Press Releases
Zanzibar Police in a U.S. Trafficking In Persons Train-the-Trainer course
March 30, 2007
The United States government is implementing a TShs. 1.75billion on-going programme to combat human trafficking in Tanzania by reviewing legislation, creating a human trafficking task force and training law enforcement and judicial personnel.
According to a U.S. Embassy statement an Anti-Trafficking In Persons Train-the Trainers two-day course was recently conducted in Zanzibar. The training took place at the Zanzibar Police College, and involved instructors from the United States Department of Justice.
Seventeen police trainers were coached on elements of trafficking in persons. The elements were on how affected persons are recruited, transported, and transferred. Other elements were harbouring or receipt of persons by threat, force, coercion, abduction or fraud and for the purpose of exploitation.
The newly-trained trainers are expected to share their Trafficking In Persons knowledge to hundreds of police officers to prevent human trafficking, provide assistance to victims of trafficking, and prosecute traffickers. It should be realized that trafficking may occur within the country, as well as internationally.
The two-day course in Zanzibar complements other programmes the U.S. government has been doing in this area. Recently Joseph Konyo, Tanzania’s Trafficking in Persons Coordinator, and an officer in the Ministry of Public Safety & Security’s Department of Criminal Investigation, returned from a three-week multi-regional project on ‘Combating Trafficking in Persons.’ The programme was sponsored by U.S. Department of State and was conducted in Washington, D.C. and New York City.