Wednesday, July 30 2014

Armenia has joined the  World Day against Trafficking in Persons marked on 30 July. It was Belarus' initiative to designate 30 July as a World Day against Trafficking in Persons. 

As the head of the Division for Organized Crime of the Armenian Police, Robert Grigoryan, said at today's press-conference, since 2012 till the first half of 2014, 31 lawsuits have been filed in Armenia on trafficking. The total of 39 persons were recognized as victims, 28 of which are women, and 14 - under 16s. 

12 out of the above mentioned criminal cases are about involvement of women in prostitution at the territory of Armenia, 5 - involvement in begging, 4 - involvement of Armenian citizens in prostitution in the United Arab Emirates, 3 - exploitation of women in Turkey and 3 - exploitation at the territory of Russia. Another two criminal cases are about the forced removal of organs of a man. According to one of the criminal cases, several citizens of Armenia were transported to Sri-Lanka and one of their kidneys were removed. 6 persons were recognized as victims  of this case. The lawsuit has been already completed and the criminal defendant imprisoned. 

Grigoryan said that in Armenia informedness of citizens about trafficking has resulted in decrease of the trafficking cases.

For his part, the head of the working group for fighting trafficking, Vahram Kojoyan, pointed at the data of the annual report of US Department of State on fighting trafficking 2014, according to which Armenia is the only CIS country, that has found itself among the first category of the countries effectively fighting trafficking. Azerbaijan and Turkey are in the second category. 

UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Armenia, Bradley Busetto, positively assessed the work implemented by the Armenian government for fighting trafficking for the last 10 years. He means the legislative reforms, using of the legal acts and active cooperation with other countries. He expressed hope that thanks to the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, the level of informedness of citizens about trafficking will grow, 
To note, the World Day against Trafficking in Persons has been marked for the first time on 30 July 2014.