Africa-Press – Lesotho. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) has donated document examination equipment to Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS). The equipment will be used to combat
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) across the 10 districts of Lesotho. Speaking at the handover on Wednesday, IOM Lesotho Head of Office Lesotho Eriko Nishimura said the
organization donated 40 sets of document examination equipment to the anti-TIP Unit and TIP focal point police officers. She said the police officers received
a theoretical and practical training on document examination and were equipped with new skills to identify the fraudulent documents which will support their
daily tasks in protecting the nation. She appreciated the participation of Police Officers from anti-TIP and Migrant Control Units as well as TIP focal
points from Child and Gender Protection Unit (CGPU) for their dedication and commitment to fight against this inhuman crime called TIP. Nishimura noted that
recently they supported joint inspection among the police, immigration and labor inspector and have realized how much work, challenges and risks are involved to fulfill their mandate.
The United States (US) Embassy Representative Juan Reyes said combating human trafficking is a top priority to the US government in its effort to strengthen the capacity of the government of
Lesotho to manage migration in a sustainable and phenomenal way. He said they deeply appreciate IOM’s effort to ensure that Lesotho is seeking to counter Trafficking in persons.
“The past year Lesotho has increased stakeholders coordination team in investigation
and prosecutions and it has identified anti trafficking and smuggling unit focal points for Lesotho’s 10 districts. It also increased support for shelter
and protective services projectors. The government has also allocated funds for TIP related services and victim protection. It has finalized and implemented
guidelines for victim identification reform and increased TIP specific training sensitization effort,” he explained. The Commissioner of Police (COMPOL)
Holomo Molibeli said LMPS is aware of the scourge of trafficking in persons which is somehow inhuman in nature. “Trafficking in persons need actions not
any form of nice talking and what we are trying to do now is to capacitate LMPS to the level whereby all the police officers are aware and able to take actions
against this scourge. People are trafficked to do inhuman activities; people take advantage of poverty and promise luring jobs,” he said. The COMPOL said it is up to them as
the police officers to ensure that they engage communities to raise awareness of this act. ”We cannot do this alone but in collaboration with other departments, stakeholders and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is performing
a wonderful job currently in engaging the communities and creating awareness. It is easy to use technology these days as people falsify other’s identity
documents to perform their acts of trafficking,” he notified. He showed that Lesotho documents, especially passports are usually queried in other countries because most of
them have been found invalid. Molibeli said this equipment will make it easy for them to question misinformation and continue training others. He promised that by October this year, the equipment will be fully functional in TIP offices in all districts of Lesotho.
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