IOM trains over 200 officials from local anti-trafficking-in-persons committees in Honduras

More than 200 people participated in the first training session on Local Response to Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Honduras. The activity is part of a collaboration between the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Inter-institutional Commission against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons of Honduras (CICESCT).    

The participants, 227 in total, are members of the local committees that the CICESCT has in the 18 departments of Honduras. Each one of them is made up of representatives of governmental and non-governmental institutions, justice operators, autonomous entities and private enterprise. The local committees carry out prevention activities, care for victims and prosecute crime in their communities. 

The training session went into greater depth on the characteristics of trafficking in persons, its signals and the methods traffickers use for recruiting victims, as well as the links between this crime and the smuggling of migrants. Participants learned about the importance of the identification and safe referral of potential victims to protective services.   

"In addition, it was discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic may impact human trafficking. IOM studies developed over the past 20 years have documented how emergencies multiply risky survival strategies and diminish support networks, while creating more favorable conditions for the operation of criminal groups," explained Melanie Gómez, national coordinator of IOM's Regional Program on Migration Mesoamerica – The Caribbean.  

Both IOM and CICESCT will continue to explore these issues in a second session on 16 July. "Thanks to this first day, we were able to consolidate and expand our knowledge and thus strengthen the capacities of the work teams that provide services, at the local and central level, to victims of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants," said Rosa Corea, Executive Secretary of the CICESCT. 

These efforts have been developed within the framework of the Regional Program on Migration Mesoamerica- The Caribbean,  funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).