More than 80 women and children who were victims of Burma's recent cyclone have been rescued from human traffickers planning to smuggle them to neighboring countries, a local media report said Thursday.

Local and foreign aid officials fear that trafficking could increase in the wake of the cyclone, which hit Burma, also known as Myanmar, in early May.

Screaming winds and tidal surges killed more than 84,500 people and left almost 54,000 missing, according to the government.

Burmese border police caught the traffickers, who had taken victims of Cyclone Nargis from the Irrawaddy Delta to border areas, between June 11 and 14, the well regarded, privately owned magazine Eleven reported.

Police Lt. Col. Rahlyan Mone, from the force's human trafficking division, told the Rangoon-based journal that victims facing hardship are being enticed with job offers abroad by traffickers disguised as aid workers.

Police and other authorities who deal with human trafficking could not immediately be reached for comment.

Cross-border trafficking, especially to Thailand, has grown in recent years as people in one of the world's poorest nations seek opportunities elsewhere but are often tricked or coerced into prostitution or sweatshops.

The ruling junta has warned against exploitation of cyclone victims and urged the public to report any evidence of human trafficking.

Burma introduced an anti-human-trafficking law in September 2005 that imposes a maximum penalty of death.

With files from the Associated Press