Targeting Financial Flows from Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing & Human Trafficking, 10-12/12/19

What: Strengthening Effective Targeting of Illicit Financial Flows from Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Trafficking in Human Beings

Where: Tunis, Tunisia

When: 10-12 December 2019

Who:     Over 100 Participants

Participating institutions:

(Law enforcement agencies, financial intelligence units, intelligence services, judiciary, civil society and the private sector)

Context

Human trafficking is one of the most profitable crimes in the world, with the International Labour Organisation estimating that forced labour generates over USD 150 billion per year. Due to these sizeable proceeds, human trafficking is often in step with money laundering. Financial flows from this type of crime can differ significantly from one case to another, presenting unique challenges to law enforcement agencies. Therefore, identification of challenges, emerging trends and typologies, as well as ways and best approaches to deal with them at local, regional and broader international level constitutes the objective of the various Institutions active in tackling this matter.

While recognising the combined threats of terrorism, money laundering and human being trafficking as global in their nature, it is also crucial to consider their impact, first and foremost, at the local and regional level. For instance, criminal organisations draw profit from migration routes within countries and regions of origin; these countries and regions subsequently face considerable impact on their security. It is therefore necessary to develop a corresponding response, taking into account the manifestations at the ground level in order to highlight the reinforcement of local responses with the support and commitment of international instruments.

Objectives

This Continental Conference sought to identify opportunities to build trust, enhance cooperation and strengthen collaboration between national governments, their agencies and prosecuting authorities, civil society and the private sector in the common effort against terrorism and terrorist financ­ing. This was achieved through the following strands;

• High Level expert contributions from International and Multi-lat­eral organisations in order to set both the global and regional context and challenges;
• A panel comprising of experts and those who provided insight from, among others, the perspective of victims and inves­tigative journalists
• A day of facilitated discussion and interaction struc­tured on three themes; Trafficking in Human Beings (THB), Coun­tering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and the work of Financial Intelligence Units (FIU).

Each group provided a briefing identifying challenges and associ­ated recommendations.

Outcomes/Lesson learnt

The outcome of the event supported the following issues, and in turn supported programme design and delivery:

• Strengthening the understanding of risk posed by the intersection of human being trafficking, terrorism financing and money launder­ing;
• Enhancing implementation of the relevant international stand­ards;
• Supporting the development of regimes in higher-risk regions; and Focus on operational effectiveness and delivering change.

For more details about this, please see Newsletter 001