The IOM offices in Costa Rica and Nicaragua are joining forces with
the National Coalition Against Human Trafficking and Migrant
Smuggling of Costa Rica and Nicaragua's National Committee Against
Human Trafficking to bring awareness and training to public
officials, including police and immigration, NGO staff and other
relevant stakeholders on identifying trafficking networks and
providing assistance to victims in border areas.

The gathering, taking place today in the border town of Los
Chiles, Costa Rica, complements one held earlier this week in the
Nicaraguan town of Peñas Blancas aimed at raising awareness
on the needs of victims of trafficking who are taken across land
borders and are not identified as such by border guards. 

"Often, the first person a victim of trafficking comes into
contact with is a border guard. A properly trained official will be
able to identify a victim of trafficking and provide initial
assistance on the spot," explains Ana Hidalgo, a psychologist
working with IOM's Counter Trafficking Unit in San Jose. 

According to IOM studies carried out in Nicaragua and Costa
Rica, as well as in border areas in Central America, there is a
significant movement of people who may be potential victims of
trafficking. 

IOM studies have also confirmed that Costa Rica is a country of
origin, transit and destination for human trafficking, and that
adult women are most affected and at risk of being trafficked
inside the country and abroad.  Women, as well as minors, are
trafficked inside Costa Rica to feed the ever-growing demand for
sexual exploitation, which includes sex tourism.

Information provided by Central American Council of Women
Ministries (COMMCA) also confirms that women victims of trafficking
are brought into Costa Rica from Colombia, the Dominican Republic,
Nicaragua and Peru for sexual exploitation, forced labour to work
in the maquilas (assembly plants), and for domestic work.

Over the past year, IOM Nicaragua has provided return and
reintegration assistance to 30 young Nicaraguan women who had been
trafficked to El Salvador and Costa Rica and other countries for
sexual exploitation.  Ten have successfully completed
vocational training and are now employed; another nine are still
undergoing training.

"Building the capacity of local officials to detect and react to
human trafficking and to work with national, regional, and
international law enforcement agencies is fundamental in the fight
against trafficking," adds Hidalgo.

For more information, please contact:

Agueda Marín

IOM San Jose

Tel. +506.22.21.5348, ext. 119

E-mail: "mailto:amarin@iom.int">amarin@iom.int

or

Ana Beatriz Fernández

Tel: +506.22.21.5348, ext. 136

E-mal: "mailto:afernandez@iom.int">afernandez@iom.int