OSCE supports international roundtable on combating human trafficking and illegal migration

Strengthening co-operation in addressing trafficking in human beings was the focus of the international roundtable which concluded on 27 September 2019 in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

The two-day event was jointly organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy in Nur-Sultan.

Some 40 officials from law enforcement, border control, migration control, prosecutorial offices and NGOs from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan attended. Participants discussed effective measures to tackle modern-day slavery, problems concerning inter-agency response, the ways to promote co-operation, as well as the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons report. Experts from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Latvia and Moldova also presented the best practices of their countries on ways of counteracting organized crime on human trafficking in their respective countries. 

The event was part of the OSCE Programme Office’s long-standing efforts to support the host country in combating human trafficking and in implementing the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings.