Between February and April 2017, NCSC conducted several workshops on combating the smuggling of migrants and human trafficking in Costa Rica. The workshops were attended by judges, prosecutors, and public defenders from across the country.
The workshops on combatting the smuggling of migrants focused on the scope and effect of migrant smuggling, international standards in the regulation of illegal migrant smuggling, and approaches to planning and implementing investigations related to migrant smuggling. The anti-human trafficking workshops dealt with the elements of a public strategy to combat trafficking in persons, sensitized participants to the concept of trafficking in persons, and introduced techniques to investigate and prosecute related crimes.
The workshops are a response to a growing trend in transnational human trafficking crimes in the region. Costa Rica is a source, transit point, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to crimes such as sex trafficking and forced labor.
The workshops were organized by the Justice Sector Reform and Prosecutorial Capacity Building Program, funded by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. For more information on the program, please visit www.justiciajuvenilca.org.