Prominent layers, human rights activities goverment officials of India and Myanmar rubbed shoulders recently at Myanmar where they fine tuned a slew of measures to firmly deal with human trafficcking. The culsultation was held to establish a standard operating procedure (sop) on providing, assistance & protection to victims of trafficking in human beings at Naypyi Taw on June 16-18 and Yangon, Myanmar on June 18-20.
The Indo-Myanmar Consultation on developing Standard Operating Procedure to address Cross Border Human Trafficking was participated by Law Enforcement Agencies of the two countries to view and resolve the challenges of assisting human trafficking survivors and those who fall prey to it and highlighting the process of Repatriation to be efficiently managed collaboratively between India and Myanmar through an agreed Standard Operating Procedures drafted for this Consultation which will be forwarded to the Ministries of India and Myanmar.
During the Consultation, representatives of the Anti Trafficking in Person Division of the Government of Myanmar and representatives from Law Enforcement Agencies, Lawyers and Civil Society Organisations of North East India came to a consensus in realizing the following agenda:
1. The need of bilateral cooperation between India and Myanmar is a priority because of the bordering location that is being used by traffickers as an easy gateway over the years. Using Impulse Case Info Centre Software will thrive combating human trafficking.
2. The SOP between India and Myanmar will help grow deeper relationships and an opportunity to solve the problem of human trafficking, which has been least documented through the Indo-Myanmar border.
3. The MoU Agreement signed between India and Myanmar in May 2014 is a way forward to tackle the problem of human trafficking bringing two countries to work closely through collaborative Research and Survey of these issues.
4. Establishing Border Liaison Officers between India and Myanmar to regulate timely sharing information for Protection, Prevention, Rehabilitation and Repatriation in cross border trafficking becomes an important part of this effort.
5. The Impulse Case Info Centre Software funded through Global Development Network under Japanese Social Development Fund will strengthen the support of India that they have been providing to Myanmar through IT Solutions.
6. There has been considerable degree of movement in the Indo-Myanmar border and the Free Movement Regime Policy can be exploited by traffickers; therefore perpetual dialogues between the two countries to create a mechanism in assisting smooth functioning of the Free Movement Regime is a need of the hour to prevent cross border human trafficking and maintain peace at the borders.
7. To functionalise the SOP on the ground it is a requisite to create infrastructures such as state run shelter homes in the border to assist human trafficking survivors and enable efficient Repatriation of such cases.
8. Role and Creation of Paralegal Volunteers at borders to provide legal assistance and support to human trafficking survivors.
The officials have finished the rounds of meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.Impulse NGO Network is grateful to his funders and to both governments for their cooperation in planning and participating in this cross-border project. It is particularly thankful to the Global Development Network (GDN) for the support. Global Development Network (GDN) is a public International Organization that builds research capacity in development globally.
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