Counter Trafficking

Trafficking in persons is a crime that violates human rights, destroys lives and affects every country in the world. Due to regional political instability, conflict and economic pressures, migrants in Turkey are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.

Our primary aim at IOM Turkey is to prevent trafficking in persons and protect victims while offering options for safe and sustainable reintegration and/or return to their home countries.

IOM implements a broad range of activities in partnership with governmental institutions, NGOs and international organizations. Our approach is based on three principles that govern all our counter-trafficking activities globally:

• Respect for human rights
• Physical, mental and social well-being of the individual and his or her community
• Sustainability through institutional capacity building of governments and civil society

IOM Turkey works to address the many areas of counter trafficking in the overall context of providing solutions for managing migration. We do this in three ways:

Prevention: Raising awareness among law enforcement, judges, prosecutors and other related authorities. We also equip vulnerable populations with information necessary to better protect themselves from the tactics used by traffickers to attract potential victims.

Protection: Through our implementing partners, IOM provides direct assistance to victims of trafficking by providing both expertise and funding for shelters.

Technical Cooperation: Training Turkish government and civil society institutions to better address the challenges posed by human trafficking, such as police, judges and public prosecutors as well as technical support in the development of counter-trafficking legislation, policies and procedures and infrastructural upgrades.

In addition, we have provided trainings for judges and prosecutors and provided financial and technical support to three specialized shelters for VoTs.

Child Early and Forced Marriage

 

Child, Early and Forced Marriage is gaining increasing recognition as an issue in Turkey that demands attention. Social norms, violence against women, barriers to educational opportunities, financial constraints and humanitarian crises have been found to be the main drivers of child marriage in the country. Mostly affecting girls, child marriage denies the right of choice of a spouse and a future, creating devastating social, psychological, economic and health consequences for the girls and young women, their children and the community as a whole.

We are working in Turkey to combat CEFM in different ways, firstly through public and institutional awareness raising of CEFM as a serious concern in Turkey and the impact it has on society. Secondly, we aim to build upon this by contributing to prevention, early detection and response to cases of CEFM throughout the country – along with effective monitoring mechanisms to inform the process. By building the capacity of governmental institutions and collaborating with experienced partners, IOM Turkey seeks promote favourable social norms and attitudes that contribute to combatting CEFM.