Baku - On 3 March 2022, IOM Azerbaijan jointly with the Social Service Agency of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population (MLSPP) organized the training session on “Introduction to counter trafficking in persons”. The training held at the Social Service Agency began with the official opening session where the participants were welcomed by Mr Vladimir Gjorgjiev, Chief of Mission for IOM Azerbaijan, Vugar Behbudov, Chairman of the Social Services Agency under MLSPP, and Michael Dickerson, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy in Azerbaijan.

In his opening remarks, Mr Gjorgjiev highlighted the importance of providing an opportunity to civil servants working with victims of trafficking in persons (TIP) to take part in training provided by experts in order to advance the quality of service delivery.

“IOM has been happy to collaborate with MLSPP to support victims of trafficking as well as promote the ethical treatment of victims among health care personnel in Baku and in the region. IOM is glad to continue this collaboration today with this training. An initiative of the Ministry that demonstrated the government commitments and efforts in increase knowledge on TIP among its staff and others’ institutions and increase collaboration with other ministries including MIA that represents the leader actor in fight light and combating TIP,” said Gjorgjiev.

Following the opening speeches, Ersilia APREDA – Project Coordinator and Anar Iskandarov from IOM Azerbaijan informed the participants about the purposes of training.

The training course covered subjects, such as Trafficking in Person phenomenon, Types, and methods of human trafficking, National Legislation in Azerbaijan on Trafficking in Persons, The Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Combatting Human Trafficking, Social Assistance to the Victims of Human Trafficking, Rehabilitation and Reintegration, The role of early identification in the fight against trafficking, Early indicators.

During the training participants, relevant officials from state bodies had the opportunity to discuss and exchange experiences, approaches, and their knowledge on TIP.

At the end of the training, certificates were distributed to participants.

Since 2015, IOM implements the Project “Counter-Trafficking (CT) in Persons Activity” funded by USAID aiming at assisting assist the Government of Azerbaijan and civil society organizations to further improve Azerbaijan´s effectiveness in preventing and combating trafficking in persons (TIP) and forced labour through raising public awareness on trafficking in human beings and providing technical and financial support to the civil society organizations operating shelters for assisting potential and actual victims of trafficking, forced labour.

The action will reach expected results through enhanced partnership and coordination across Government and non-government agencies and the private sector, while also providing financial support to civil society organizations (CSOs) for improved service provision to potential, presumed, and confirmed victims of TIP, forced labour, and Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

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