The United States State Department will review information in a report on human trafficking after widespread criticism over claims New Zealand had "a large problem", the US Embassy said today.
If mistakes have been made in the report, they would be corrected, an embassy spokesman told NZPA today.
Counsellor for Public Affairs Bill Millman admitted there had been widespread criticism of the annual Trafficking in Persons report including statistics of children being trafficked for sex within New Zealand.
It was the first time New Zealand had been listed in the report.
The report used research statistics from the New Zealand non-governmental organisation End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, Child Sex Tourism and Trafficking in Children (Ecpat).
The 2001 research found 195 children were selling sex in New Zealand with 145 of those under 16.
"They may be inaccurate but we don't know yet. We are aware concerns have been expressed and we will do a review of the sources of information made available to us," Mr Millman said.
"If we have made mistakes, we will correct them. The US Embassy here is working with the Department of State to look into these concerns.
"Any person, including a child, who by definition is subject to coercion for the purposes of prostitution, is being trafficked, and information on child prostitution was made available from New Zealand for the report," Mr Millman said.
"Trafficked, for the purposes of that report, can mean coercion internally, from inside the country, it doesn't necessarily mean people are being moved from country to country."
- NZPA
US to review disputed claims of human trafficking in NZ
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.