Ashgabat, 29 April 2021 – International Organization for Migration/UN Migration Agency completed series of 3 separate online webinars for the National Working Group on Implementation of the Action Plan on Counter-trafficking (see: link), public organizations (see: link), and Turkmenistan’s Embassies and Consulates abroad. All webinars including the most recent session of the series were organized within the framework of the regional project “Reducing socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrants and communities in Central Asia and Russian Federation” funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The most recent webinar was attended by the representatives of diplomatic missions of Turkmenistan abroad including embassies of Turkmenistan in the Republics of Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, India, and the Russian Federation.

Turkmenistan has acceded to the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its 3 supplementary protocols including Protocol on counter-trafficking in May 2005. To Implement the Protocol in 2014 Turkmenistan established the National Working Group that includes all key ministries, agencies, and public organizations. Currently, Turkmenistan is implementing its second National Action Plan on Counter-trafficking for 2020-2022 (PDF).  

During the current webinar representatives of Turkmenistan’s Embassies and Consulates learned about the recent trends in human trafficking, challenges faced by those who combat this phenomenon including the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative approaches to the identification of victims of human trafficking, and the possibility of using electronic means of communication to prevent human trafficking and identify victims, recommendations of international experts and best practices in the organization of combating human trafficking presented by IOM’s international expert in the field Ms. Tatiana Fomina. As underlined by expert Fomina: “Human trafficking is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that requires from the embassies and consulates to be abreast of the most recent tendencies and trends in combatting it”.

Following the expert’s presentations, the Head of the IOM Mission in Turkmenistan Mr. Azat Atajanov shared information about IOM’s research conducted on consequences of the pandemic for the migrants from Central Asia that IOM conducted in Central Asian countries and Russian Federation. Besides, the Head of the mission introduced newly developed software applications including Migrant Registration Application (MiRA) and MigApp intended to facilitate migration management and assist people on the move with the latest information about the situation and services in the countries of transit and destination. “For the recent years, Turkmenistan accumulated substantial expertise in the area of counter-trafficking, which will remain one of the priority areas of cooperation between IOM and the Government of Turkmenistan. We aim that under the current NAP on Counter-trafficking this cooperation will result in the launch of full-fledged National Referral Mechanism for the victims of trafficking in the nearest future,” pointed out Mr. Atajanov in his concluding remarks.

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For additional questions, please contact:

Dovlet Chariyev

IOM Communication Focal Point

E-mail: dchariyev@iom.int

Tel:+99312 488407