Protection & Counter Trafficking (PCT)
Protection: When conflict erupts or disaster strikes, people often are in need of protection from violence, coercion and deliberate deprivation. During and after the conflict and crisis, the children and women are more vulnerable to become victim of violence. Protection includes all activities aimed at ensuring full respect for the rights of the person in accordance with human rights law and international humanitarian law and actions taken to overcome and prevent exposure to physical and/or psychological harm arising from situations of violence or crisis. OFRD strive to alleviate the immediate effects of violence and abuse, to end it, and to prevent it. OFRD provides protection services to children and women in Afghanistan including shelter/settlement, legal aid, civil documentation, child protection, economic assistance for returnees/IDP, awareness raising and to combat human trafficking.
Counter Trafficking (CT): Afghanistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Irregular Migration or Human Smuggling may always lead to victims of human trafficking. Afghanistan’s global position on human trafficking has been inconsistent largely due to low priority among both national and international stakeholders. The tier rating by the U.S. State Department in its global TIP report placed Afghanistan into tier – 3 in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. While Afghanistan position was tier 2 watch-list in 2019. The national performance seemed to be improving in 2014 and 2015 but again Afghanistan downgraded into tier – 2 (watch list) in a 2016 report released in June 2016. For the first time in Afghanistan, OFRD marked international day to fight against Trafficking in Persons (TIP) on July 30, 2016, and consequently in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. OFRD is actively working in Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership in Counter Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling program