IOM has launched a two-year programme to prevent human trafficking
in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. The one million Swiss franc
programme funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation aims to raise awareness of the dangers of human
trafficking among young people.

As part of the programme, comprehensive outreach activities will
be organized in secondary schools in cooperation with the
Ministries of Education in all three countries. These include the
production of a culture-sensitive educational kit on trafficking
that will be integrated into the national curricula of secondary
schools.

"We are targeting the 15 to 17 age group as they are more prone
to migrate in search of work abroad once they've finished school,"
says Vassiliy Yuzhanin, IOM's Chief of Mission in Azerbaijan.
"Unresolved conflicts and high unemployment in the region lead to
large numbers of young people migrating. Most of them are unaware
of the pitfalls of irregular migration and trafficking."

As part of the programme, a national conference on trafficking
and education, the first of its kind, opens today in Yerevan,
Armenia.  

South Caucasus is primarily a source and transit region for
people trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labour. Women
are trafficked to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates mainly for
sexual exploitation, with cases of trafficking to India, Pakistan
and Russia also recorded. Men and boys are, in general, trafficked
to Russia for forced labour.

For more information, please contact:

Mary Sheehan

IOM Tbilisi

Tel: +995 32 29 38 94

E-mail: "mailto:msheehan@iom.ge">msheehan@iom.ge