Fifteen law enforcement officials from various Police Academy departments and the Ministry’s Organized Crime, Investigation and Criminal Investigation Units finished an intensive training course today, qualifying them to be core instructors in a new, 20-hour anti-trafficking course at the Police Academy.

"The Interior Ministry and the OSCE Office in Tajikistan have been co-operating for years to improve the capacity of law enforcement agencies," said Ambassador Ivar Vikki, Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan.

"This course is an important step toward protecting the fundamental right of security of person. It ensures that police cadets will be trained to protect the rights of individuals who are vulnerable to trafficking."

The course focuses on co-operative and proactive investigation of transnational human trafficking cases and protection of trafficking victims. The need to consider the gender and age of trafficked persons also is a focus.

Ramazon Rahimov, the Deputy Interior Minister, said: "This course is an important step in implementing the tasks assigned by the Tajik Government’s National Action Plan to prevent and fight human trafficking for the period of 2006-2010."

Finland’s Foreign Ministry financed the institutionalization of the anti-trafficking course.