"Asia's biggest budget airline trains crew to spot human traffickers", 18 August 2017

AirAsia, the biggest budget carrier in Asia, is training...its staff to fight human trafficking, becoming one of the first airlines in the continent to crack down on the global crime.

Planes are a key part of the illegal business, as criminal gangs transport thousands of children and vulnerable people by air each year for redeployment as sex workers, domestic helpers or in forced labour.

...AirAsia...said it was planning to train between 5,000 and 10,000 frontline staff, including cabin crew.

“We like to be able to have our staff know what to do if somebody comes up to them and says ‘I need help’,” said Yap Mun Ching, the executive director of AirAsia Foundation, the airline’s philanthropic arm...

AirAsia has teamed up with US-based Airline Ambassadors International, a group that trains airline staff on trafficking...

The group said signs of trafficking include young women or children who appeared to be under the control of others, show indications of mistreatment or who seem frightened, ashamed or nervous.

Asia has some of the worst offenders of human trafficking. Countries such as Thailand, Myanmar and Laos are listed by the United States on a trafficking watch list for not meeting the minimum standards needed to end the crime.