UN Agency Urges Mandatory Training to Combat Human Trafficking on Flights

FILE PHOTO: Activists take part in a ‘Walk for Freedom’ to protest against human trafficking, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, October 17, 2015. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File PhotoREUTERS

4/23/2018  BY ALLISON LAMPERT

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Airlines should offer mandatory training to prevent human trafficking, the United Nations’ aviation agency said in a new document that could further empower cabin crew on the front lines of global efforts to combat such trafficking.

Civil aviation authorities should “require” carriers to teach staff to identify and respond to trafficking, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said in new training guidelines for cabin crew co-published on Monday with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

While the United States already requires mandatory training for flight attendants, it was not known whether other countries that don’t have similar rules would follow suit.

Combating human trafficking, estimated as the world’s second most profitable trans-national crime according to the document, has emerged as a growing concern for global aviation. Airline trade group International Air Transport Association is eying ways to strengthen the training efforts its members are already doing “which should be announced later this year,” an IATA spokeswoman said.

“It (airline involvement) is starting to spread,” said Martin Maurino, safety, efficiency and operations officer with ICAO’s air navigation bureau. However, training programs offered by airlines like Emirates [EMIRA.UL] and budget carrier AirAsia are done voluntarily.

Canada’s Sky Regional is the first airline globally to train its pilots and flight attendants using the new UN guidelines on the identification and response to trafficking, Maurino and the carrier’s in-flight director, Mikaela Dontu, said.

Training advocates argue that countries should make such programs mandatory for airline flight attendants, pilots and ticket agents. “It’s excellent if they can do it voluntarily but the airlines weren’t doing that,” said Nancy Rivard, a former flight attendant and president of the non-profit Airline Ambassadors International. Flight attendants, who can spend hours with suspected traffickers and their victims in the air, have been credited with multiple rescues. While the guidelines apply to cabin crew, ICAO also recommends training pilots and ticket agents. “The issue of trafficking and combating this issue involves several stakeholders,” the guidelines say. The UN guidelines advise flight attendants not to confront traffickers or try to rescue the victim themselves. More than 70,000 U.S. airline staff have been trained to spot smugglers and their victims under the Blue Lightning initiative, launched in 2013 with the support of JetBlue, Delta Air Lines and others.

(Reporting By Allison Lampert; Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Bernadette Baum; Editing by)

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The new International Civil Aviation Organization Guidelines will be formally introduced  on May 28 at the office of the UN High Commission on Human Rights. Donna Hubbard has been invited as keynote speaker to share about the work of Airline Ambassadors International  See Below :

Ms. Donna Hubbard                                                                                              

Human Trafficking Awareness Trainer

Airline Ambassadors International

Dear Ms. Hubbard,

I have the pleasure to inform you that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will hold the Joint Forum on Combating Trafficking in Persons in Aviation at the Centre International de Conférences Genève, in Geneva, Switzerland on 28 May 2018.The forum will bring together for the first time, in a high-level setting, Member States, aviation industry, partners and key players in the field of human rights to discuss the important role that aviation plays in addressing the problem of trafficking in persons. The forum will also include an interactive exhibit to gain hands-on knowledge of issues related to trafficking in persons.

I would like to extend an invitation to you to speak at the forum and present the Airline Ambassadors International’s initiative for combating human trafficking in aviation to combat human trafficking and the impact of trafficking in persons on victims. Information pertaining to the forum, tentative programme and online registration is available at: www.icao.int/meetings/HTForum2018.

Yours sincerely,

Director

Air Navigation Bureau

cc: President, Airline Ambassadors International