Canada’s government will contribute Cdn$500,000 (US$490,000) to two projects in Peru aimed at combating human trafficking, the Canadian Ambassador to Peru, Richard Lecoq, said in a press release in Lima.
The projects are part of a 2007-2013 national plan which includes the objectives of training police and government officials and improving the skills of immigration agents in Peru’s border regions to thwart human trafficking, the release said.
The projects are being executed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM). They are being developed thanks to a hemispheric program aimed at improving the skills of government agencies and international organizations to better fight organized crime.
According to the Washington D.C.-based Inter-American Development Bank, the most vulnerable group for human trafficking in Peru is young people between 15-29 years old who want to emigrate.
“In Peru, people trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor affects both people traveling within the country and those seeking better opportunities abroad, especially in the United States, Chile and Spain,” the IDB says.
