National seminar on combatting human trafficking concludes

MUSCAT: The National Seminar on Combatting Human Trafficking was concluded at Sheraton Hotel in Muscat under the patronage of Hussein bin Ali al Hilali, Attorney General.

The two-day seminar was organised by the Sultanate, represented by the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCHT) in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for the GCC Countries.

The seminar recommended training a team of national experts and trainers to use them as experts at the national level, as well as in the United Nations (UN) programmes at the regional and international levels to present the model of the Sultanate.

The seminar also recommended cooperation and emphasising the importance of building the capacity of cadres working in the national authorities in order to establish and activate the departments and teams specialised in human trafficking cases (Royal Oman Police, Public Prosecution, Judiciary, Ministry of Manpower and the Housing Centre).

The seminar stressed the importance of providing support in the design and implementation of a national awareness and prevention initiative to introduce the phenomenon and how to deal with it through the hotline and awareness programmes.

The seminar called for building capacities of the media on human trafficking crimes, based on the training manual of the United Nations to activate their role as an active partner in the face of this phenomenon.

The seminar also recommended the need to cooperate in coordinating and activating the rapid intervention team in line with the national referral system for victims of human trafficking in cooperation and partnership with all concerned national bodies and under the supervision of NCCHT members according to its mechanisms and the way it deems appropriate, with taking into consideration to view experiences of partner states and sharing such experiences. — ONA