OSCE Mission conducts anti-trafficking training in Kosovo

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo has launched a series of ten regional training sessions on standard operating procedures for dealing with victims of trafficking.

In the first two-day training session that began on 8 September in Ferizaj/Uroševac police and civil society representatives, labour, trade and sanitary inspectors, social workers and lawyers strengthened their skills in identifying, referring and assisting victims of human trafficking.

“Standard operating procedures provide a unified compilation of guidelines for dealing with local and foreign victims of trafficking,” said Natalia Voronova, the Acting Chief of the OSCE Mission’s Anti-Trafficking Section. “Although the document was adopted in 2008, many stakeholders and service providers have not been trained on how to implement it.”

The training course in Ferizaj/Uroševac is part of a larger OSCE effort to reach out Kosovo-wide to those involved in the fight against human trafficking. Some 300 of them will attend the courses, which run until the end of December 2011.

Kosovo is an area of transit, destination and origin of victims of trafficking. The OSCE Mission in Kosovo under its mandate supports local institutions in combating organized crime and helps to prevent gross violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms.