“My place as head of Nationwide Trafficking in Individuals Investigation Workplace in Lithuania was very difficult, but additionally very attention-grabbing. I’d conduct and coordinate home and worldwide police operations and investigations that led to the identification and rescue of victims.
We’d obtain info that there was a possible case of exploitation involving Lithuanians at a sure location. We then contacted the regulation enforcement authorities in that nation and arranged a rescue operation.
We needed to act very quick and be ready to maneuver from one place to the subsequent. I had many days when my breakfast, lunch and dinner can be in numerous nations.
Broken lives
Generally, I’d work undercover, so not wearing a police uniform. I bear in mind having to run after a sufferer in heels down a road in the UK. I needed to be cautious to not break my leg.
Lithuanian legal teams have been very energetic in human trafficking at dwelling and overseas at the moment. That they had superb connections to Albanian organized legal teams, which have been working throughout Europe.
I calculated that in my profession I had been concerned within the rescue of over one thousand victims of trafficking. Then I finished counting. There have been so many broken lives. I acquired a particular police award for “Saved Lives”.
I retired from the police after serving 22 years after reaching the very best attainable place inside the subject, so by 2020 it was the time to maneuver to a world degree and share the information I had gained.
UNODC
Reda Sirgediene, UNODC Regional Adviser on Trafficking in Individuals and Smuggling of Migrants in Central Asia.
Growing information of trafficking in Central Asia
My mandate working in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is totally different now. I should not have the sort of energy I had as a nationwide police officer, however I’ve authority on behalf of UNODC to cooperate with authorities in Central Asia and supply technical help to extend the area’s capability to detect and examine instances of human trafficking.
I do know rather a lot about this crime – how it’s organized and the strategies of the traffickers. However to achieve success in my new position, this was not sufficient.
As soon as I arrived in Central Asia, I needed to perceive the peculiarities of the area and take into account the cultural and authorized background within the context of human trafficking.
I wanted to study in regards to the totally different procedures and sources within the area to fight this crime and which investigative instruments have been obtainable.
Now I prepare and mentor officers who work within the regulation enforcement and justice sectors, advise non-governmental organizations that assist victims of trafficking and assist the event of anti-human trafficking laws and procedures.
No matter is required, I’m right here to assist.
Investigating all types of trafficking
Based mostly on official information, the primary nations of vacation spot for folks being trafficked from Central Asia are Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and South Korea.
Other than Kazakhstan, which can be a vacation spot nation for victims from Central Asia, all nations within the area are supply nations for trafficked folks.
Most investigations are into instances of sexual exploitation and there are some detected instances of trafficking for labour exploitation.
I’m attempting to encourage the authorities to start out investigating different types of trafficking, akin to trafficking for pressured marriage, pressured begging or involvement into pressured legal actions or in armed teams.
Additionally, the official information present that almost all of individuals convicted for trafficking offences, particularly in instances of sexual exploitation, are girls. I need to discover out extra about this, as a result of I consider that behind these girls there could possibly be males who’re the actual organizers of the trafficking enterprise. It is a area the place culturally males take the lead.
Luring folks with guarantees
I’d say that traffickers are extra subtle these days and extra delicate.
They don’t rely a lot on using violence. They lure victims with form phrases and guarantees or faux to be a boyfriend to lure them.
At first of my profession, I skilled merciless instances by which victims have been discovered hung or crushed, generally to dying. I noticed the indicators of violence on their our bodies. In different instances, victims have been drugged after which sexually exploited.
I labored on a case involving homeless Lithuanian males. They got alcohol, taken to Spain, and compelled to work on a distant farm. At night time, they have been chained to radiators so they might not escape.
The traffickers’ strategies aren’t simply extra subtle, the crime additionally generates greater income.
For me this job will at all times be in regards to the safety of human rights. It’s what I do know greatest.”
SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Sturdy Establishments
- Sustainable Improvement Purpose 16 acknowledges that battle, insecurity, weak establishments and restricted entry to justice stay a major menace to sustainable improvement.
- It goals to scale back all types of violence and deaths brought on by that violence. It focuses on ending the abuse, exploitation, torture and trafficking of kids.
- It promotes the rule of regulation on the nationwide and worldwide ranges and guarantee equal entry to justice for all
