HOME FOR VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Bernama) -- The women, family and community development ministry plans to build several shelter homes nationwide, under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), to provide refuge for women and children who are victims of trafficking.

Deputy minister Noriah Kasnon said, for the time being, the ministry had set
up temporary shelter homes here and in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the state
of Sabah, for this purpose.

She said that the Women's Shelter Home in Kuala Lumpur had housed 94 women,
mostly from Asean countries, since it began operations on March 3, last year.

"The ministry is also in talks to identify a suitable location in the
southern state of Johor," she said in a speech at the opening of the 2009
International Women's Day Celebration here Sunday.

The text was read by Women Development Department director-general Dr
Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur at a ceremony attended by about 500 people from
non-governmental organisations, private and corporate sectors, among others.

This year's Women's Day Celebration is themed 'Women & Men United to
End Violence Against Women and Girls'.

Noriah said the trafficking of women and children was rapidly becoming a
form of violence towards the group, adding that the ministry also called on all
parties to work together to overcome this issue.
-- BERNAMA