News

As a Secretariat of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators in South-East Europe (NATC SEE), ICMPD supports the Slovenian chairmanship of the Network to mark the EU Anti-trafficking day. The Network issued a Joint Statement addressing the vulnerability of the millions affected by the war in Ukraine to exploitation, abuse and human trafficking.

Between the 5^th and 7^th of September 2022, under the scope of the KOMPLEKS project, ICMPD organized a study visit for representatives of Polish local authorities and project partners to Norway.

ICMPD and international organisations call on states to harness the opportunities presented by technology to counter trafficking in persons. On the occasion of 30 July, the International Day against Trafficking in Persons, a joint statement was published by the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT), that ICMPD is co-chairing this year.

The Anti-Trafficking Programme (ATP) of ICMPD held the final event of the regional project “Developing Approaches for Enhancing the Functionality of the National Referral Mechanisms in the MARRI Participants”. The team presented three practical guidelines developed in the framework of the project.

On 2 June 2022, in Budva, Montenegro, the Network of the Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of South-Eastern Europe met for their annual meeting. The rationale of the meeting was a discussion of the effects of the Ukrainian crisis on the trafficking in human beings in the region based on the network countries’ experience in the past months.

On 17 March 2022, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Moldova Ana Revenco met with ICMPD and its Member States. They discussed the challenges and needs related to the current unprecedented influx to the Republic of Moldova of Ukrainians and third country nationals from Ukraine in reaction to the Russian invasion.

The Ministry of Justice of Cabo Verde held an extended meeting of the National Anti-Trafficking Observatory to discuss future actions. They want to enhance the institutional coordination mechanism in order to prevent and combat trafficking in persons as well as the national policy response.

ICMPD has a long-standing cooperation with Ukraine dating back to 1995. Numerous joint projects were implemented, cooperation is ongoing on multilateral and bilateral levels and in 2021 the ICMPD Kyiv Office was established. ICMPD is thus closely monitoring the developments in Ukraine. Due to the security situation, the ICMPD office has been temporarily closed. The project teams continue their work from other duty stations whenever possible. Below, we are gathering our policy, research, and capacity-building activities to reflect ICMPD's ongoing engagement in Ukraine.

From 1-3 February, the ECOWAS Commission held the 14th Annual Review Meeting of the Regional Network of National Focal Institutions against Trafficking in Persons Plus (RNNI-TIP+) in Niamey, Niger. Building upon the existing successful cooperation, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) supported the organisation of the meeting in the framework of the project “Organised Crime West Africa Response to Trafficking (OCWAR-T), funded by the European Union and the German government. Furthermore, the ICMPD-implemented a project on strengthening the cooperation between Niger and Nigeria, funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, complemented these joint efforts.

On 15 November 2021, the Third ICAT Principal Level Meeting took place. The meeting assessed the implementation of the group’s Plan of Action, adopted a joint statement related to the upcoming UN General Assembly’s High-Level meeting and endorsed ICMPD and UNODC as co-chairs of ICAT in 2022.

The Strengthening Border Security in Ghana (SBS Ghana) project, funded by European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), organised a reception in Accra for three beneficiary organisations who received a three hundred thousand Euros grants, to implement activities that will support and contribute to innovative approaches on mobility issues and border management in Ghana.

Before the entry into force of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons specially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Protocol), most countries did not comprehensively criminalize trafficking, which left victims unidentified and offenders unpunished – human trafficking was occurring with impunity. Even though countries have today introduced anti-trafficking legislation, impunity remains widespread.

On 16 September 2021, the ICMPD Anti-Trafficking Programme launched the regional project “Developing Approaches for Enhancing the Functionality of the National Referral Mechanisms (NRMs) in the MARRI Participants”. The project implementation plan and timeline were presented and discussed during the kick-off online meeting together with the implementation partners from Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI) and German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), who is the project donor.

From 14-16 September Members of the Ukrainian Parliament, EU officials as well as experts from several EU-funded projects visited a number of border crossing points on the common border between Ukraine and EU Member States. Its aim was to get acquainted with the available infrastructure and equipment, hear and discuss the needs and ways forward in addressing the current problems and challenges. This field visit was supported by the EU Advisory Mission and the EU4IBM project implemented by ICMPD.