National cooperation and coordination

The multifaceted nature of the crime of trafficking in persons requires a multi-stakeholder response. Ministries of health and ministries of women and children together with non-State service providers may be required to ensure that victims are appropriately assisted and supported. When a victim is in an irregular situation, ministries of foreign affairs and immigration authorities may need to ensure that the appropriate visa is issued (read more on humanitarian visas in Border control on arrival) and that services are provided to enable the victim to remain in the country in order to be able to recover and to provide testimony. Immigration authorities may also be involved in supporting police to gather evidence, by providing information about the methods and procedures used by traffickers to bring their victims into the country. (read more in Intelligence gathering and the role of technology). Similarly, labour inspectors are essential for gathering evidence of and providing insight into exploitative working conditions. And because organized crime thrives on and generates profit, financial institutions are essential to “follow the money” that leads to perpetrators, and to confiscate the spoils of their crimes.

In short, unless State and non-State actors cooperate and coordinate their activities at the national level, there is a high possibility that victims of trafficking will not receive the protection and assistance they are entitled to, that prosecutions will not result in convictions, and that preventative efforts will fail. There is also a risk that scarce resources available to mount response will be ineffectively applied and their potential impact lessened. Mechanisms must therefore be put in place to strengthen national coordination.

Policy Approaches
An institutional framework for national coordination

An institutional framework for national coordination should:

  • Reflect the roles and responsibilities of all relevant ministries and agencies in counter-human-trafficking;
  • Designate focal points at all participating ministries and agencies;
  • Provide for capacity-building of relevant agencies that may come into contact with victims of trafficking or traffickers;
  • Put in place standard operating procedures (SOPs) for responding to specific situations. These situations will include, among others, the identification and referral of victims serving as witnesses, and the collection, protection and sharing of data and other matters;
  • Establish task forces in communities to bring together State and non-State actors;
  • Empower and encourage subnational authorities to collaborate with NGOs and formal structures;
  • Engage a broad range of stakeholders in national committees and working groups.
Source

United States, Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, 2018: 6.

Successful cooperation of all State-level actors is known as a “whole-of-government” approach. A whole-of-government approach, often achieved through national coordination mechanisms, is necessary to bring to bear the expertise and authority of a range of actors (including justice, migration, development, health, labour and others) as well as non-State actors in responding to a multi-dimensional problem. Mechanisms such as these can create a platform for regular meetings and information and knowledge sharing. At the most basic level, this approach can be used to ensure that relevant actors understand what trafficking is and what their respective responsibilities are. At a more advanced level, the model can be used to decide on and coordinate the response to specific cases.

Good Practice
National coordination mechanisms

Good practice approaches include the use of national action plans, counter-trafficking task forces and inter-agency coordination groups headed by a national coordinator. Examples of national coordination mechanisms include:

  • In Australia, the Interdepartmental Committee on Human Trafficking and Slavery coordinates the State’s counter-trafficking efforts.
  • In Ethiopia, the government-led Anti-Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants Task Force, comprised of government agencies, international organizations and NGOs as well as community and faith-based organizations, coordinates efforts to reintegrate returning victims.
  • In Georgia, the Anti-Trafficking and Illegal Migration Unit within the Central Criminal Police Department and four mobile groups and tasks forces maintained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs coordinate counter-trafficking efforts.
  • In Guyana, the ministerial task force, led by the Ministry of Social Protection, includes representatives from several government agencies and anti-trafficking NGOs. It meets monthly and coordinates police operations.
  • In the Philippines, the Interagency Council against Trafficking (IACAT), led by the Department of Justice, is composed of government agencies, and non-governmental representatives.

Multi-sectoral approach

In addition to promoting the “whole-of-government” approach, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration promotes a “whole-of-society” approach to encourage broad, multi-stakeholder partnerships that include intergovernmental organizations, international organizations, NGOs, migrants, local communities, civil society, trade unions and the private sector, among other stakeholders. A whole-of-society approach brings a range of counter-trafficking expertise into play, to achieve a holistic approach to policy, legislation and action against trafficking. Read more in Developing migration policy.

