A campaign to prevent trafficking in girls and young women for labor exploitation has been launched by the Chinese government and the International Labor Organization.

Girls and young women are the most vulnerable groups among migrant workers, often ending up doing various forms of forced labor or in prostitution.

Scheduled to last four years, the campaign will concentrate on five provinces. Anhui, Hunan and Henan are categorized as sources of trafficked girls and young women, who are then sent to Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces.

Shenzhen is one of four cities in Guangdong involved in the campaign.

A steering committee was set up in Shenzhen last Wednesday to guide a multidimensional partnership of local governments and organizations, including the women's federation and the bureaus of education, public security, labor, culture, civil affairs, population and family planning and justice.

The committee is now investigating female migrant workers in Shenzhen, who make up 53 percent of migrants in the city. Many of them live in the selected trial districts of Bao'an and Longgang. Three communities will be selected in the two districts for detailed work this year.

The project is being financed by the British Department for International Development with US$2.3 million and the central government with 2.2 million yuan (US$266,000). Shenzhen will spend 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) each year on the project.

(Shenzhen Daily March 22, 2005)