Lyon: The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet
Napolitano made an historic visit to the INTERPOL General Secretariat
headquarters in order to enter into a series of agreements to enhance the
global fight against human trafficking and other serious crime.
The Department of Homeland Security launched its Blue
Campaign as a first-of-its-kind initiative, unifying the DHS components and
expanding collaboration with external partners, to more effectively combat
human trafficking through enhanced public awareness, training, victim
assistance, and law enforcement investigations to protect victims from being
trafficked both within the United States and around the world.
The agreements signed by Secretary Napolitano and INTERPOL
Chief Ronald K. Noble at the world police body’s General Secretariat
headquarters in France will assist regional and international efforts in
fighting trafficking in human beings.
In addition, with the US as the top user of INTERPOL’s
Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database, conducting more than 171
million searches so far in 2012 – the equivalent of 400 checks per minute –
Secretary Napolitano supported the creation of a Border Management Working
Group to encourage a more focused effort to strengthen border management
capacity, and greater worldwide use of this vital border protection tool which
currently contains more than 34 million records from 166 countries.
“As a border, customs and immigration agency, and one of the
largest international investigative agencies in the US, DHS is, in many
respects, the face of American law enforcement to the world. And INTERPOL is
the face of law enforcement across the globe,” said US Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano.
“INTERPOL is a vital partner in bringing many parts of the
global law enforcement community together, including their Stolen and Lost
Travel Documents database that is critical to our border and homeland security
efforts.
“The agreements we are signing today are important in
expanding our partnership to support our mission to prevent and combat crime
internationally,” concluded Secretary Napolitano.
INTERPOL Secretary General Noble said: “The US Department of
Homeland Security has made not only the US but the entire world safer by
conducting hundreds of millions of consultations of INTERPOL's databases to
identify terrorists, human traffickers, murderers, rapists, child sex offenders
and other dangerous criminals.
"If a country wants to fight human trafficking
effectively, then it should consider implementing a comprehensive programme
like DHS's Blue Campaign that encourages a holistic approach involving
increasing public awareness, training, victim assistance and law enforcement
investigations," emphasized INTERPOL's Secretary General.
Close cooperation between the DHS and INTERPOL has already
seen significant results, including the break-up of an international abuse
network after officers from the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement Homeland
Security Investigations shared seized child sexual abuse images with specialist
investigators worldwide via INTERPOL.
Subsequent investigations have so far led to the arrest of
nearly 40 sex offenders from every region of the world, including in The
Netherlands, where a man was sentenced to 18 years in May 2012 for abusing more
than 60 children, some just a few months old, in two Amsterdam nurseries and
homes where he babysat.
The DHS also pledged their support for the INTERPOL Global
Complex for Innovation (IGCI), to assist in the development of curricula and
training officials at the complex which will provide a global focal point for
law enforcement efforts around the world for investigative support, research
and innovation on digital crime, forensics and cybersecurity.
With training a key area in INTERPOL’s overall mission to
promote international police cooperation, support by the US Federal Law
Enforcement Training Center, whose Director Connie Patrick is also Chair of
INTERPOL’s international training group, has been key in maximizing resource
sharing and capacity building throughout the world police body’s 190 member
countries.