According to the United Nations, domestic trafficking is going undetected in Laos due to lax law enforcement, stalled anti-trafficking measures, and confusion regarding how to define trafficking. The coordinator from Laos for the UN Inter-agency Project for Human Trafficking stated that reported cases do not represent the true number of individuals being trafficked, as many victims are unaware that they have been trafficked.
Despite the internationally-adopted UN definition of trafficking, the line between domestic migration and trafficking is muddled in Laos. Many survivors of domestic trafficking voluntarily move from one area to another in search of work, which then becomes a trap for sexual exploitation.
The government in Laos has not yet endorsed a National Action Plan to fight trafficking, and is further limited by lack of funding and human resources for enforcement of national guidelines.
Compiled from: Laos: Domestic Trafficking Goes Undetected, Interagency Gender Working Group, (7 October 2010).