embassy events

Human Trafficking for Forced Labor Seminar

Department of Justice

The U.S. Embassy Prague in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration sponsored and organized a five-day program (October 9 – 13, 2006) focused on Human Trafficking for Forced Labor.

As a part of the program, Mark Kappelhoff, a U.S. federal prosecutor and head of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, shared his experience with Czech counterparts on issues ranging from investigating to prosecuting cases of trafficking in persons.  Mr. Kappelhoff focused the discussion specifically on the problem of forced labor. He explained the roles of U.S. governmental and non-governmental institutions in combating trafficking in persons within the United States and stressed the importance of cooperation among NGO’s, police and prosecutors.  Mr. Kappelhoff explained the significant role of federal trafficking task forces in smoothing cooperation among federal and local police as well as NGO’s. He also described the critical role of victim-witness coordinators working in police and prosecutor offices in obtaining the trust and cooperation of trafficking victims.

The five-day program supported an inter-agency dialogue and brought together representatives of different Czech ministries fighting human trafficking and opened the door for future cooperation between U.S. and Czech counterparts.  Representatives of the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Finance and Labor and Social Affairs participated.  Law enforcement officials including representatives of the organized crime unit, foreigners police and customs, joined NGO representatives and labor inspectors to discuss the situation in the Czech Republic and share views on possible future cooperation in fighting this growing international problem in the Czech Republic.