Table
Table 2. Examples of counter-trafficking partnerships for prevention, protection and prosecution

PARTNERSHIPS FOR PREVENTION

 PARTNERSHIPS FOR PROTECTION PARTNERSHIPS FOR PROSECUTION

Private sector actors offer insight into industry standards and can ensure that their own supply chains are free from exploitation (IOM, 2018e).

Private sector technology providers can provide expertise in how information communications technology can be harnessed to prevent trafficking.

International and non-governmental organizations can work with private sector actors to keep their supply chains free of human trafficking. State immigration actors can work with trade unions, labour rights and migrants’ rights advocates to ensure that State and private recruitment practices adhere to international standards and are not susceptible to abuse by traffickers.

Private actors may identify potential victims in their supply chains. They can also offer livelihood opportunities, remediation, and support for recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration of victims (IOM, 2018e).

Individuals can identify potentially exploited persons among their colleagues or the people they buy goods and services from and report such incidents or refer them to authorities.

Specialized actors may be required to assist vulnerable victims requiring specialist support, including children or adults with particular health needs, or those who have suffered from torture. Local service providers (including social workers, shelter workers, education and healthcare workers) are integral to a specialized and individualized response to victim protection and assistance needs

Victim service providers can support criminal justice actors by providing protection and assistance to victims of trafficking who are participating in criminal justice proceedings. 

Representatives of migrant communities may serve as cross-cultural and linguistic communicators and interpreters for victims cooperating with authorities.

State welfare and immigration authorities may need to support criminal justice actors in other countries, by facilitating the return of victims to testify against traffickers, or to deliver their testimonies remotely.
Regional and bilateral cooperation and coordination

Regional approaches to cooperation have been successful in many instances. Examples in some regions and subregions include the following:

At the bilateral level, cooperative agreements are often reached specifically in relation to trafficking in persons, or on issues that are indirectly related such as labour migration or return and reintegration.

Good Practice
Bilateral cooperation between Thailand and Myanmar

Within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar on Cooperating to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, the governments of Thailand and Myanmar cooperate through biannual case management meetings (CMM). The aim of these meetings is to improve operational aspects of cross-border assistance, data exchange and case worker visits by Myanmar social workers to victims of trafficking in Thai trafficking shelters, prior to their return to Myanmar.

Source

United Nations, Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand and the Government of the Union of Myanmar on Cooperating to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 2009.

International cooperation and coordination

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Trafficking Protocol offer support in overcoming barriers to both informal and formal cooperation, unifying States around a shared understanding of what trafficking is and what is required to address it. The UNTOC, which is the “parent” treaty that the Protocol supplements, sets out provisions on extradition and mutual legal assistance (MLA). In the absence of specific bilateral or regional agreements, the UNTOC itself can be used by States as a framework for executing extradition requests and seeking mutual legal assistance .

The Trafficking Protocol promotes international cooperation against trafficking through provisions concerning border and document control measures, training, research, information exchange and other measures. It also explicitly points to the role of non-State and civil society actors as cooperative partners for States, particularly in victim assistance and protection.

The type of international cooperation that may be relevant in a given trafficking case might be formal or informal. Formal cooperation in criminal justice responses includes extradition and requests for MLA. Informal cooperation can include police or migration authorities simply contacting each other for information or assistance prior to a formal request for MLA being made (Ready more in Intelligence gathering and the role of technology).

Glossary
Mutual Legal Assistance

Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) in criminal matters is a process by which States seek for and provide assistance to other States in servicing of judicial document and gathering evidence for use in criminal cases. 

Source

UNODC, The Education for Justice (E4J), module 11

Glossary

extradition

The process whereby under treaty or upon the basis of reciprocity one State surrenders to another State at its request a person accused or convicted of a criminal offence committed against the laws of the requesting state, such requesting state  being competent to try the offender or to apply the sentence or detention order.

