Mexico City - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the C&A Foundation, affiliated with the international clothing brand of the same name, will train members of industrial chambers, public officials and members of civil society from the state of Puebla.

This public-private alliance seeks to strengthen the mechanisms of intersectoral coordination and the capacities of the government, civil society and the private sector of the state of Puebla to prevent, detect and assist victims of human trafficking, forced labour and child labour. The project will seek to achieve this objective through theoretical-practical workshops and working groups.

According to the State Ministry of Welfare, Puebla is lagging behind other states in terms of social development, with 59.5% of its population in poverty. This, coupled with the poor regulation and supervision by labour authorities and the normalization of precarious labour conditions, allows for the proliferation of trafficking in persons for the purpose of labour exploitation, forced labour and child labour.

“Given the problem of trafficking in persons in Mexico, IOM faces this challenge by promoting the link between the public and private sectors to generate coordination mechanisms aimed at establishing actions for the benefit of providing social integration and assistance to victims of trafficking,” said Christopher Gascon, Head of Mission of IOM Mexico.

For his part, Stephen Birtwistle, Manager of the Labour Rights Program at Fundación C&A, said that “Mexico is going through a historic moment of renewing its rights. However, there are still many challenges. It is imperative to equip all key actors with the necessary skills to identify, eradicate and prevent forced labour in the apparel industry in Mexico. It is essential to add the voices of the public, private and civil society sectors, and we believe that this will mean the success of this initiative to combat labour exploitation in the industry”.

The C&A Foundation is present in eight countries collaborating on projects with more than 300 non-governmental organizations on five programs.

For more information contact Vanessa Foronda, IOM Mexico, email: vforonda@iom.int, Tel: +55 5536 3922 Ext. 107, or the Communication & Media team of IOM Mexico, Email: iommexicocomunica@iom.int, Tel: +55 5536 3922 Ext. 119.