Workshop on International and Regional Cooperation to address Trafficking in Persons
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) within the framework of its Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries, Sub-Programme 2, International/regional Cooperation in Legal Matters, organised a workshop on
International and Regional Cooperation to address Trafficking in Persons in partnership with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Border Management Staff College Tajikistan, with the support of the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section at UNODC headquarters in Vienna and sub-programe 2 of the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia.
The event took place on 26-27 October in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, with the participation of 30 representatives from I.R. Iran, I.R. Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and the European Union as well as representatives of civil society organizations and experts from OSCE, INTERPOL and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The workshop was attended by officials representing different governmental entities, including law enforcement departments, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Prosecutor General's Offices, Border Control Departments, and Ministries of Interior.
The event sought to introduce and discuss the basic concepts of trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, presenting the international instruments available and sharing best practices in the areas of prevention of trafficking, prosecution and apprehension of traffickers and protection of victims.
The representative of all participating states had the opportunity to present their respective legal frameworks and share the challenges they are facing at national level to tackle this problem. All participants expressed the need to strengthen cooperation at the regional and international level, considering that all the Regional Programme member countries can be impacted as source, transit or destination countries.
At the end of the event, participants requested UNODC to continue promoting regional cooperation to better address trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrant related issues along with the collection and dissemination of relevant legal and policy documents. Participants urged UNODC to organise similar workshops and training courses within this context and suggested to expand the geographical scope to include other relevant countries such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Greece.
UNODC thanked the European Union and Finland for funding the event.