IOM has trained 300 police and immigration officials in a
nationwide series of counter-trafficking training workshops funded
by USAID.

The workshops, which began with a three-day training of 50
trainers in Colombo in February, follow the introduction of new,
comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation in 2006. By the end of
July some 500 police and immigration officers in Colombo, Kalutara,
Galle, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Kurunegala, Ampara and Gampaha
districts will have received the training.

The one-day workshops, which IOM developed in close cooperation
with the Sri Lanka Police Department, the Attorney General's
Department and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, are
designed to help law enforcement officials to identify victims of
trafficking, to pursue trafficking cases and to successfully
prosecute traffickers.

The workshop modules include: understanding trafficking in
persons; the Sri Lanka Penal Code; causes and consequences of
trafficking; methods of recruitment of victims; victim profiling
and referral; investigation methods; operational planning;
investigative interviewing; interviewing of vulnerable persons;
communication skills; and information and criminal intelligence
collection.

For more information please contact:

Passanna Gunasekera

IOM Sri Lanka

Tel: 5333432. Ext. 213

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