Since its inception in 2010, the Inter-Agency Taskforce, co-chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has been coordinating efforts between government agencies to identify and implement strategies to combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), Working closely with civil society organisations (CSO) and academic institutions, for the past four years, the Taskforce through the National Plan of Action (NPA) rolled out key initiatives centred on the 4 P’s strategy framework, namely:
- Prevention of human trafficking
- Prosecution of offenders
- Protection of victims
- Working in Partnership with stakeholders locally and globally
Without a doubt, Singapore has certainly made significant progress in combating TIP through a series of key initiatives from 2012 to 2015. For one, the passing of the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act (PHTA) provides a more targeted and effective means of prosecuting TIP offences and protecting TIP victims. On the prevention front, public awareness of human trafficking was raised considerably through the many awareness campaigns developed by CSOs that had the funding support by TIP Public Awareness Grant. In 2014, partnering the Government, HAGAR was appointed to train more than 4,000 Singapore frontline policemen to identify victims of TIP.
Moving forward, the Taskforce recognises that more resources and efforts need to be enhanced in order to combat TIP. The taskforce continues to work on the 4 P’s, enhancing the framework to receive better outcomes in the next ten years. The taskforce is confident in executing the National Approach for the next ten years and is committed to put trafficking out of business in Singapore.
For more information about the 10-year National Approach Against Trafficking in Persons, read here. [1]
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[1] 
10-year (2016-2026) National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Persons