SYRIA, Damascus – Building a collaborative regional and global response to address the evolving issues in human trafficking is the focus of an international three-day INTERPOL meeting which opened in the Syrian capital today.
The first INTERPOL Global Conference on Trafficking in Human Beings, hosted by the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Damascus, brings together more than 120 law enforcement and non-governmental agency experts from 50 countries.
INTERPOL President Khoo Boon Hui, as well as Syria's Prime Minister Mohamed Naji Outri and Minister of the Interior Major General Saeed Samoor attended the official opening of the meeting which aims to raise awareness and promote co-operation between law enforcement agencies and involved stakeholders in order to develop global best practice in combating human trafficking.
The conference, the first such global event organized by INTERPOL's Trafficking in Human beings unit, will also examine and develop the range of strategies being implemented across the globe in terms of the prevention, protection and prosecution aspects of human trafficking through sharing expertise and knowledge.
Affecting every region of the world, trafficking in human beings is a high-profit, low-risk multi-million dollar criminal activity and as the world’s largest police organization, INTERPOL is ideally placed to support each of its 188 member countries in combating this global crime through its global network of law enforcement tools and services.
INTERPOL’s range of databases such as its Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database – which contains more than 21 million documents from 150 countries – has the ability to restrict the movement of traffickers and victims as they move across borders with illegal travel documentation.