Nassau, Bahamas, Friday 11 August 2023. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in coordination with The Bahamas Immigration Department held a two-day training on “Identification and Protection of Victims of Trafficking and Migrants in Vulnerable Situations” in New Providence on 9-10 August 2023.

The training brought together more than 20 participating officers, and the topics included an overview of key concepts as well as an overview to some operational tools such as trauma-informed interview techniques to better identify and protect victims of trafficking and migrants in vulnerable situations.

“What this workshop will hopefully do is help you to identify Victims of Trafficking, and not only identify, but know what course of action to take. You will also recognize that Trafficking in Persons is not a Bahamian Issue, or a Caribbean Issue, but a global issue. Further, you will come to understand that the identification, and protection of vulnerable migrants, is critical to ensuring that less persons fall victim to this nefarious event” pointed out Acting Director of the Department of Immigration, Dwight Beneby.

The workshop also included the development of action plans for frontline officials to integrate the training content into their everyday work, which was highlighted by the participants: "Education is our first step to make an effective impact and putting that knowledge into action takes us one step closer to the prevention, protection of victims, and the persecution of traffickers in The Bahamas," stated Grade 1 Officer Ganyell Lewis-Francis.

Also, the Regional Director Michele Klein- Solomon highlighted the importance of such activities in the Caribbean, and the role IOM plays in supporting governments in protecting migrants, especially those who are in a more vulnerable situation: “IOM is concerned about the continued prevalence of trafficking and smuggling in the region, which puts migrants at high risk of exploitation, abuse and violence. Amongst the most concerning protection risks is the increasing number of children on the move, as well as patterns of gender-based violence against migrant women”. In this sense, the activity contributes to Objective 7 of the Global Compact of Migration which looks for reducing vulnerabilities as well as Objectives 10 (prevent, combat and eradicate trafficking in persons in the context of international migration) and 11 (manage borders in an integrated, secure and coordinated manner).

While this training activity focused on immigration officers based on the island of New Providence, some of the follow up actions requested by the Government of The Bahamas to IOM include additional training for officers in Bimini and Grand Bahama.

This activity is part of recent IOM efforts in The Bahamas through the Western Hemisphere Program, with the generous support of the United States Department of State Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration (PRM), that included the complementary trainings on “Essentials of Migration Management” (26-28  July 2023) with governmental officers and the “Media Training on migration and Human Rights” conducted with journalists (8-9 August 2023). For more information, please contact Brendan Tarnay – btarnay@iom.int.