The State Customs Committee (SCC) and Academy of the State Customs Committee (ASCCA) were successfully represented in the training organized on the topic of "Human Trafficking - Main Causes and Criminalization, document forgery. Victim identification, protection and support" organized by the European Union (EU) Law Enforcement Training Agency (CEPOL) on September 12-16, 2022 in Bucharest, Romania. The training was organized within the framework of the "Training and Operational Partnership against Organized Crime" (TOPCOP) project, which is arranged by CEPOL for Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, including Azerbaijan, financed by the European Union (EU) and covers the years 2020-2024.

The TOPCOP training was attended by criminal investigators, border control officers, police officers, as well as customs service officers from the Eastern Partnership countries of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova.  The customs service bodies of Azerbaijan were represented by two employees - Mehriban Asgarova, the chief investigator of the General Department of Intelligence and Investigation of SCC, and Samira Osmanova, the head of one of ASCCA departments. Representatives of other law enforcement agencies such as the Police Academy, Prosecutor General’s Office and State Migration Service also participated in the training.

The purpose of the training was to analyze the current trends and problems related to human trafficking, to increase the investigative capacity of law enforcement officers, to examine the root causes of human trafficking, profiles of victims and perpetrators, and recruitment methods used by traffickers.

Accordingly, the training program covers topics such as best practices, national mechanisms and criminalization, aspects of international, regional and EU law, international law enforcement/prosecution cooperation platforms, key victim identification indicators, document forgery, criminal intelligence collection and analysis, interview techniques, detection and investigation of human trafficking cases. Certificates were presented to the participants on the last day of the training.

Creating curricula covering the above-mentioned topics by the training participants and conducting trainings for the staff of the institutions are planned as a continuation of the training.

It is worth noting that, the Academy is a partner and coordinating body of the TOPCOP project in the direction of capacity building and organizing trainings in the field of customs in Azerbaijan since May 2021.