HRCM: Children are involved in commercial sex work in Maldives

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has said that children are involved in commercial sex work in the Maldives.

This was mentioned under the heading Human Trafficking in the commission’s Universal Periodic Review of the Maldives, April – May 2015 (22nd session), which was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) two days ago.

The report does not provide any detail, such as the number of activities or the age of the children affected, related to the involvement of children in commercial sex activities.

It further states that many children migrate to Male’ from the atolls for education, and remain vulnerable to domestic servitude and sexual harassment by host families.

It is also noted under Human Trafficking that there are countless reports of exploitation of migrant workers in the Maldives through fraudulent recruitment practices by their agents, including withholding of wages and confiscation of passports.

Other human rights issues highlighted in the report include the lack of minimum wage and unemployment benefit, the increase in unemployment, and the increase in violence and murders in the country.

HRCM said that the purpose of this review is to identify and encourage the prevention of human rights abuses in UN member countries, and improve the overall human rights position of those countries. The deadline given for the Maldives to submit this review was yesterday, 15 September.