Institution: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Year: 2019 - 2020
Implementing partner:
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Brief overview:
Migratory flows transiting through Mexico have increased in the last years. As a consequence, migrant smuggling has proliferated, generating high revenues for transnational organized crime and causing serious damage to the thousands of migrants who rely on these criminal networks to illegally cross the northern border of Mexico.
Consulting services provided consisted in the development and implementation of an operational-practical training program on the subject of migrant smuggling and the identification, prevention and prosecution of smuggling of migrants and other related crimes against migrants. The training program was targeted at law enforcement personnel and members of the Prosecutor's Office of the Attorney General of the Mexican Republic, police officers, and public officials from the National Institute of Migration. The training program was conducted in 15 states in Mexico under the SOMMEX Project (Smuggling of Migrants in Mexico). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the training programme was adapted to a remote format, making the best use of communication tools and virtual platforms to achieve a dynamic an innovative online training course.
The training programme reached more than 800 government officials and, according to the reports provided by beneficiary institutions, identification of migrant smuggling activities increased by more than 100% after the training programme.
