Human Rights / Human Trafficking

In the realm of human rights, GEMMO team possesses hands-on experience and has to its credit successful implementation of a mega project which resolved against and addressed the issue of human trafficking across Pakistan and migrant smuggling to Central Asia, the Arab states and Europe with European Commission (EC) support from 2008 -11. As part of the project, GEMMO team under the banner of BEFARe conducted a base line study across the country to assess the conditions and dynamics of Illegal Migration, Human Smuggling & Trafficking (IMHST) in Pakistan. The findings of the study provided an integrated analysis of IMHST in Pakistan and identified areas / districts considered as human trafficking and migrant smuggling hubs. Following the completion of baseline study, project activities were launched in districts identified as a source, transit or destination for human trafficking and migrant smuggling. Extensive community mobilization was carried out and 500 Community Organizations (COs) were established in the targeted districts. These COs were imparted capacity building trainings in which approx. 5,000 community members were sensitized about the issue of IMHST, its various forms prevalent in the country and the support mechanism available to address these issues. These vulnerable communities – including victims of human trafficking and smuggling – were also provided vocational skills training wherein a total of 2,480 male & female beneficiaries were trained in different trades thereby minimizing their likelihood to become victims of human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

As part of the project, GEMMO team also enhanced the capacities of government entities i.e. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Police, Frontier Corps, Pakistan Rangers etc. through training sessions on human trafficking and smuggling, its causes and consequences, intelligence gathering and victims’ identification. A total of 250 senior members of the law enforcing agencies benefitted from these capacity building sessions. Moreover, six policy seminars were organized on illegal migration and human trafficking in which 280 officials including representatives from Bangladesh, Iran and Afghanistan participated.