15th October 2017 - Cairo, Egypt
In collaboration with the National Coordinating Committee on Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, UNODC organized a "Training Workshop to Strengthen the Capacity of Egyptian Prosecutors to Investigate and Prosecute Migrant Smuggling Crimes" in Cairo. The Workshop, which targeted 32 prosecutors working in the field of migrant smuggling from seven governorates in Egypt, signaled the start of a series of eight training workshops to be conducted throughout Egypt. With the overall objective of strengthening national capacity to investigate and prosecute migrant smuggling in accordance with national laws and in line with international conventions and protocols, each workshop will last for four days, reaching a total of 174 prosecutors.
The Workshop was opened by the newly appointed UNODC Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa, Cristina Albertin. Ms Albertin highlighted UNODC relevance to combating migrant smuggling, being at the core of its mandate under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols.
Commending the existing cooperation with the Egyptian Government, Ms. Albertin highlighted the mutual benefit of training national expertise stating "Our keenness [to build national capacity], is not only to serve Egypt, but also to benefit from the built expertise at the regional level".
In her statement, the Chairperson of the National Coordination Committee to Prevent and Combat Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons, Ambassador Naela Gabr, commended the long standing partnership with UNODC, stressing that more needs to be done to give visibility and due credit to Law No. 82 of 2016 on Combating Illegal Migration and Smuggling of Migrants.
The Head of the International Cooperation and Human Rights Division at the Office of the Prosecutor General, Counsellor Kamel Samir, then gave an overview of the legal framework under which prosecutors work to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate migrant smuggling. Pinpointing the transnational nature of this crime, Counsellor Kamel stated that "No country alone can counter this crime".
On her part, the Deputy Head of the UK Mission in Egypt, Ms. Helen Winterton, praised the progress made by Egypt in preventing migrant smuggling and the role UNODC plays in in providing technical assistance to Egypt in this regard.
This Workshop took place under the UK funded project "Strengthening efforts to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling in Egypt".
For more information, please contact Faisal Hegazy, Programme Officer, faisal.hegazy[AT]un.org.
Related document: Statement of the Regional Representative
