Second expert meeting on trafficking in human beings for terrorist activities concludes in London
London, 20 February 2018 – Hosted by the Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (OSR/CTHB), a second meeting of experts to discuss ongoing OSCE research on trafficking in human beings for the purpose of terrorist activities concluded yesterday in Hammersmith.
Participants discussed the preliminary findings of research conducted to date, along with specific cases of women and girls being recruited to join terrorist groups in trafficking-related circumstances.
"The cases presented during the meeting involving trafficking for terrorist activities ensured thought-provoking discussions and enabled extremely insightful views to be shared among all specialists present," stated Parosha Chandran, the OSCE’s key international expert directing the research project.
The meeting was designed to draw the attention of anti-trafficking experts across the United Kingdom to the increasingly widespread phenomenon of deceptive and forced recruitment of adults and children across the OSCE region for terrorism-related exploitative practices.
Experts from the Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, the Joint Slavery Trafficking Analysis Centre, the Crown Prosecution Service, the United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF, Every Child Protected Against Trafficking, Anti-Slavery International, the Human Trafficking Foundation, the AIRE Centre and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in attendance were invited to collaborate in the research.
“To effectively respond to this emerging and underreported phenomenon, fostering broad and inclusive anti-trafficking partnerships is critical,” said the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Madina Jarbussynova. “I call on relevant stakeholders to co-operate with my Office and share real-life case studies in which terrorist groups have transported, transferred, harboured or received adults and children in circumstances fitting the definition of trafficking in human beings.”
In 2018, the OSR/CTHB will publish an evidence-based report, including recommendations, to assist states in the prevention of this new form of trafficking in human beings.