At a two-day meeting starting today in Lima, the IOM Regional
Office in Peru is bringing together more than a dozen high-level
officials from the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and
Peru), and international experts, to discuss and find consensus on
migration issues of common concern, including border management,
human mobility, human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

The event, the first of its kind in the region, aims to advance
border management policies in the Andean Sub-region, and develop a
space for regional integration, consensus building and coordination
in the fight against human trafficking and migrant smuggling. It
was organized as part of the IOM Project Fronteras Seguras,
Población Protegida or Secure Borders and Protected
Population, funded by the Canadian Government Anti-Crime Capacity
Building Programme (ACCBP).

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Links alt="" border="0" height="12" hspace="0" src=
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Seguras, Poblacion Protegida

Participants will exchange information and discuss research
findings on border management, border control, and the fight
against human trafficking in border areas linking Peru with
Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, which were compiled as part of the
IOM project. IOM will also launch the first website,
www.fronterasseguras.com to focus on this topic in the region.

Border regions are of growing interest in Peru and in the Andean
Region. Currently, there are no border policies focusing on the
increasing migratory flows in the region.

According to Peru's National Department of Immigration and
Naturalization, in 2008 a total of 1,189,390 persons crossed Peru's
land borders. At the Desaguadero border post, the only one on
Peru's border with Bolivia, more than 500,000 entries and exits
were registered that same year.

Although Peru's land borders extend over 7,073 kilometers,
currently there are just 12 border posts. And along Colombia's
1,500 kilometre border with Peru, there is just one border post.
Fluvial travel between both countries can take up to 28 days. The
permeability of the region's borders and the lack of adequate
border management policies, leave the door wide open for organized
criminal networks specializing in human trafficking and migrant
smuggling.

Prior to today's regional meeting, a series of capacity-building
workshops were held in the border cities of Tumbes, Puno and
Iquitos, all located along Peru's borders with Ecuador, Bolivia and
Colombia. More than 117 government representatives of the four
countries, including immigration, the National Police, and the
Public Prosecutor's Office received training from IOM and other
international experts, the Andean Commission of Jurists, the
Northern Border Institute, the Open-Borders Project, the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

A final report and recommendations will be debated and approved
by the participating officials. It is expected that the meeting
will prompt the drafting of a plan against human trafficking for
the Andean Region.

For more information, please contact:

Cristina Sevillano

IOM Peru

Tel: 51 1 221 7209 ext. 136

E-mail: "mailto:csevillano@iom.int">csevillano@iom.int