Tanzania - IOM and Tanzania’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), (through the National Anti-Trafficking Secretariat) will tomorrow launch standard operating procedures for protecting, assisting and referring trafficked children and safe family-reunification guidelines for child victims of trafficking in Tanzania.

According to the US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2015, Tanzania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking, with the exploitation of young girls in domestic servitude continuing to be Tanzania’s largest human trafficking problem.

The launch will take place tomorrow (19/10) during a two-day dissemination workshop in Dar es Salaam for police, magistrates, public prosecutors, social welfare officers, medical practitioners and NGO officials. The workshop is part of an EU-funded IOM project: “Supporting the Establishment of Protection, Assistance and Referral mechanism for child victims of trafficking in Tanzania.”

It aims to enhance coordination mechanisms within the government structures to protect, assist, and refer trafficked children. It will cover the following thematic areas: identification, reporting and referral mechanisms for child victims of trafficking; and factors to be considered and steps to be taken when conducting family reunification.

In order to further improve the efficiency of existing referral mechanism for child victims of trafficking, the meeting will also be used as a platform for relevant stakeholders to practice and familiarize themselves with the developed procedures for protecting, assisting and referring trafficked children in Tanzania.  This will ensure that, the referral mechanism no longer exists merely only on paper, but is acted upon for every identified case of child trafficking. The workshop will be facilitated by IOM and MHA.

“It is of utmost importance that we work together to ensure that mechanisms are in place to prevent people from being trafficked, assisting those who fall victims and prosecute traffickers,” said Dr. Qasim Sufi, IOM Tanzania Chief of Mission.

The project is funded by the European Union and a consortium of partners is implementing the project: IOM, National Organization for Legal Assistance, Wotesawa Young Domestic Workers Organization and Faraja Vocational Training Centre.

For further information, please contact Tusa Njwaba at IOM Dar es Salaam, Tel.: +255 22 2602913, Ext. 139, Email: tnjwaba@iom.int