On the way to opening its first state-run shelter for victims of human trafficking, Kenyan officials visit Jordan in search of best practices

When victims of human trafficking are rescued there is an immediate need to place them in a safe location, where they have a chance to heal and reintegrate into society. In Kenya, most temporary shelters are run by non-governmental organizations, with limited financial and human resources, unable to take in all victims referred to them. The Kenyan government is hence planning to fill this gap, by establishing its first shelter state-run shelter.

The Better Migration Management (BMM) programme is supporting the Kenyan government in its goal. The first step in this process was an official visit to Jordan, facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in order to observe and discuss best practices in the management of government-run shelters and to check if any standard procedures can be benchmarked to Kenya.

The delegation visited the government-run Karama shelter house, established in 2015 by the Ministry of Social Development of Jordan. Here, victims of human trafficking receive individualised services, including psychological support, medical care, legal services, vocational training, religious services, as well as monitoring services once they have left the shelter. Given that in Jordan the Ministry is responsible for the management of the shelter, it also provides the training for all the staff and performs a continuous quality control of the services offered.

"The lessons learned from the Jordanian experience include quality of services provided to victims of human trafficking in the shelter, efficient and timely response by the counter-trafficking unit and collaboration amongst different agencies in countering human trafficking", said Ms. Carren Ogoti, Head of the Counter Trafficking in Persons (CTiP) Secretariat of Kenya.

The Kenyan authorities reported having identified 530 victims of trafficking in 2016 (TiP Report 2017, US Department of State), all of whom were referred to NGO shelters.

This visit took place in the spring 2018. BMM also plans to support the Kenyan authorities in the establishment of the facilities.