Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Labor and Immigration MCILI, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, with SAFENET Carecom for Anti-human Trafficking Advisory, Committee, AHTAC, membership at Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara this week.
Deputy Director of Immigration, Chris Akosawa signed the MOU on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Labor and Immigration, and witnessed by other regional participants attending UNDP regional workshop on Ending Gender based Violence against women and children.
MCILI is leading AHTAC, an intergovernmental stakeholders, since 2012 in which the SAFENET MOU significant a milestone achievement.
During the signing ceremony, SAFENT Coordinator, Mr Nazilly Vozoto welcomed Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Labor and Immigration as a new member and looking forward to support trafficking in person victims and managing reported cases with Police, Immigration and members of the AHTAC.
Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Women, Youths, Children and Family, Affairs, WYCFA, Cedric Alependava congratulated MCILI for the efforts for AHTAC to become a successful member of SAFENET.
PS Alependava, assured MCILI as a new member to strengthen working partnerships with national and regional members to combat emerging crimes of transnational organized crimes.
Solomon Islands Immigration Division, Office of the Director of Public Prosecution and the Hope Trust of Solomon Islands are three newly members of the SAFENET network.
SAFENET is a multi-stakeholder agencies working to supports and combatting gender based violence against women, children and other vulnerable members of the society.
Human trafficking and people smuggling is also gender-based violence against women, children and other vulnerable members of the society.
The crime is always committed in the forms of labor and sexual exploitations, which is an emerging crime in Solomon Islands and the region.
Solomon Islands Immigration Division is coordinating the Anti-human Trafficking Advisory Committee (AHTAC) advocating and lobbying for the government supports for trafficking in person in Solomon Islands.
Over the past years, Immigration has been supported by SAFENE at an adhoc arrangement. The recent signing further strengthened the AHTAC and SAFENET network at the national and provincial level.
MCILI is committed supporting the Immigration reform in which prioritized trafficking in person to become a standalone legislation.
The Ministry in its efforts finalized a Cabinet paper for the government to accede to United Nation’s convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its supplementary protocols in the second quarter of 2023.
-GCU Press