Tsunami orphans in the Indonesian province of Aceh now face dangers of human-trafficking and infectious diseases, the director of the UNICEF Office for Japan said Monday.
"The situation (of children who lost parents) requires a lot of caution," Yoshiteru Uramoto, who recently visited the province, said at a news conference in Tokyo.
There have already been two suspected cases of child kidnapping in the province, Uramoto said, adding that police in Medan, a northern Sumatra city, suspect that criminal syndicates there may be involved.
To prevent children from being kidnapped and to find their family members, UNICEF and nongovernmental organizations working in the province are trying to establish 20 care centers where orphans are registered in a database, Uramoto said.
Children in the area are also threatened by such infectious diseases as measles, he said.
To prevent an outbreak and spread of measles, UNICEF has begun vaccinating children in the city of Banda Aceh and aims to provide vaccinations for all children aged 6 months to 15 years in the province and northern Sumatra, according to the UNICEF Office for Japan.