Bolivia and the EU join forces against human trafficking and smuggling

Bolivia is hosting the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between FIIAPP, represented by its director Anna Terrón, and the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency (MJTI) of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, represented by Minister Héctor Arce Zaconeta. It is being promoted by the bilateral project on the fight against drugs and related crimes. 

 The MOU includes the goal of promoting the coordination and cooperation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and FIIAPP on several different issues, with a particular focus on the interest in combating human trafficking and smuggling, and the smuggling of migrants and related crimes, as well as developing and implementing public policies and training public professionals, among other things. 

The MoU does not restrict collaboration only to this project, but opens up the possibility of joining the multiple regional programmes managed by FIIAPP in the Latin American region linked to the MJTI, such as EL PAcCTO, which maintains close collaboration with the bilateral project. 

The signing of this agreement will improve the impact, effectiveness and use of economies of scale, which will lead to an improvement in responsibility in the management of the economic funds with which these projects and programmes are financed. 

On matters of Justice, an educational activity was held in the AECID training centre based on a mock trial of a real case involving three trafficking victims. The purpose of the course is to improve the training of Bolivian professionals in the reading and analysis of sentences handed down for trafficking in human beings. 

The project began in November 2016 and has funding from the European Union, AECID, FIIAPP and the French Ministry of the Interior. It is managed by AECID, and by FIIAPP in coordination with its main local partner, the coordination secretariat of the national council for the fight against illicit drug trafficking (SC-CONALTID).