IOM will host its fifth annual awards ceremony to honour
individuals and organizations that have made outstanding efforts to
combat human trafficking in Ukraine on 2nd December, the
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Anatolii Mohyliov,
together with Ukrainian Minister for Family, Youth and Sports,
Ravil Safiullin, representatives from the UN and the European Union
as well as the Ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden and the United
States, will present awards to Ukrainian individuals, organizations
and private enterprises that have shown particular dedication to
combating human trafficking in the past year.

This year's awardees include the Consular Section of the
Ukrainian Embassy in Indonesia; the International Legal Department
in the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine; the Cybercrime
Division at the Ministry of Interior; the Anti Child-Trafficking
Coalition of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations and Western
Union.

This year's key note speeches include a written address by
renowned human rights activist and former Czech president,
Václav Havel. "The awardees have proven that it makes sense
to fight against such a grave evil as human trafficking, to save
people and to give other victims hope," says Havel.

Ukraine is a country of origin, transit and increasingly
destination for trafficking in men, women and children. It is
estimated that more than 110,000 Ukrainians have fallen victim to
human trafficking since 1991.

"Any effective system to resolve the human trafficking problem
must include not only cooperation between national and local
government authorities, institutions and organizations, but also
the personal involvement of our citizens," states Family, Youth and
Sports Minister Safiullin.

"This award ceremony is important because it draws attention to
the fact that modern slavery still exists to a significant scale
here in Ukraine and that a whole range of people and organizations
are involved in fighting it," says IOM Ukraine Chief of Mission
Manfred Profazi.

IOM works with a broad range of government, non-governmental,
international and corporate partners in Ukraine to prevent human
trafficking as well as to provide direct assistance to trafficking
victims. Since 2000, IOM has identified more than 7,000 victims and
provided them with psychological counseling, medical screening and
care, legal advice and integration services, vocational training
and microenterprise start-up support as well as return assistance
to victims from other countries and in the case of Ukrainian
victims abroad.

For more information please contact:

Ruth Krcmar

IOM Kyiv

Tel: +38-044-568

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