Peru - IOM Peru is today (31/01) holding a two-day training for specialist prosecutors in trafficking in persons, organized in coordination with the US Embassy's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) section, the Public Ministry, and the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (IDEHPUCP in Spanish).

According to statistics from the Public Ministry’s Criminality Observatory, the number of possible cases of trafficking in persons identified in Peru has increased in the past few years, from 552 in 2014 to 889 in 2015, and to 1,144 in 2016.

The specialist prosecutors participating in the training were appointed by the Public Ministry in 2014 to improve its capacity to investigate crimes related to trafficking in persons in Lima. In 2015, an additional seven specialist prosecutors in trafficking in persons were appointed in the regions of Peru with the highest number of cases: Callao, Cusco, Loreto, Madre de Dios, Puno, Tacna and Tumbes.

“Counter-trafficking is a priority for the Public Ministry and we’ve worked closely with IOM in the past years, training prosecutors on investigation and prosecution of cases, as well as improving our data gathering capacities,” explained Jaime Villanueva, General Manager of the Public Ministry School.

The training for prosecutors is the final activity of a project funded by INL, which included the development of a training manual for the judiciary for the investigation and processing of cases of trafficking in persons. The manual also includes a set of guidelines and a virtual edition in order to facilitate the training of the judiciary in remote areas of Peru.

“The United States firmly supports Peru’s efforts to combat trafficking in persons. Just as we fight drug trafficking, illegal gold mining, and organized crime, we fight human trafficking with equal determination,” said Lawrence Gumbiner, Chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy.

In 2012, the Strategic Information System on Trafficking in Persons (SISTRA by its Spanish acronym) was created by the Public Ministry with IOM support to strengthen its Criminality Observatory database. In the same year, IOM staff provided training for 80 people, mainly judges, prosecutors and police officers, for the investigation and prosecution of cases of human trafficking. Since then IOM has provided training for close to 3,000 government officials at the national and local level, as well as civil society members and local leaders.

“Despite the enormous challenges of combatting trafficking in persons in Peru, the Public Ministry has been extremely active in strengthening their capacity to prosecute cases and we look forward to keep working with them to ensure more traffickers are convicted”, said Jose Ivan Davalos, Chief of Mission of IOM Peru.

For further information, please contact IOM Peru. Ines Calderon, Email: icalderon@iom.int or Jeremy MacGillivray, Email: jmacgillivray@iom.int, Tel. +51 1 633 0000.