GENEVA, Switzerland, December 13, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Within the scope of its ongoing European Union-funded project “Stabilizing at-risk communities and enhancing migration management to enable smooth transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya” (START), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is currently carrying out a collaborative series of trainings with the Egyptian Government’s National Coordinating Committee for Combating Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration (NCC).
The three-day training workshop being held in Alexandria is targeting 60 judges from Alexandria, Marsa Matrouh, Tanta, Kafr Elsheikh and Damanhour, exposing these to the issues of trafficking, migrant protection and international migration law. The aim of the training is to raise the awareness of judges of various governorates of Egypt on human trafficking, with a focus, among others, on the Egypt’s Law 64 on counter trafficking.
As part of its commitment to fighting human trafficking, IOM strengthens the capacities of its government counterparts by setting operational standards to achieve sustainable results that will provide protection to victims, raise awareness and understanding of the issue and bring justice to trafficked persons.
Through an effective investigation and prosecution, the judges participating in this training can help victims regain their dignity and stop perpetuators from committing this human violation.
The workshop provided background information about trafficking, including the links to their root causes and reviewed international standards as well as the Egyptian law that defines the crime of human trafficking. In addition, participants were provided practical tools including a checklist of indicators for identifying victims.
“Trainings such as these are very important for us especially given that Law 64 is relatively new and most of us were not aware of its existence,” said Counselor Mohammed Hammad, a participant of the workshop. “It would also be very useful for us if IOM would hold such workshops in the future and include members of the Ministry of Interior as well as colleagues from the office of the Prosecutor General so that we can all discuss a more effective method of identifying victims of trafficking and ensuring that the criminals involved are properly reprimanded.”
IOM’s three-year EU-funded START program seeks to stabilize at-risk-communities throughout Libya, Egypt and Tunisia by strengthening migration management, providing timely and critical relief to irregular migrants and by building capacities of relevant government bodies to enable them to anticipate and address emerging migration challenges.
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