TRELAWNY, Jamaica (JIS) — Seventy-two recommendations geared at boosting the country’s response to trafficking in persons have come out of a two-day international conference hosted in Trelawny on Wednesday and Thursday.

The recommendations are the result of breakout sessions on the last day of the conference, hosted at the Meliá Braco Hotel by the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NATFATIP), which focused on four areas – victim’s treatment and a gendered approach to human trafficking, child trafficking and how to prevent it, sustaining the fight against human trafficking, and social media and the Internet.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and NATFATIP Chair, Carol Palmer, said the recommendations will feed into the review of a plan of action to be presented to Cabinet for approval.

“Many of the recommendations will require us to build on work that we are doing and in some instances formalise relationships. [We are looking] to strengthen the capacity of the Secretariat to be able to drive the national effort,” she said.

Recommendations include the establishment of an effective needs and security assessment mechanism to properly screen clients and guide technical staff; increased research using sex disaggregated data to inform policy and programmes; development of stronger partnerships with the media, academia and Bureau of Gender Affairs; and increased mechanisms for building awareness and sensitisation.

Palmer said the new action plan will include establishing partnerships with academia to improve the capacity of Jamaica’s key anti-trafficking stakeholders in the area of social media, the Internet and new technologies.

“I hope that tertiary-level institutions will be interested in helping NATFATIP to develop appropriate applications to reach more children and young people. We will be seeking to formalise partnerships going forward,” she said.

She noted that victim support therapy is also an element for attention. Consideration is also to be given to the training of social workers and the development of standard operating procedures for the sector.

“We need help from everyone, all groups and sectors, especially the media, to reach the nooks and crannies all across the island, to reach people and help them to appreciate this grave crime and how they can protect themselves,” Palmer said.

The NATFATIP International Conference was hosted under the theme ‘From Victim to Survivor – the Hard Road to Recovery’.

Its objectives were to increase public awareness on human trafficking; train officials throughout the public and private sectors to identify victims of human trafficking; and explore the provision of appropriate protection and assistance to victims of trafficking, particularly women and children.