- The campaign is aim to increase awareness on the risks and challenges associated with human trafficking
- UNODC representative in Pakistan urged to mobilize all the relevant stakeholders to empower the institutions
ISLAMABAD: The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in collaboration with Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), on Monday rolled out a nationwide public awareness campaign against human-trafficking and migrant-smuggling.
The campaign is supported by the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the US State Department and the EU.
“The nationwide rollout will… run until December 2018,” the UNODC said in a statement. “The aim of the campaign is to increase awareness on the risks, issues and challenges associated with human trafficking and migrant smuggling, to create community-led efforts as well as a national discourse on the topic, which will ultimately lead to the engagement of policy makers.”
The campaign will focus on high-risk areas of Pakistan, and will include the distribution of brochures and the display of banners in key districts, a social media page, the radio broadcasting of public service announcements and short messaging services, the UNODC said.
“We need to mobilize all the relevant stakeholders to empower the institutions and promote innovation in conventional approaches,” Cesar Guedes, the UNODC’s representative for Pakistan, said in the statement.
“When it comes to awareness raising we must target the community at the grassroots level to have a deeper impact,” he added.
“Much more needs to be done in terms of raising awareness among a broader section of society, including local communities, policy makers, local government representatives and the media.”