Malé – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) facilitated Capacity Building Trainings on the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act (PHTA) and its Amendments for government actors involved in the detection, investigation, and prosecution of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) from 24 - 31 of October 2022 at Meeruma in Malé, the Republic of Maldives.

As part of its counter-trafficking programme in the Maldives, IOM provides technical support and conducts a variety of capacity building sessions to increase the number of trafficking cases detected, investigated, and prosecuted by criminal justice practitioners in the Maldives.

The training sessions that were conducted to raise awareness about the crime of TIP as a serious crime and a violation of human rights were developed through thorough review of the PHTA and intersectoral stakeholder consultations with the objective of enhancing the capability and skills of judges, legal professionals, frontline officials, and civil society actors to adequately detect trafficking cases and implement anti-trafficking legislation.

Each session featured representatives from each stakeholder group (judges, prosecutors and frontline officials), to facilitate better mutual understanding of respective processes and responsibilities, and to foster greater collaboration to more effectively prosecute human traffickers under the PHTA.

The sessions commenced with an introduction to the PHTA and its amendments, following which participants discussed the main challenges around the detection and prosecution of offences of TIP. Plenary discussions were held to facilitate exchange of experiences from stakeholders across different sectors.

These sessions were then followed by more specific discussions on digital evidence collection and usage, and the utilization of mutual legal assistance and extradition mechanisms. Case scenarios were used to allow participants to identify their partners and processes to be followed, to contribute to improved interagency communication. The training encouraged participants to build on the topics discussed and to offer valuable perspectives on collaborative work and to leverage on the synergies that exist.

Sarat Das, Chief of Mission to IOM Sri Lanka and Maldives averred IOM’s commitment to support the Maldives in the fight against TIP and iterated that “more work needs to be done to make further headway in the prosecution of traffickers through concerted government action and targeted capacity building.”

This training was financially supported by the US Department of State – Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons under the project “Combating Trafficking in Persons Maldives” implemented by IOM Maldives.

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For more information, please contact: Rohit Ayyer, Project Officer, IOM Sri Lanka and Maldives at rayyer@iom.int or Fathimath Mizy Musthafa, Project Coordinator, IOM Sri Lanka and Maldives at fmusthafa@iom.int