A United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) official has called on law enforcement agencies to use intelligence-led operations to detect and curb human trafficking.
Speaking at a workshop on Human Trafficking at the Botswana Police College this week, Advocate Johan Kruger said that past experiences in countries where illegal trafficking of people is rampant have shown that regular police routine and activity rarely lead to the detection of this crime.
He said that most trafficking cases have been unearthed through the use of specialized intelligence operations hence his advice to law enforcement officers. He added that such operations should be aimed at ringleaders of this crime, which he said is usually in organized form.
He further encouraged the agencies to forge partnerships with their counterparts in other countries to curb the problem, as it can be cross-border or transnational.
Advocate Kruger who is also a UNODC Regional Officer for Southern Africa further called on governments within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to come up with specialized legal frameworks on human trafficking. Such frameworks, he said, will make it easier for law enforcement officers to address this problem.
He however, said that in the absence of such a legal guide, law enforcers could still charge the perpetrators with other offences such as kidnapping, abduction and others depending on the nature of a particular case.
In her remarks the Botswana Police Director of Training, Mrs Maloti Gabositwe thanked the United Nations for empowering law enforcement agencies with information on human trafficking. Senior Assistant Commissioner Gabositwe said that the facilitation of the workshop by the Botswana Police is a clear indication that the organization is committed to understanding this crime and how it can be tackled.
The workshop was attended by 59 law enforcement officers from the Botswana Police Service, Directorate of Public Prosecutions and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.