IOM Seoul last week launched the first Expert Forum for Protection
of Victims of Trafficking at the Korean National Assembly
Conference Room.

The Forum, which is the first attempt to bring together NGOs who
provide de facto protection for trafficking victims and relevant
government officials, representing the Ministries of Justice,
Foreign Affairs, Labour, and Gender Equality and Police, will be
supported by the Office of National Assembly Member Kim
Chunjin.

Mr. Kim submitted a draft bill on the protection of victims of
trafficking and on the prosecution of traffickers in 2010. The
bill, which has yet to be passed, would be Korea's first
counter-trafficking legislation systematizing protection for
victims and creating a referral system between the government and
NGO sectors.

The Forum, which will convene monthly for the next five months,
will discuss victim identification and interviewing, direct
assistance, and return and reintegration. It will also identify
current protection mechanisms and discuss ways to establish a
referral system in the absence of legislation.

The first Forum meeting will also see the launch the Korean
version of IOM's Counter-Trafficking Training Modules. The three
modules - on victim identification and interviewing techniques,
direct assistance, and return and reintegration - were translated
into Korean with to funding from the US State Department's Bureau
of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

For more information please contact:

June Lee

IOM Seoul

Tel: +82.2.21830191

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