Celebrating International Day against Human Trafficking

On july 28, 2022, a roundtable on Human Trafficking was held as part of the celebration of the International Day against Trafficking in Persons, celebrated on july 30 every year. The year’s theme is “Use and Abuse of Technology”. In these activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation was represented by the Director General in charge of Multilateral Relations Ambassador Isaïe Kubwayo.

 In his speech, Ambassador Isaïe Kubwayo indicated that the international day for the fight against human trafficking reminds us of the exact extent of human trafficking and encourages everyone, as citizens of world, to take responsibility for formulating the necessary policies to prevent this scourge but also to save the victims.

 Ambassador Isaïe Kubwayo reminded that the use of technology is also a great opportunity for the eradication of human trafficking. Thus, prevention and awareness-raising activities on the safe use of the internet and social media could contribute to mitigating the risk of becoming a victim of online trafficking. He also noted that users of the law can leverage technology when investigating human trafficking or prosecuting digital evidence.

On the World Day against Human Trafficking, Ambassador Isaïe said that participants should come together to formulate necessary strategies to eradicate this crime against humanity, including the regular monitoring of all social media users in order to track down anyone who uses these means to practice this crime.

It is within this framework that the Government of Burundi has, since the end of 2021, chosen the path of negotiations of bilateral agreements with certain countries of destination of Burundian migrant workers, and has already signed, in october 3, 2021, two Agreements with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He also indicated that the negotiations are continuing with other Gulf countries, notably the Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

In the same vein of finding all possible means to combat human trafficking, Ambassador Isaïe said that the Government of Burundi has set up, since january 2022, a Consultation and Monitoring Commission on the prevention and repression of human trafficking, composed of executives from the various institutions concerned with the fight against human trafficking, among others the Ministry having Foreign Affairs in his attributions, the Ministry in charge of public security, the Ministry in charge of justice and the Ministry having labor and employment in its attributions.

As for the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Burundi, Mr. Damien MAMA, the fight against human trafficking requires a global response to achieve lasting results. Any intervention strategy is based on three main axes: protection, prevention and prosecution of perpetrators of human trafficking. It is therefore essential to build national authorities capable of adopting and implementing preventive measures and protection mechanisms, as well as ensuring the prosecution of the perpetrators of this crime.

It should be noted that the participants shared the same understanding that the problem of human trafficking is for the whole world and that we must combine efforts to combat it in order to eradicate it.