SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CMC) — The United States Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agency says special agents and victim assistance specialists with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have led two week-long human trafficking and child exploitation trainings for law enforcement counterparts from several Latin American and Caribbean countries at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) here.

Some of the participating countries included the Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and El Salvador, ICE said.

According to ICE, the trainings were designed to help participating law enforcement officers, agents, prosecutors and judges understand the crimes of sex trafficking/forced labor and child exploitation/sexual child abuse and how to work these types of cases. 

“The ICE HSI delegations not only provided insight into each crime but also discussed the challenges they face when investigating and prosecuting human trafficking and child exploitation cases in the United States,” ICE said. 

Marc Tetzlaff, Victim Assistance Specialist with ICE HSI Phoenix, Arizona, said victims of trafficking and exploitation have “specific needs that must be addressed for them to feel safe and comfortable to interact with law enforcement and the judicial system.”

The main objectives of the trainings were for attendees to learn new methods to investigate these crimes, in addition to gaining a better understanding of the trauma that victims encounter when they are victimised and how the trauma can impact victims’ interactions with law enforcement. 

“These needs were discussed and explored with other country-specific examples and challenges provided by attendees,” ICE said. “Likewise, the concept of forensic interviews was explored via case studies, detailing techniques that assist victims in providing more intact and complete statements.” 

Tetzlaff said the main goal was “not to tell students to work cases the same way we do in the United States, but, rather, to give them tools to take to their home countries and adapt them to their needs.”

During the sex trafficking and forced labour sessions, ICE said HSI personnel provided information on how to investigate these cases, how to properly collect evidence, and stressed the importance of identifying victims in a proactive manner instead of a reactive manner. 

“They used cases they had personally investigated and led in-depth discussions with participating officials about effective techniques and the challenges they encountered during the investigations and prosecutions,” ICE said. “Conversely, attendees discussed the different laws and unique challenges they faced when working human trafficking cases in their respective countries”.

According to the ICE HSI facilitators, participants had “a good knowledge base regarding the cycle of violence and its impact on victimisation.”

“Some participants even expressed the need to restore a victim’s dignity, which Victim Assistance Specialist Tetzlaff described as ‘spot on,’” ICE said.