South Korea - Korea has hosted a major International Symposium on the Prevention of Sex Trafficking. Participants included Korean government officials, international agencies and NGOs.

The annual event, co-hosted by IOM Seoul and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, aimed to shed light on the local private-public partnership model for the eradication of sex trafficking. Speakers included experts from Canada, the US, India and Korea.

The symposium was organized by Women’s Human Rights Commission of Korea and attracted more than 300 participants, most of whom represented NGOs working with victims of sex trafficking. IOM Director General William Lacy Swing sent a video message of support.

This year's symposium followed the selection of a Korean activist, Ko Myeongjin, as a “hero” of the US State Department’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Ms. Myeongjin, director of the Seoul-based Dasihamkke Centre, established a special counselling centre for juvenile victims of sex trafficking, which has assisted more than 10,000 girls over the past decade.

“Even though Korea has been rated as (TIP) Tier One country since 2002, there are NGO concerns that the government needs to put more effort into improving prevention, protection and prosecution measures in the country,” said IOM Seoul Head of Office Mihyung Park.

“That is why it is important to have an international symposium to share best practices from different countries, in areas such as investigation, prosecution and victim identification,” she added.

For more information, please contact

Eunjin Jeong
IOM Seoul
Tel. +82 070 4820 2324
Email: ejeong@iom.int