OSCE Centre in Ashgabat supports training course to prevent human trafficking among vulnerable groups

ASHGABAT, 4 October 2011 – Twenty-five social workers from Turkmenistan’s regions participated in an OSCE-supported training course on preventing the trafficking of persons with disabilities that concluded in Ashgabat today.

The three-day “training-of-trainers” course was organized by the public organization “Support Centre for People with Disabilities in Turkmenistan” and focused on the risks of trafficking of people with disabilities. Representatives of regional branches of the organization and of other public bodies involved in human trafficking prevention activities or working with vulnerable groups took part in the event.

“Trafficking in human beings is in all cases an extremely grave crime, but trafficking in persons with disabilities is especially appalling,” said Ambassador Sergei Belyaev, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.

“Governments, international organizations and civil society should unite their efforts and use all possible means to prevent this evil. This training course is another step to prevent this crime and raise awareness of it among representatives of such a vulnerable group as people with disabilities.”

Through interactive presentations and practical exercises, participants learned how to   identify a victim of human trafficking among persons with disabilities and looked into techniques for interviewing and working with different groups with special needs. They also discussed legal assistance and rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for victims from this vulnerable group trafficked.

“Exploitation of persons with disabilities is a concealed crime caused by the social marginalization of this group of people,” said Galina Morozova, an expert from Kazakhstan who conducted the training course. “It is particularly important to organize information activities on the risks of human trafficking that are specifically tailored for persons with disabilities.”

As part of it co-operation with the OSCE Centre in the area of preventing trafficking in persons from vulnerable groups, the “Support Centre for People with Disabilities” will also organize awareness-raising sessions for persons with disabilities and their relatives, seminars for teachers and social workers throughout the country and will produce information materials on human trafficking.