KUNA: International Organization of Migration (IOM) Head, Eman Erekat praised the contributing and supportive part of Kuwait in revealing human trafficking victims and controlling human trafficking. She commended this role and said it will enhance social awareness on the phenomena.
Erekat thanked the Dutch for constant cooperation with the IOM in implementing major humanitarian projects that have good direct effects on the society.The two-day course is one of the top recommendations of the First Arab Media Forum held last January at the UN Kuwait office on the role of the media to counter human trafficking, she told the opening session.
A question that rises since the announcement of the 2002 protocol on countering human trafficking is: have the relevant parties exerted adequate efforts to fight the phenomenon? Erekat asked.The answer is not an easy one, due to the cancerous spread of modern communication technologies used by traffickers to lure victims and trap them, she noted.
According to the head of the IOM mission in Kuwait, no accurate figures are available on the volume of human trafficking worldwide. She thinks there is no reason to believe it is less than the time when the IOM started efforts to counter it nearly two decades before.
It is the third biggest and most dangerous global crime after arms and drugs trafficking, incurring billions of dollars to traffickers, Erekat said. However, it cannot be denied that much progress has been achieved in countering the phenomenon.
She underlined the role of media in the war against human trafficking for its wide impact on the masses that must be used to disseminate awareness and change negative thoughts and behavior.
Sessions of the IOM course will focus on definitions of human trafficking; difference between human smuggling and human trafficking; illegal migration and political asylum.
For his part, the Dutch ambassador in Kuwait Nicholas Beets referred to a similar successful event organized earlier this year with the IOM.Beets addressed the experience of the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven to counter human trafficking.
He said that the city decided to spend USD 2 million over the coming two years in projects to curb the phenomenon. He said that it was found out last week that victims of human trafficking refrain from reporting to the police, which makes it hard to identify the volume of the crime.
The Dutch ambassador emphasized the role of the media to fight human trafficking.
Media covering does not only boost public awareness on the phenomenon and its nature but also assists the authorities to fight it, he said.
