The leaders assembled in Seoul should make it a priority to explore joint action to end serious abuses that affect both regions. The leaders assembled in Seoul should make it a priority to explore joint action to end serious abuses that affect both regions. Leicht said that European and Asian leaders should look for constructive, creative solutions to issues such as trafficking of women between the two regions, forced labor and other forms of exploitation of workers, continuing attacks on democracy activists and ethnic minorities in Burma, and the harsh response of Chinese authorities to those who question the Chinese Communist Party's political monopoly. The Asian economic crisis taught us that agreements to expand trade and investment are not enough to ensure progress. You also need transparency, accountability, and the rule of law.
Asian women continue to be trafficked to Europe in large numbers.
Increasingly, women from eastern Europe are also being trafficked to Asia, with cases reported in Malaysia, Thailand, and China among other countries. Trafficking of women within Asia also demands urgent attention. Japan and Thailand in particular should be urged to take more effective action to end abuses suffered by thousands of Thai women trafficked to Japan each year and subjected to debt bondage, forced prostitution, and exploitation as illegal foreign workers. All ASEM members should agree to ratify the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Participants should call for complete disarmament of former militia members in West Timor, punishment of those responsible for the terror in East Timor last year and for criminal acts committed in West Timor, and protection and assistance such that all refugees are able to choose free from coercion whether to return to East Timor or be resettled in Indonesia.