Combating human trafficking for labour exploitation focus of OSCE-supported international conference in Kyiv

KYIV, 6 July 2017 – Some 180 key anti-trafficking stakeholders and international experts met today in Kyiv for a two-day conference focused on streamlining efforts to combat labour exploitation.

The conference, organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine in co-operation with the Ukrainian Social Policy and Interior Ministries, National Police, General Prosecutors Office and Supreme Court, gathered social workers, labour inspectors, police officers, prosecutors, judges and anti-trafficking non-governmental organizations from all the regions of the country. They will discuss challenges in identifying and responding to cases of labour exploitation and trafficking for forced labour both within and outside the boundaries of Ukraine.

“An adequate response to trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation requires a co-ordinated approach from all agencies involved, with a strong focus on labour inspectors,” said Nataliia Fedorovych, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine. “Ukraine’s legislative novelties should be adopted in the Parliament as soon as possible and promptly implemented by all stakeholders to maintain the high speed of the country’s progress in anti-trafficking.”

National stakeholders and international speakers from Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom will focus on the importance of preventing and responding to human trafficking crimes for labour exploitation and share practical examples, positive experience and tools used.

The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Madina Jarbussynova, and her staff will brief the participants on the outcomes of the OSCE Action Plan survey and current OSCE-wide initiatives related to combating human trafficking along migration routes and its prevention in supply chains.

The presentations will be complemented by an exchange of views during three sessions, which are expected to produce recommendations for improving interagency co-operation in addressing existing challenges.

“Fostering inter-institutional co-operation, strengthening partnership with social and labour inspection services, reaching out to trade unions, monitoring the work of recruitment agencies as well as prosecuting and securing adequate convictions for labour trafficking offenders are among the key next steps to be taken to eliminate cases of labour trafficking,” said OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Vaidotas Verba..

The conference is part of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator’s project “Multiplication of Anti-Trafficking National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in Ukraine”, which is implemented with the financial support of Global Affairs Canada and the Government of Germany.