Alexandria, Egypt - 19 January 2021
UNODC, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the National Coordinating Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons in Egypt (NCCPIM&TIP), and the Ministry of Manpower (MoM), together with the International Labour Organization (ILO) rolled out the second workshop targeting labour inspectors in Egypt on the effective identification and referral of victims of human trafficking and other vulnerable migrants. This comes under the implementation of the Egypt Country package of the European Union (EU) funded regional project, “Dismantling Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Criminal Networks in North Africa.”
The workshop took place in Alexandria, Egypt from 25 to 27 October 2021 with the active engagement of 36 labour inspectors (24 men and12 women). The participants represented different governorates across the country, namely, Alexandria, Behaira, Beni-Suef, Damietta, Daqahleya, Fayoum, Giza, Kafr El-Sheikh, Matrouh, and Qalyoubia, which are either governorates with high rates of irregular migration and/or high prevalence of TiP.
The inspectors were engaged in the issue through group work and interactive presentations to familiarize them with the international and national legal frameworks on human trafficking and migrant smuggling as well as ILO’s core conventions. Participants were also acquainted with NCCPIM&TIP’s mandate, existing national strategies, and their respective national action plans for combating and preventing both illegal/irregular migration and trafficking in persons.
Having a crucial role in facing human trafficking, the participants worked together on
- clustering the main human trafficking indicators under each of the different exploitation forms, and
- demonstrating the importance of these indicators in the early identification of potential victims of trafficking in persons and/or victims of trafficking.
Discussions during the workshop focused on how these indicators can shed light on the vulnerable situation of employees and potential victims of trafficking as well as on strategies for the labour inspectors to assist victims through formal referral mechanisms. Participants were presented with different fictional case studies to exercise the knowledge they have gained such as on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
Furthermore, the sessions covered the different services provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to migrants in Egypt, including medical, social, and protection services in addition to the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR). This was followed by a detailed elaborative session on how the information shared by the labour inspectors could support the law enforcement authorities in investigating reported cases and refer the victims of trafficking to the relevant protection and assistance service providers.
Moving forward, UNODC, MoFA, NCCPIM&TIP, MoM, and ILO will capitalize on these capacity building workshops by building a cadre of trained trainers capable of rolling out more workshops in Egypt to ensure sustainability.
“Dismantling the criminal networks operating in North Africa and involved in migrant smuggling and human trafficking" is a three-year (2019-2022) €15 million regional joint initiative by the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) under the framework of the North Africa Window of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. The project consists of a regional intervention covering Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia to support the effective dismantling of criminal networks involved in migrant smuggling and human trafficking, while at the same time upholding the rights of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and vulnerable groups.
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