Bogotá, Colombia - 16 January 2019 - In order to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) to assist Trafficking in Persons (TIP) victims, five workshops were held across Colombia between September and November 2018. The focus of these workshops was on how to apply the new Technical Guidelines for Assistance to Child Victims of Trafficking in Persons. UNODC, under the framework of the Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants ( GLO.ACT), provided technical and financial support in the development of the guidelines.
The trainings, led by UNODC, included the participation of 125 Family Defenders (102 women and 23 men) from different regions of the country, who through evidence-based activities, were able to address the document that outlines the approach and referral of cases where children, national or foreign, are victims of human trafficking. Participants confirmed that the most useful part of the workshop was gaining the in-depth understanding of how to apply these new guidelines.
"The most useful part of the workshop was the methodology used by means of cases, in addition to the fact that before the workshop there were doubts about the issue of human trafficking, but I managed to resolve them and clarify the issue in order to differentiate it from other crimes" declared a participant at the end of the workshop.
Three more workshops are scheduled for 2019, along with a primer which will be published as a tool to disseminate the information in a more concise package. This is being done with sustainability in mind in order to replicate the lessons learned from these workshops across the country.
As a result of these workshops, there has been a sharp increase in cases detected by Family Defenders in the regions that participated and it is expected that the impact of the identification and response of referred cases will be evaluated in the coming year.
The Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT) is a four-year (2015-2019), €11 million joint initiative by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The project is being implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). GLO.ACT aims to provide assistance to governmental authorities and civil society organizations across 13 strategically selected countries: Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine. GLO.ACT works with the 13 countries to plan and implement strategic national counter-trafficking and counter smuggling efforts through a prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships approach. It supports the development of more effective responses to trafficking and smuggling, including providing assistance to victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants through the strengthening of identification, referral, and direct support mechanisms.
To read the new guidelines please click here.
For more information, please contact:
Gilberto Zuleta Ibarra
www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/glo-act/
glo.act@un.org
Twitter: @glo_act