RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking (NCCHT) in cooperation with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has concluded a comprehensive four-part training program for 350 participants from all 13 of the Kingdom's regions involved in collecting, managing, and analyzing data on trafficking-in-persons crimes. This is merely the latest in a comprehensive series of training programs that followed the issuance in March of Saudi Arabia's first-ever National Referral Mechanism, a national coordinative framework for trafficking-in-persons cases involving nearly a dozen Saudi ministries, authorities, and other governmental and non-governmental bodies. Commenting on the training program, Vice-Chair of the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, Sarah Al-Tamimi: "The completion of this phase of the training programs is part of a holistic agenda we have that approaches combating trafficking from a diversity of angles. We are committed to combating this abominable crime and protecting everyone, without exception, in the Kingdom. This is truly a crime that knows no borders and requires all of us to work together toward its eradication." The partnership between the NCCHT and UNODC has a number of such training and capacity-building programs. According to the head of the UNODC's Representative for the Gulf Region, Judge Hatem Fouad, "Our partnership with the Kingdom reflects the reality of the complex, international, and multifaceted fight against trafficking in persons. I thank the Committee members and Vice-Chair Sarah Al-Tamimi for their fruitful cooperation and I thank the participants of the training programs for their active participation in continuing to improve the Kingdom's anti-trafficking response."
