thursday,May 18, 2006 - Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, N.A.Training on combating human trafficking
St. Maarten--Civil servants working in the judicial sector in the Netherlands Antilles will participate in a training session that will take place in St. Maarten June 13-15. The session is being organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which extended an invitation to civil servants because of their efforts to combat illegal human trafficking.
Purpose of the meeting is to stimulate regional cooperation and sharing of information. Specific strategies on setting up national information campaigns and developing national legislation on human trafficking will be discussed.
Justice Minister David Dick recently launched an information campaign in the Netherlands Antilles to prevent human trafficking. In cooperation with the Directorate of Justice Affairs and IOM he is dedicating a lot of attention to human trafficking, which has become of worldwide concern.
IOM has indicated in its studies that human trafficking also takes place in the Netherlands Antilles. The Antillean delegation was invited to the IOM regional meeting due to its efforts to combat this phenomenon.
Besides the Antillean delegation participants from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago will be present.
Also present to discuss various topics of interest will be representative of the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, non-governmental and international organisations like the Caribbean Community Caricom and Common Market, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Organisation of American States (OAS) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The training has been made possible due to the support of the US State Department’s Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration and the Dutch Ministry of Justice.
The nine Antillean participants are C. van der Neut of Women’s Desk St. Maarten, L. Hodge Sprok of St. Maarten, M. van Grieken of the Colombian Foundation in St. Maarten, M. Shoui Racami of the Directorate of Justice in Curaçao, J. Carvajal of the Cultural Integration Foundation in Curaçao, S. Coffi of Buro Slachtofferhulp in Curaçao, D. Jacobs of the Bonaire Police Force, Lt. Governor of Saba Sidney Sorton and C. Gittens-Roosberg, head of the Welfare Department in St. Eustatius.
Copyright ©2006 The Daily Herald St. Maarten
