Port of Spain, 18 October 2022 – the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Implementation Agency for Crime and
Security (IMPACS), in partnership with the Central American Integration System (SICA), concluded a four-week
bi-lingual training on Strengthening the capacities of criminal justice professionals to proactively identify,
investigate and prosecute the crime of trafficking in persons while protecting the rights of the trafficked
victims, which ended on 7 October 2022.
The training, funded under the Joint fund for CARICOM-SPAIN Scientific and Technical Cooperation, is a
precursor to further work in the area inclusive of a guidance document for the use by Member States in
addressing investigations in relation to human trafficking
The training brought together English and Spanish-speaking public officials from sixteen CARICOM and
Associated States namely Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominica,
Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and seven (7) SICA Member States, namely Costa Rica,
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. A total of two hundred and
sixty-five officials participated in this training, representing their respective Immigration, Police Service,
Customs, Public Prosecutions, Judiciary, Intelligence, Labour Inspectors and Social Services.
Facilitators comprised regional and country subject matter experts from participating CARICOM and SICA
member states, and experts from the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) International
Organisation for Migration (IOM), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and United Nations
International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
Participants were trained on international best practices for interviewing child and adult victims and suspects,
building a human trafficking case, effective use of multi-dimensional teams and task forces, intelligence
gathering, specialist investigative techniques and effective prosecutions. Judges and Magistrates also
participated in the training and shared their wealth of experience in prosecuting human trafficking cases.
