IOM is sponsoring, with support from Telefónica del Peru, a
photo exhibit on child labour by award-winning Spanish photographer
Fernando Moleres.

The exhibit "Children at Work" contains 18 hard-hitting
photographs showing the exploitative conditions that children are
subjected to in many parts of the world.  It opens on Monday
28 April in the Peruvian capital Lima and is part of IOM's counter
trafficking information campaign.  

For the past six year, Moleres travelled to more than 30
countries compiling his work on child labour and
exploitation.  He received the World Press award in 1998 and
2003.

Peru is a country of origin, transit and destination for human
trafficking with a predominance of internal trafficking of women
for sexual exploitation.  Children and men are trafficked to
work in the mining and timber industries and agriculture. 
There are also high rates of human trafficking for domestic
labour.  At the international level, there have been cases of
Peruvian women taken to Argentina, Japan, Spain and other countries
for sexual exploitation.

The Peruvian government approved the country's human trafficking
law in January 2007.  The law puts special emphasis on the
protection of children and calls for a 25-year sentence for those
found guilty of child trafficking.

Following a request from the Peruvian government, IOM drafted
the National Plan of Action on Human Trafficking (2007-2013). 
The Plan, which has 10 objectives divided into 27 goals to be
achieved through 60 activities, includes an implementation and
monitoring matrix with tools that make it possible to convert the
document into an effective public policy.  Some of the
objectives that must be reached by 2013 include increased
awareness, capacity building for law enforcement officials,
systematization of data and the provision of shelters for the
victims. 

An information and assistance hotline, which became operational
in March 2006, has received more than 10,000 calls and has referred
70 allegations to the police for investigation.  At the same
time IOM continues to build the capacity of civil servants and law
enforcement officials in dealing with the crime.

For more information, please contact:

Juan Pablo Casapia

IOM Lima

Tel: +51.1.221.7209

E-mail: "mailto:jcasapia@iom.int">jcasapia@iom.int