A draft law establishing a new system to halt human trafficking and child sexual exploitation will be sent to the National Assembly for approval shortly, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Wednesday.
Officials attending the National Seminar on Law Enforcement Against Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Trafficking of Women and Children said the draft law will give police more power to investigate and arrest suspected traffickers and pimps.
Sar Kheng said there is not, however, a specific date set for assembly members to consider the new Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.
Also at Wednesday’s conference, officials said that they have seen increased use of the Internet in Cambodia by pedophiles—prompting a new training program for district police.
Prum Sokha, secretary of state for the Ministry of the Interior, said 1,080 police officers will be trained in collecting, preserving and reporting sexually exploitative material on computers this year.
He added that an additional 10 anti-trafficking and juvenile protection police units would be established by the end of 2006.
“We have received information about offenders and traffickers using the Internet to send pictures of victims for other pimps,” said Un Sokunthea, Director for the Ministry of Interior’s anti-trafficking department.
“We also use the Internet to receive information from other countries about the identities of offenders, traffickers and other sexual abusers,” she said.
Beatrice Magnier, director for the NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, said the NGO gathered information, primarily from street children, who told workers of being paid to visit Internet cafes with men who showed them how to log on to chat rooms and post photos of themselves.
