SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh police and border guards Tuesday (April 30) concluded training organised by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on improving the identification and suppression of human trafficking channels in Kazakhstan.
Stopping the illegal export, import and transit of human trafficking victims was the focus of the two-day-long seminar in Shymkent, the OSCE said in a statement.
Terrorist organisations such as "Islamic State" (IS) have used human trafficking to help finance their causes and as a tool in recruitment. For example, to attract new fighters, IS kidnapped Yazidi women and girls in Iraq to be used as sex slaves for men who join the militant group.
The OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US Embassy in Kazakhstan and the Interior Ministry (MVD) of Kazakhstan jointly organised the seminar.
Twenty police officers from the city of Shymkent and the provinces of Zhambyl, Kyzylorda and Turkistan, as well as officers from the National Security Committee (KNB) State Border Service (GPS)'s Ontustik office, attended the workshop.
The personnel learned the "mechanisms of human trafficking, the specifics of investigation of human trafficking, as well as the international and national anti-trafficking legislation", the OSCE said, adding that the training included "techniques for in-depth psychological analysis of a suspect's verbal and non-verbal behaviour as well as ways to identify specific risk indicators".
Participants took part in a number of practical exercises to apply their newly acquired knowledge, the OSCE said.
The workshop was part of the OSCE Programme Office's long-standing efforts to support Kazakhstan in fighting human trafficking and in implementing the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings.
