Law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors and other officials
from the province of Formosa and from Paraguay are meeting this
week to discuss increased cooperation to combat human trafficking,
improve criminal research and the prosecution of traffickers in the
shared border region.

According to the 2006 IOM exploratory study on human trafficking
in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, law enforcement officials and
members of the political and judicial powers in some ways may
facilitate the work of human traffickers because of lack of
information and minimal cooperation on adequate responses to human
trafficking, or, in some cases, by providing a sort of "protection"
to the traffickers, guaranteeing total impunity for their
actions.

The two-day meeting of more than 80 officials is focusing on
raising awareness, information sharing and training for increased
cooperation between the two countries.

Although the 2006 study did not focus on the province of
Formosa, it did confirm that human trafficking takes places in all
areas of the country. The majority of the cases are victims who
have been trafficked inside the country, although the study found
cases of Paraguayan women trafficked into Argentina for sexual
exploitation. In fact, 45 per cent of the victims assisted by IOM
since 2003 have been Paraguayans.

The two-day event, hosted by IOM and the Government of
Argentina, is part of IOM’s capacity-building programme that
provides training to law enforcement officers, government
officials, NGOs and other stakeholders on victim identification,
protection and assistance and prosecuting the traffickers.

For more information, please contact:

Sabrina Roth

IOM Buenos Aires

Tel. + 5481. 4815.5194/5

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