In the framework of the Action on “Strengthening the Human Rights Protection of Migrants and Victims of Human Trafficking in Turkey”, academic staff of the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy, and staff of the General Command of Gendarmerie attended training on human rights and combating the smuggling of migrants, organised in Antalya between 10 - 13 October 2022.
Through this training, which was specifically tailored to suit the needs of the Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy, 46 participants increased their knowledge on a variety of fields relevant to their activities. The training subjects were centred on human rights-based approaches related to the smuggling of migrants and such topics including, the nature of the actors and the modus operandi of smugglers, the differences between migrants smuggling and human trafficking, with particular attention on the gender-related and children’s rights dimension of this phenomenon. The national and international framework on the smuggling of migrants was also presented and detailed.
Representatives from General Command of Gendarmerie also contributed to the training and provided an overview of anti-smuggling actions carried out by the Gendarmerie, while also narrating case examples from the field.
The training sessions were highly interactive which facilitated discussions on the challenges faced in the field. Participants reported that the training content was well-prepared and tailored to their needs, which had the effect of further enhancing their knowledge while bringing them a novel perspective on the phenomenon of smuggling of migrants in the context of human rights.
At the end of the training, representatives from the Academy and the Council of Europe expressed their willingness to engage in further cooperation in capacity-building activities in the future.
The Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy is a training and an education centre which provides military students and professionals higher education, with the aim of training qualified law enforcement personnel. The Academy organises remote, face-to-face and hybrid certificate programs with national and international validity. These are focused on the fields of security, law enforcement, criminal investigations, terrorism, maritime affairs and much more besides. The Academy also directs in-house trainings in line with the training needs of General Command of Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Command.
This activity was organised within the framework of the Action “Strengthening the human rights protection of migrants and victims of human trafficking in Turkey”, which is a part of the European Union/Council of Europe collaboration titled “Horizontal Facility-II for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
