Anti-Trafficking Around the World

Today the staff and director of the Immigrant Women and Children Project hosted a meeting with Tomomi Shimizu, Senior Program Manager of the Tokyo-based Kamonohashi Project.  The Kamonohashi Project is an anti-human trafficking organization with operations in Cambodia and India. They partner with local NGOs and the criminal justice system in order to gather data and coordinate efforts and training to raise awareness and provide support for survivors.

Tomomi Shimizu spoke about her program’s work in India, which they began in 2012. They studied the patterns of migration and found that nearly half of girls and women who are victims of sex trafficking in the region around Mumbai are originally from West Bengal in Northeast India. They focused their preventative work in West Bengal where they work with local partners toward an increased rate of investigation of inter-state trafficking and empowering survivors to testify in cases against their traffickers. Tomomi Shimizu is in the U.S. visiting other NGOs and government agencies to spread awareness of the Kamonohashi Project and learn from organizations engaging in similar work in the U.S.