The crackdown on illegal massage parlours and karaoke lounges will continue in the Yangon region, said Yangon regional minster for security and border affairs Colonel Tin Aung Tun.
The colonel’s statement came in response to a query from a regional Hluttaw representative.
“Does the government have plans to protect the young women working in all illegal massage parlours and karaoke lounges in the Yangon region? And if not, why not”? asked U Nyi Nyi, the representative from regional Hluttaw Dagon Illegal massage parlours, Karaoke lounges not yet eliminated Myothit (South) township Constituency 1 on Tuesday at the 2nd Yangon Region Hluttaw meeting.
The regional minister for security said the effort is ongoing because of the complexity of the problem.
“Regional Hluttaw have been conducting trafficking awareness training and distributing pamphlets. But I don’t know it is fully effective yet or not,” said Colonel Tin Aung Tun.
“Some of the young girls do not understand and believe the traffickers. Later on, their parents come and discuss this with us,” he added.
Statistics show that the Yangon region saw a total of four trafficking cases in the first nine months of 2016 and 130 trafficking cases across the country in 2015.
According to the regional government, 12 illegal massage parlours were shut down in Yangon from 16 March to 12 August.
The Yangon region government statistics show there are currently 307 karaoke lounges and 24 massage parlours granted permission to operate by the Yangon City Development Committee.
Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation was formed on 20th December 2003 to protect young Myanmar women.
Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar
