A three-day training course organized by
IOM and the Austrian Ministry of Interior within the framework of
Austria's EU presidency, is beginning today in Vienna for law
enforcement authorities dealing with child trafficking.

The training, which is part of a programme
that also involves the production of a resource book on good
practices in combating child trafficking, will be followed on 17
March by a high level conference on fighting human trafficking with
a particular focus on prevention, protection and prosecution.

The programme is supported by the 2005 AGIS
Programme, an is co-funded by the Austrian Ministry of Interior,
with additional financial support provided by the Swedish Ministry
for Foreign Affairs. The project was implemented in partnership
with Europol, the Belgian Federal Police and the OSCE.

The training course will gather 110 law
enforcement officers from 39 countries – covering the EU,
candidate and third countries. Based on the resource book on good
practices, the training seminar will especially focus on
interviewing techniques and investigative methods after initial
presentations on cooperation between law enforcement authorities,
NGOs and social services and age assessment and identification of
minors.

Contributors to the resource book will also
present their specific areas of expertise to the group. The
resource book is available online on the IOM Vienna webpage class="paragraph-link-underlined" href="http://www.iomvienna.at"
target="_blank" title="">www.iomvienna.at. The final
recommendations and report on the project will be also posted on class="paragraph-link-underlined" href="http://www.iomvienna.at"
target="_blank" title="">www.iomvienna.at.

Hosted by the OSCE, the high level conference
at the end of the training on 17 March, will feature keynote
speeches from Karel De Gucht, Belgian Foreign Minister; OSCE
Chairman in Office; Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, OSCE Secretary
General; Liese Prokop, Austrian Federal Minister of the Interior;
Maria Rauch-Kallat, Austrian Federal Minister of Health and Women's
Affairs; Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner for External
Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy; Ndioro Ndiaye, IOM
Deputy Director General; Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director
UNODC; and Helga Konrad, OSCE Special Representative on Combating
Trafficking in Human Beings.

During this conference, the results and
recommendations of the programme will be presented to a wider
audience and their implementation promoted by the Austrian Federal
Ministry of the Interior.

For further information, please contact:

Andreas Halbach

IOM Vienna

Tel: +431585 33 22

Email: "mailto:ahalbach@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">ahalbach@iom.int