Through the Ministry of Interior, the Government signed on February 20th a memorandum of understanding to strengthen institutional cooperation to prevent and combat trafficking in persons in the country. The Vice-Minister of Interior, António Armindo, and the Head of the UN Women Mission in Timor-Leste, Nishtha Satyam, signed the memorandum of understanding at the Ministry of Interior’s premises.
Under this agreement, there will be training for the members of the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL- Portuguese acronym), as well as socialisation activities with the communities, mainly in rural areas, with the main focus on preventing trafficking in persons.
The training will aim to build the capacity of the PNTL members to identify and deal with cases of trafficking in persons, including identifying victims, investigating claims, and protecting victims. Topics such as the human rights of victims, the importance of non-criminalization of victims, and inter-institutional cooperation to combat trafficking in persons will also be addressed. In addition, the socialisation activities with the communities aim to raise awareness about the risks and consequences of trafficking in persons and encourage reporting suspected cases to competent authorities.
After signing the agreement, Vice-Minister António Armindo expressed that “this is an important step towards strengthening cooperation, to jointly carry out training to PNTL members and communities on trafficking in persons”.
He also explained that “the socialisation activities will focus on sharing information about the existing laws and policies on this issue, mainly in communities in rural areas, to disseminate information on preventing and combating trafficking in persons. 
The Minister stressed the “importance of these public awareness actions so that people can increase their knowledge and ability to recognise the trafficking in persons crime because due to the sensitive nature of this crime, victims often do not report it.
He also highlighted that the “major priority of the program is prevention”. He expressed “the hope that this partnership can give effective support to the Government for the socialisation of information and capacity building of the population so that the community can have adequate information about trafficking in persons and supporting the victims”.
The General Commander of the PNTL, Police Commissioner Faustino da Costa; the General Director of Administration and Finance, Mariano de Araújo; the Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Advice (GPEA- Portuguese acronym), Francisco Soares; the National Finance Director, Abel Abreu da Costa Belo, and legal advisors from the Ministry of Interior also attended the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding.