IOM and the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) will bring together relevant authorities to discuss
ways to better fight human trafficking and organized crime within
and beyond the region at a two-day meeting in Moscow that begins on
29 September.

Officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Eurasian
Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) will also take part in the meeting.

"The purpose of this initiative is further cooperation between
all those involved in fighting human trafficking and organized
crime in the 12 members of the Commonwealth of Independent States,"
says Enrico Ponziani, IOM's Chief of Mission for the Russian
Federation.

Over the past 15 years, social, economic and political
developments in the CIS countries have generated large migration
flows within the CIS and towards Russia. According to official
statistics, up to 5 million CIS nationals are employed in Russia,
representing 89 per cent of the total number of migrants coming to
seek employment in Russia. This includes many undocumented migrants
from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Ukraine and Moldova, who are
employed in the informal sector and therefore at increased risk of
human trafficking and exploitation.

"The meeting is a timely and consolidated response to criminal
networks who, through corruption, money laundering, and the
trafficking of arms, drugs and humans, pose transnational threats
which can more effectively be countered through coordinated
interaction among the CIS structures," says Albert Drouzhinin,
Director of Department for Cooperation in Security and
Counteracting New Threats and Challenges, CIS Executive
Committee.

This event follows the signing in September 2008 of a Memorandum
of Understanding and Cooperation between IOM and the Executive
Committee of the CIS.

For more information on IOM's activities in the Russian
Federation, please go to:
href="http://www.iomrussia.ru/" target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.iomrussia.ru/.

For more information on the forthcoming conference, please
contact:

Dmitriy Babin

IOM Moscow

Tel: +74957978722

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

or

Kirill Boychenko

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