MTV's counter-trafficking campaign End Exploitation and Trafficking
(EXIT) partnered with IOM to bring its message to 15,000 rock fans
in Dili this weekend at a concert sponsored by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).

Featuring Indonesian rock band Superman is Dead and Timorese
artists including 5 de Oriente and Ego Lemos, the event was hosted
by MTV EXIT's Timor-Leste Campaign Ambassador Anito Matos and IOM's
National Counter-Trafficking Project Officer Maria
Mendonça.

The concert kicked off an MTV EXIT campaign to raise awareness
of human trafficking and will be followed by TV and radio spots,
leafleting and a second concert planned for Baucau, Timor-Leste's
second largest city, in October.

IOM is supporting the campaign with technical advice on human
trafficking in Timor-Leste, guidance on developing effective
messages, and helping MTV EXIT to link up with other
counter-trafficking stakeholders in the country. At the Dili
concert IOM staff were on hand to distribute anti-trafficking
information materials.

Timor-Leste has been identified as a destination country for
victims of trafficking and as a potential source country. Victims
have been trafficked to Timor-Leste from Myanmar, Cambodia,
Thailand, Indonesia and China.

Some were subjected to forced labour aboard fishing vessels,
while others were coerced into prostitution. Rescued victims have
reported overwork, physical and sexual abuse, and non-payment or
under-payment for their work.

There is also evidence that trafficking takes place inside the
country with women and children trafficked from the countryside to
the towns for forced labour or sexual exploitation.

IOM has been working to combat human trafficking in Timor-Leste
since 2007 with the support of the US State Department's Office to
Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking and the Millennium Development
Goals Achievement Fund.

For more information, please contact:

Katharine Bryant

IOM Dili

Tel. +670 7230254

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

or

Heather Komenda

Tel. +670 723 0810

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