The International Labor Organization (ILO) launched a series of new projects on Saturday to combat trafficking in children and women in the Mekong Sub-Region in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The projects are the second stage of a program initiated by the ILO to fight human trafficking in the region which covers Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Eight counties of Yunnan have been listed for implementing the projects.

The ILO has raised 10 million US dollars to finance the five-year projects, which will also be supported financially and technically by governments of various levels in Yunnan.

Trafficking in children and women have run rampant in the Mekong sub-region, and the number of people being abducted and sold has reached alarming high, said Zhou Xiao, an official with the All-China Women's Federation, adding the projects would focus on combating abduction under the guise of labor movement.

Measures had to be taken to ensure that migrant workers were not cheated and exploited. Therefore, the projects would be implemented with the joint efforts of migrant workers and their employers, she said.

The first stage of the program, which started in June 2000 and covered two counties of Yunnan, ended successfully in April this year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2003)