Fighting against human trafficking and organised crime in the Caribbean

The fight against human trafficking and organised crime is a challenge that has to be tackled through cooperation and coordination. These types of crimes and organisations are spread over many countries, operating outside borders. The MCBS Caribbean programme, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by FIIAPP and the IOM, is working in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica to improve regional security and fight human trafficking.  

After almost a year of the MCBS project, the first meeting was held by the steering committee to take stock of its achievements and plan further activities. The programme has been praised for its approach to influencing public policies and institutional agendas at a regional level, with a specific focus on results that are adapted to current circumstances.  

The meeting took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development in Santo Domingo with the participation of the focal points of the programme’s counterparts in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, both in-person and online, most importantly the security forces and the prosecutor’s offices in the three countries. The European Union delegation to the three countries and the MCBS Caribbean team from both FIIAPP and the IOM also took part.  

The main achievements during the first stage of the project included improvements to the collaboration and coordination between the different security forces on both sides of the border involved in the fight against organised crime and trafficking in human beings and the strengthening of INTERPOL’s national units as a hub to coordinate protocols and information exchange systems together with AMERIPOL.  

The first meeting held by the MCBS programme steering committee reflected the commitment of those involved to the undertaking of future activities, as well as serving to assess the good health of the project, considering the current situation.