More in Glossary
Policy Approaches
Formal and informal international cooperation on trafficking in persons

United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) provisions:

  • Extradition (article 16): to request and grant extradition for individuals charged or punished for trafficking in person offenses.
  • Mutual legal assistance (article 18): States Parties to afford one another the widest measure of legal assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings in relation to trafficking in person offenses.
  • Joint investigations (article 19) by law enforcement agencies can be a useful tool when more than one State has jurisdiction over the offenses involved or where the offenses are expected to have repercussions in more than one State.
  • Law enforcement cooperation (article 27).
  • Information collection and exchange (article 28) between law enforcement, border control and regulatory agencies is a fast and effective form of informal cooperation. This allows counterparts from different national agencies to swiftly exchange intelligence – without a formal mutual assistance request – on aspects such as embarkation and destination points, the methods and procedures of traffickers, document verification and proactive intelligence gathering.

Trafficking protocol provisions:

  • Information exchange (article 10), the same as is provisioned by UNTOC.
  • Cooperation in border control (article 11[6]): States are invited to establish and maintain direct channels of communication.
  • Cooperation in addressing factors that renders people vulnerable to human trafficking (article 9).
  • Cooperation on the repatriation of the victims of trafficking in persons (article 8): relates to facilitating and accepting the safe return of victims who are nationals or permanent residents. Adherence to this article requires commitment and action on the part of both the State returning the victim and the State receiving the victim. 
    Read more in sub-topic Return and reintegration of migrants vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse. 

In some cases, States have not agreed to the use of the UNTOC for the purpose of extradition and require a separate legal basis (such as national legislation or a specific extradition treaty). In this situation, it is crucial that trafficking in persons is specified as an offence for which extradition can be sought. This approach satisfies the international cooperation requirements in the UNTOC, which apply to the offences set out in the Trafficking Protocol.

Both informal and formal international cooperation can be challenging in practice. Differences between legal systems and the way that law enforcement and migration institutions are structured can make it difficult for people to know who to contact, and how to communicate with them. Even when those challenges are overcome, cultural and linguistic barriers may be present. There are also sometimes issues of trust, with authorities reticent to share information with each other. These challenges speak to the need for actors to begin to communicate with each other early, clearly and in good faith.

Good Practice
Coordinated State action against trafficking through Operation Libertad

In April 2018, more than 500 police officers across 13 countries (including Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Curaçao, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands and Venezuela) cooperated to arrest 22 individuals and rescue almost 350 potential victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labour in coordinated raids across the Caribbean, Central and South America. State authorities were supported by INTERPOL as well as specialized officers deployed to the region. Social services and NGOs were also engaged to ensure that a victim-centred approach was taken in carrying out interviews and providing support to identified victims.

Source

INTERPOL, Operation Libertad, 2019

To Go Further
Key messages

  • Unless State and non-State actors cooperate and coordinate their activities at the national level, there is a high possibility that victims of trafficking will not receive the protection and assistance they are entitled to, that prosecutions will not result in convictions, and that preventative efforts will fail. Mechanisms must therefore be put in place to strengthen national coordination. 

  • Policies around prevention of trafficking in persons, protecting vulnerable migrants and prosecuting perpetrators are reinforced by including an institutional framework for national coordination to strengthen partnerships.

  • An institutional framework for national coordination should: Designate focal points at all participating ministries and agencies;. Provide for capacity building of relevant agencies who may come into contact with victims of trafficking or traffickers, and establish task forces in communities to bring together State and non-State actors.

  • Bilateral and regional cooperation among States is a good practice to address the issue of Trafficking in Persons. 

  • The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Trafficking Protocol offer support in overcoming barriers to both informal and formal international cooperation, unifying States around a shared understanding of what trafficking is and what is required to address it. 

  • Formal cooperation in criminal justice responses includes extradition and requests for Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA). Informal cooperation can include police or migration authorities simply contacting each other for information or assistance prior to a formal request for MLA being made.

 
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