Armenia takes “serious steps” to combat human trafficking – minister

Arminfo
8 Jun 06

Yerevan, 8 June: The Armenian authorities are taking serious steps to
resolve the human trafficking problem, Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan said at today’s news conference while commenting on
the USA State Department’s report on human trafficking for 2006.

He said that the work was being done in three main directions:
prevention of trafficking, protection of victims and punishment of
criminals.

In this connection, Oskanyan said that the number of criminal cases
instituted into human trafficking had increased. “I cannot say what
result this yields in the struggle against this phenomenon. But the
government is undertaking serious steps to resolve this problem,”
Oskanyan stressed.

He also informed that Yerevan intended to react to the report. “The
problem does exist and it is not a secret to anyone. The issue is very
difficult,” Oskanyan said.