Yesterday the Ministerial Taskforce on Trafficking in Persons, supporting agencies, and the Organisation for American States (OAS) held a roundtable discussion on issues related to Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling.
This initiative is being supported through a project titled “Supporting OAS Member States efforts to prevent, investigate, and counter criminal activity linked to the exploitation of Venezuelan refugees and migrants”. It was held at the Ministry’s Head Office, a release from the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
The project, which unites five OAS areas, aims to bolster the abilities of seven OAS Member States (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago) to prevent and investigate human trafficking and migrant smuggling linked to the exploitation of Venezuelan refugees and migrants and to increase understanding of the security risks they face, especially for women and girls.
Additionally, the project aims to improve border control in the recipient nations to better detect unauthorised trade in both commodities and persons and to encourage social integration of both victims and survivors.
The objectives of the discussion are to: strengthen the capacity of participating Member States to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling; prevent and investigate organised crime linked to the exploitation of Venezuelan refugees and migrants; increase awareness by security, migration, and local authorities on the risks, vulnerabilities, and rights of migrants, refugees, and victims of human trafficking; and increase participant capacities in applying updated SOPs to detect irregular migration in the cargo stream, considering human rights and the needs of female and gender-diverse persons.
