From 24 to 26 March, the OSCE and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) joined forces to support strengthening operational responses to youth recruitment into organized crime across South-Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through a training and policy dialogue with relevant authorities on this topic.
As these regions are increasingly interconnected through organized crime and drug trafficking routes, criminal networks systematically exploit young people for drug trafficking and street-level distribution, money laundering and violent offences. Against this backdrop, the OSCE and IDB trained front-line practitioners from law enforcement, social services and child-protection authorities on 24 and 25 March in order to help them identify and disrupt recruitment pathways before criminal careers take off.
Working on real cases, participants learned how to better identify youth at risk, including children below the age of criminal liability; assess risk and protective factors; prioritize high-risk cases. They also discussed how to design tailored interventions that address underlying drivers of recruitment, such as neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse and peer influence. A strong focus was placed on early identification and early intervention.
Practitioners exchanged emerging trends, including the growing use of social media for recruitment, and established a cross-regional network to continue sharing experiences and good practices in prevention beyond the event.
On 26 March, the OSCE and IDB also convened a high-level policy dialogue on the topic, bringing together the front-line practitioners with deputy ministers and other senior officials from the justice, interior and security ministries. Strengthening regional and cross-regional co-operation was identified as essential, particularly in light of expanding cocaine trafficking routes linking South-Eastern Europe and Latin America. Trends in the recruitment of young people into organized crime and their exploitation through social media were a key focus of the discussion. Policymakers and practitioners highlighted the urgent need to identify and hold online recruiters accountable, end impunity and strengthen measures to protect children and young people from criminal exploitation leveraging inter-agency co-operation and public-private partnerships.
"Youth recruitment and exploitation by organized crime transcends borders. This policy dialogue connects practitioners across regions to better understand recruitment tactics, disrupt them and share what works in prevention," said Alena Kupchyna, OSCE Co-ordinator of Activities to Address Transnational Threats.
"The instrumentalization of young people by organized crime is one of the most serious manifestations of institutional fragility and development gaps in Latin America. For the Inter-American Development Bank, this phenomenon not only undermines citizen security, but also erodes social cohesion, constrains economic growth, and weakens democratic governance. This high-level workshop and dialogue, convenes public sector actors and experts from Latin America and Europe to exchange experiences, enhance cross-regional co-operation, and strengthen multisectoral responses that protect young people, reinforce prevention efforts, and restore opportunities where the State must be present," said Eduardo Vergara, Chief of the Citizen Security Division at the IDB.
The activity was implemented within the framework of the OSCE extrabudgetary project " Enhancing youth crime and drug use prevention through education on legality and awareness campaigns addressing threats of organized crime and corruption ", funded by Italy, with additional support from Andorra, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland and Thailand. This activity is also part of the workplan of the Alliance for Security, Justice and Development - an initiative led by 23 LAC countries, with the participation of 13 partners and the support of the IDB as technical secretariat - under the thematic pillar focused on preventing and protecting vulnerable populations and communities from organized crime in LAC.
