By Wendy Anders

High-level Costa Rican judicial, police, immigration, and other government officials met today with Canadian experts to discuss and plan actions towards a stronger and more coordinated effort on curbing human trafficking in the country, stated the judiciary branch in a press release.

The experts reviewed a report on the human trafficking mapping project which began in September 2015 and which will last until August 2018 under the coordination of the Quebec, Canada-based non-profit International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR).

Guillaume Landry, General Director of IBCR presented the results which aim to enhance Costa Rican government institutions in to providing attention and treatment to victims of trafficking, training the judiciary on handling judicial hearings related to the issue, and strengthen inter-institutional coordination.

“Emphasis must be placed on prevention. This is a crime against humanity whose victims number around 4 million people worldwide. We must work towards human development and towards ending poverty, and this is the job of the central government,” said Costa Rican Vice-President Ana Helena Chacón Echeverría at the meeting.

Chacón Echeverría made reference to Costa Rica’s law against human and migrant trafficking which went into effect in February 2013, and summarized the efforts made by the national coalition against human trafficking (CONATT) established under this law in which a dozen national institutions collaborate to tackle the problem.

At the meeting, Canadian Ambassador to Costa Rica Michael Gort, said Canada’s international cooperation will provide $2 million in financing for prevention of human trafficking especially among children through programs run by IBCR.

“Trafficking is one of the most lucrative illicit businesses, which feeds off of enslaving the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized populations. The mapping shows how we as countries, institutions and individuals are committed to bringing down this trade, in the name of the universal value of liberty,” said Gort. “For Canada it is crucial to support this type of project,” he concluded.

Costa Rica’s Supreme Court President Zarela Villanueva Mong also participated in the activity and said that, “We must act now. The judiciary along with the public prosecutor’s office, the adjunct prosecutor on human and migrant trafficking, the judicial investigative agency, and the office of attention and protection of victims, are the institutions with the greatest possibility of carrying out the recommendations made in this report. The main improvements needed are with providing assistance and treatment to women and children who are victims of trafficking.”