IOM Deputy Director General Ambassador Laura Thompson and the Home
Minister of Bangladesh Advocate Sahara Khatun jointly launched a
training manual this week for "Building Capacity on Care and
Support for the Victims of Trafficking."

The manual is meant to develop the capacity of the government
officials, specifically on care of victims of trafficking. The
content includes national and international legal provisions, but
more importantly, on the whole process from identification of
trafficking victims to actually providing psycho social support to
survivors of trafficking and rehabilitating them in society.

In Bangladesh, current government policy and laws have the
provision to prohibit and prosecute traffickers and protect as well
as assist survivors once they are rescued. But there is a need to
equip government officials to translate policy and laws into
action.

"IOM will continue to work for a future free of human
trafficking victims in need of rehabilitation and humane
treatment.  We hope this manual can be used as an effective
tool to achieve that objective," said IOM Regional Representative
Rabab Fatima on the occasion of the launch.

This manual has been developed under the IOM project Prevention
and Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking in Bangladesh
(PPVHT-B), with support from the Norwegian and Danish
governments.

IOM Deputy Director General Thompson who was also the Guest of
Honour said on the occasion of the launching, "IOM has been working
on trafficking issues in Bangladesh since the early 1990s.
Bangladesh, was one of the first countries in the region to become
a member of IOM and has a number of strong counter-trafficking
programmes. I am pleased to see that some very effective and
innovative measures have been carried out in Bangladesh in this
area."

A group of 51 master trainers from Bangladesh Police and the
Department of Social Services have already been trained and will in
turn train 1,250 district government officials and representatives
of law enforcement agencies in the 22 districts prone to human
trafficking.

Launching the training manual, Home Minister H. E. Advocate
Shahara Khatun said, "Capacity building of government staff dealing
to combat human trafficking was a felt need for a long time. I must
thank IOM for that. They should further expand their coverage
beyond the 22 districts for this victim care training."

For more information please contact:

Asif Munier

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

or

Farhana Chowdhury

Tel. +880.2.988.9765

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