Ashgabat, 5-6 June 2024: Turkmenistan’s national stakeholders comprising members of the Interdepartmental Working Group on development and implementation of National Action Plans on Combating Trafficking in Persons (CTIP), civil society organizations and social work specialists learned best international practices on effective identification, case management, provision of survivor-centered gender- and age-sensitive social services to victims of human trafficking (VoTs) and modelled a comprehensive interagency response to human trafficking at a two-day workshop organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Turkmenistan.

The workshop combined the learning and practice parts in which participants intermingled in group sessions for deep dive into the aspects of victim/witness identification, basic and comprehensive needs assessment and referral to relevant social services of VoTs, reintegration assistance and case management, specialization and coordination in service delivery, shelter management and ensuring safety of VoTs, ethical issues in social support, prevention of re-victimization, gender-sensitive standards of rehabilitation of VoTs and application of such practices in the context of implementation of the new CTIP National Action Plan and further improvement of the national CTIP legislation and related acts.

In the course of the workshop, participants were also able to model an integrated, gender- and age-sensitive interagency response mechanism through a survivor-centered approach for implementation of the new CTIP National Action Plan guided by the greater insight into the topics covered in the workshop, including the concept of vulnerability, access of VoTs to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), gender and age sensitivity, importance of continuity in security and support, adaptation of services to the specific needs of survivors of human trafficking with special attention to gender and age aspects, referral to non-state service providers, monitoring and quality assurance.

The two-day workshop was facilitated by the IOM international expert, Ms. Irina Urumova, who also presented examples of best practices on countering human trafficking from Asia and Europe that focus on survivor-centered approach in identification, referral, protection and rehabilitation of trafficking survivors.

The workshop participants also discussed interagency cooperation and ways to promote greater engagement of civil society stakeholders in combatting human trafficking, as well as empowerment of women and youth in preventing human trafficking.

The current workshop is one in the series of capacity building activities offered by IOM to national partners involved in drafting the new CTIP National Action Plan of Turkmenistan as part of the IOM Project “Strengthening the legal framework on trafficking in persons in Turkmenistan to better address the needs of youth and women through a survivor-centered approach”. It is also designed to inform the ongoing work on development of the new CTIP National Action Plan which is supported by IOM in Turkmenistan.

*****

The IOM Project “Strengthening the legal framework on trafficking in persons in Turkmenistan to better address the needs of youth and women through a survivor-centered approach” is funded by the IOM Development Fund (IDF). As part of this project, IOM has provided recommendations to relevant national stakeholders for improvement of the CTIP legal framework of Turkmenistan in line with international standards and best practices, which directly relate to areas such as criminalization of trafficking and related offenses, investigation and prosecution, victim identification, status and access to support services, as well as prevention of trafficking through safe migration and socio-economic empowerment of women and youth. The project is also supporting the development of the new CTIP National Action Plan of Turkmenistan inclusive of specific actions aimed at women and youth empowerment in response to emerging trends and challenges in combating human trafficking.

………………………..

The International Organization for Migration has been working in Turkmenistan since 1997. IOM is one of the key partners of Turkmenistan in combatting trafficking in persons. Two previous National Action Plans of Turkmenistan on Combatting Trafficking in Persons (2016-2018, 2020-2022) were developed and implemented with the support of IOM in Turkmenistan.

For additional questions, please contact:

Dovlet Chariyev

IOM Communication Focal Point

E-mail: dchariyev@iom.int

Tel:+99312 488407