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Ricky Martin Battles Human Trafficking
11/29/2005 7:49 AM, AP
Singer Ricky Martin is teaming up with a U.N.-affiliated migration organization to fight the illegal trafficking of people in Colombia.
Martin, from Puerto Rico, will support a campaign in Colombia against human trafficking by appearing in television commercials and through his nonprofit charity, the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.
"More than half of trafficking victims worldwide are children, forced into pornography, prostitution and labor servitude," Martin said in a statement. "Human trafficking is an unscrupulous market that generates around $10 billion dollars annually."
The commercials will be aired starting next year and will focus on the dangers trafficking poses to Colombian children such as sexual exploitation, the Geneva-based IOM said.
They will also publicize a new telephone hot line that provides free assistance and information concerning trafficking in the country.
Martin, who was recently in Colombia as part of a global concert tour, is also a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Children's Fund.
With UNICEF, he has tried to draw attention to sex tourists who travel to foreign countries to exploit children drawn into prostitution. He also visited Thailand in the aftermath of last December's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami to help orphans and families who lost relatives.
The singer — whose hits include "She Bangs," "Shake Your Bon-Bon" and "Livin' La Vida Loca" — started the Ricky Martin Foundation about 10 years ago to help children in need. Its People for Children project has been active in anti-trafficking programs.
IOM was established in 1951 to resettle Europeans migrants or refugees and is active around the world in helping people who are displaced. It also assists governments in migration issues.
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