Peru - As part of a Border Protection Development Project, IOM Peru and Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) are this week conducting a Training of Trainers Workshop for Peruvian officials on document examination and impostor detection through facial comparison.

Some 30 Peruvian officials of the General Migration and Naturalization Directorate (DIGEMIN by its Spanish acronym) from seven regions (Lima, Tacna, Tumbes, Madre de Dios, Puno, Iquitos and Piura) will attend the five-day workshop, which will allow them to train airport and land border officials.

One of the workshop’s sessions, conducted by IOM experts, will focus on collecting information from participants in order to develop research studies on flows through Lima airport, the seaport of Callao, and the Tumbes land border post. A fourth study will analyse movements across the borders with Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia.

“According to the latest DIGEMIN figures, the movement of persons across Peru’s borders has increased by 25% in just one year, and by 105% since 2005.  This increase brings with it increased risk of possible cases of irregular migration, human trafficking and transnational crime. This IOM - DIAC programme is designed to build Peru’s migration management systems and capacity,” explains José Ivan Dávalos, IOM Chief of Mission in Peru.

Peru is a country of origin and destination for human trafficking. In the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report compiled by U.S. Department of State, Peru was identified as a destination for foreign female trafficking victims, particularly from Ecuador and Bolivia.  

Several intelligence reports also point to Peru as a major transit country for illicit travel into Latin America, and a transit route to Australia, Europe and the United States.

IOM and DIAC recently signed a cooperation agreement to carry out a Border Protection Development Project.  The eight-month project will also provide training to officials of neighbouring countries in the Andean Community (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia.)  

The project will also develop a set of policy papers and an information-sharing IT platform to share information on human trafficking and irregular movements in the region.

For more information, please contact

Carolina Santos
IOM Peru
Tel: + 511-221-7209
Email: casantos@iom.int