The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Kari Johnstone, concluded today a two-day follow-up country visit to Mongolia, reviewing progress made since the Office's last visit in 2017 and strengthening cooperation with Mongolian authorities on addressing evolving trafficking challenges.
"Mongolia has taken meaningful steps forward since our 2017 visit, strengthening child protection laws, expanding specialized police capacity, and improving inter-agency coordination," said Special Representative Johnstone, "Sustaining this momentum requires continued investment in long-term victim services and the formal establishment of a state-led national referral mechanism to ensure every victim receives the protection they deserve."
During the visit, Johnstone met with key national counterparts, including the National Sub-Council on Trafficking in Persons under the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, the Criminal Police Department of the National Police Agency, the General Authority for Child and Family Development and Protection, the General Agency for Labour and Social Welfare, the Consular Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Human Rights Commissioner.
Discussions focused on victim identification and referral systems for both national and foreign victims, the formal establishment of a national referral mechanism and adoption of the next national anti-trafficking action plan, child protection, labour trafficking, and the growing threat of technology-facilitated trafficking and forced criminality.
Held concurrently with bilateral meetings, the OSCE convened a two-day national workshop, "Trafficking in Human Beings in Mongolia: Workshop on Leveraging Key Tools to Respond to Emerging Patterns." Co-opened with O. Munkhbaatar, Assistant Prosecutor General and Head of the Criminal Law Enforcement Department of the State Prosecutor General's Office, the workshop brought together law enforcement officers, prosecutors, labour inspectors, and policy experts to address two critical challenges: the misuse of technology, including artificial intelligence, in trafficking recruitment and exploitation, and the use of legal business structures and supply chains in emerging trafficking patterns. Day two centered on a table-top exercise to identify and respond to trafficking into cyber scam operations, a fast-growing form of trafficking for forced criminality that has spread from Southeast Asia into parts of the OSCE region, with documented cases involving Mongolian victims, as per the recent OSCE research .
The workshop was conducted under two OSCE extra-budgetary projects on supply chains and technology-facilitated trafficking, with financial support from Austria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Malta, and Norway.
