Child protection authorities and other relevant stakeholders from
the Dominican Republic and Haiti are meeting today in the Dominican
capital, Santo Domingo, to exchange experiences and best practices
on children displaced by the January 2010 earthquake, unaccompanied
minors and child victims of trafficking.

The meeting, organized by IOM, aims to facilitate a closer
working relationship between the neighbouring countries on these
issues.

Participants include technical-level government representatives
from the Dominican National Council for Children and Adolescents
(CONANI), the Dominican General Directorate of Migration (DGM), the
Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dominican Attorney
General's Office, the Dominican National Police, the Haitian
Institute for Social Well-Being and Research (IBESR), the Brigade
for the Protection of Minors (BPM) of the Haitian National Police
and the Embassy of Haiti in the Dominican Republic.

IOM migration experts, as well as technical representatives from
UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, and various NGOs working on child migrant and
trafficking issues, will also attend.

"Although child victims of trafficking and other unaccompanied
minors from Haiti were present in the Dominican Republic before the
2010 earthquake, the situation intensified after the disaster,"
explains Cy Winter, IOM Chief of Mission in the Dominican
Republic.

Long-term solutions are still being sought for many of the
displaced children who arrived in the country after the earthquake
while new cases of unaccompanied minors and child victims of
trafficking continue to present themselves.

"By bringing together the working level members of key
institutions in the day-to-day response to child migration
challenges, IOM aims to foster bi-national dialogue and cooperation
on this important migration issue," adds Winter.

A study carried out by the Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Service in
2010, with support from IOM, confirms the existence of
unaccompanied Haitian minors in the Dominican cities of Santo
Domingo, Santiago, Puerto Plata and Dajabón, living in
conditions of extreme vulnerability and at risk for trafficking and
other abuses.

The situation of Haitian child victims of trafficking in the
Dominican Republic was brought into focus this year through a raid
carried out by DGM in February that revealed dozens of victims
living in deplorable conditions in a neighbourhood of Santo
Domingo.

The children had been trafficked to the Dominican Republic prior
to the earthquake in January 2010 to beg on the streets of Santo
Domingo or to carry out menial tasks such as shining shoes or
washing windows at busy intersections in the nation’s
capital.

Today's meeting is being held with funding from the US
Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
(PRM).

For more information, please contact:

Gina Gallardo or Zoë Stopak-Behr

IOM Santo Domingo

Tel: 809 688 8174

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

E-mail: "mailto:zstopak-behr@iom.int">zstopak-behr@iom.int