Multidisciplinary teams of police and prosecutors combat human trafficking in Bolivia

Environmental crime, human trafficking, organized crime… criminal activities are increasingly transcending national borders. Cooperation between justice and security institutions is essential to combat these crimes.

The European program PAcCTO, – co-managed by FIIAPP and Expertise France – has held in Sucre (Bolivia) a specialization workshop for the Specialized Multidisciplinary Team (EME) on human trafficking.

A prosecutor from the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Portugal participated as an expert. The activity was aimed at members of the EME, made up of Bolivian police officers and prosecutors belonging to the specialized anti-trafficking units of both institutions.

In this specialization workshop, work was done on updating the Manual for the Investigation of Crimes under Law No. 263 on the fight against trafficking in persons and on the Single Protocol for the Care of Victims of Trafficking in Persons. This has made it possible to improve the capacity of the institutions that make up the EME in the criminal prosecution of the crime and also in the protection of victims, avoiding their revictimization and transferring the victim-centered approach to any investigative process.

Since its creation, the EME on trafficking has been able to enhance the capacities of police and prosecutorial institutions by facilitating and strengthening inter-institutional cooperation mechanisms based on a climate of greater trust.

Also participating in this workshop were members of the bilateral Project to Support the Strategy to Combat Drug Trafficking – Bridge Phase 2021-2023, financed by the European Union and implemented by FIIAPP in Bolivia. In fact, there is already a long experience of coordination between the two projects in the fight against human trafficking.

This coordination exercise between programs and projects of the European Union and between European agencies substantially improves the effectiveness of the actions carried out, obtaining better results and providing a better service to the population. In addition, on the other hand, it substantially improves the efficiency in the management of economic resources by taking advantage of the different economies of scale offered by this cooperation.