing a rapid transformation in human trafficking dynamics as criminal operations increasingly shift online. The nature of conflict and its drivers has shifted. The gender dimensions of non-traditional security risks, including trafficking in persons and cyber security, pose new challenges that require innovative responses and solutions.

These emerging security issues in South-East Asia have significant adverse impacts on women’s rights, stability and security across the region. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by human trafficking. The issue of trafficking in persons does not stand alone, but intersects with other forms of transnational organized crime.

UN Women’s Approach

The engagement and empowerment of women can have a powerful effect in dismantling cross-border peace and security challenges, including trafficking in persons. Survivors of trafficking require protection, assistance and support, access to remedies, and safe return/re-integration into their communities with dignity and respect. Law enforcement agencies must be also prepared and able to adequately provide survivors with support and to work in border communities to mitigate and prevent the surge in trafficking in women and other cyber-enabled harms in at-risk communities.

UN Women’s approach is to leverage the Women, Peace and Security agenda to tackle such issues by identifying gaps, women’s specific security and protection needs, and advocating for inclusion.

Download At a Glance: Women, Peace and Security – Addressing Cross-border Challenges

Japan-UN Women partnership

The rise of trafficking in women for forced criminality associated with online scam centres in the region since 2023 has brought new challenges to the fore, threatening women's security and rights in the digital age.

In response to an alarming rise in trafficking in women for forced criminality along the Thailand-Myanmar border, UN Women, in partnership with the Government of Japan, is implementing a project to provide immediate support to survivors and mitigate and prevent the surge in trafficking in women and other cyber-enabled harms in this border area.

The project is using a Women, Peace and Security lens to catalyze gender-inclusive responses with the aim of enhancing peace, stability and security along the Thailand-Myanmar border. To achieve the project objectives, UN Women is cooperating with governments, women’s rights and civil society organizations, the UN family and other stakeholders.

The project is contributing to efforts under the Regional Framework Towards Peaceful, Inclusive Societies, a UN Women regional initiative that is advancing the WPS agenda and inclusive governance in Asia and the Pacific. For more project information, please contact: [ Click to reveal ]