Transcript
George Gigauri: We've had cases of that, absolutely, parents selling their children. There's a cultural dimension here, but there is no doubt in my mind that they know that what they are doing is wrong.
Ben Robinson Drawbridge: I note that your office has been doing some work with the Police in Papua New Guinea in terms of training. What is it that you are trying to help them identify in the search for victims?
George Gigauri: We do the initial screening training to all the officers especially those on the front line and the border areas and maritime border areas. They're mainly to do with documentation and behaviour of people that they come across. But ultimately it comes down to intuition. Front line officers that I've worked with in different countries around the world, the best ones are not the ones that are best trained, they're actually the ones that can pick up certain signs and intuitively feel when there is something wrong in the relationship dynamic of a group. The deeper you dig, normally more questions arise and after you get to a certain point you have to pull the group aside and refer to more qualified people who will come in and do in-depth interviews and see if there is foul play.
Ben Robinson Drawbridge: The police that you are working with, I assume they are aware of the problem or was it something completely new?
George Gigauri: It was something very new because there was no law until 2013 that even criminalised certain elements of trafficking. So it was definitely new, but it's an education process and what we're finding now, and that's how we are structuring our training programme, is of course it's important to train all the senior, mid level management officials in most law enforcement units and agencies, not just police, I mean customs, immigration, defence as well, but actually now the focus should be going out to the provinces to the front line officers and delivering the training and the standard operating procedures there. Go to where they will find them and work at the central level and at the front line level.
Ben Robinson Drawbridge: Did you mention also that there is a public awareness element to your mission?
George Gigauri: Absolutely because if you look at countries where there is high awareness of victims, most of the identification referrals do not come from law enforcement or agencies working in this area, they come from the public at large. That is our aim, to make sure that the society understands the magnitude of the problem and most importantly what can be done by them. We are getting an increased level but there has to be a sustained awareness campaign that is done, and given the terrain of PNG and the lack of penetration of TV, radio, electricity problems et cetera, the way you do awareness is not the same as other countries. You have to physically take the message to certain areas.
