Month: July 2023

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EN Unchained News Projects

The UNCHAINED Project holds its Final Conference after more than three years of research on human trafficking

The UNCHAINED project is holding its final conference on Tuesday 25 July at the headquarters of the Agenfor agency in Milan (Italy) after three and a half years in operation. The conference, which is open to the public in an online format, will be attended by public authorities such as Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), judges and prosecutors.

During the day, the digital techniques developed by UNCHAINED to analyse and investigate the economic footprint that Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) leaves in cyberspace will be presented, thus improving participants’ skills to prevent and intercept trafficking more effectively.

The event will begin with a welcome address by Agenfor director Sergio Bianchi, who will give way to the intervention of Deputy Prosecutor of Padova Silvia Golin on International Cooperation on THB. This will be followed by the intervention of the Deputy Prosecutor of Venice, Lucia D’Alessandro, who will focus on her investigative experience on the Nigerian mafia and cultists.

The day will continue with a practical session on how to use the FAST platform to analyse the THB pathway led by the CEO of MBS Engineering Mauro Manolo Belmonte, and the presentations by Emanuele Florindi, Information Technology lawyer, on how to apply the money tracking approach in cyberspace, as well as Yuval Sanders, CEO of the software development company Falkor, who will speak on public-private cooperation for THB prevention. The conference will conclude with a round table on action patterns, pathways and synergies to prevent and counter human trafficking, with the participation of Venice, Padova and Milan prosecutors, police officers from Venice and THB researcher at John Hopkins University in the United States, Alexandra Malangone.

Since the start of 2023, the UNCHAINED project has delivered ‘Trainings for Trainers’ in the cities of Padua and Venice (Italy); in Athens (Greece); in Murcia (Spain) and in Bremen (Germany). Public authorities from all over Europe have thus benefited from these practical trainings where they have learned how to use the OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), HUMINT (Human Intelligence), SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), Big Data and FAST technology platforms for data analysis and human traffic monitoring. The training also included immersions in virtual reality and theoretical knowledge on the national and European human trafficking legal framework.

During this time UNCHAINED has also created a network of experts for the promotion of public-private cooperation between public authorities and private technology companies, which has been a success as significant synergies have been created, for example with the Local Police of Murcia.

The UNCHAINED project is funded by the European Commission under the Internal Security Fund – Police. The Consortium is coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Padua and formed by the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies (Spain), the AGENFOR International Agency (Italy), the Center for Security Studies KEMEA (Greece) and the School of Public Administration (HfÖV) of Bremen (Germany).

Link to connect to UNCHAINED final conference: https://admin.rafikyconnect.net/l-rafikyconnect-091-460-5648 (Important: It is required the use of Google Chrome)

Categories
EN Interrad News Projects

15th Annual Society for Terrorism Research International Conference: ‘Terrorism research in a polarized world’

The Euro-Arab Foundation is taking part in the annual conference organised by the Society Terrorism Research, which this year will be held in Lisbon on 20 and 21 July, organised by the University Institute of Lisbon – ISCTE.

The 15th annual international conference, which is presented under the generic title Terrorism Research in a Polarised World, has speakers from all over the world and more than a hundred people registered who will be able to attend the wide range of topics that the Conference offers through the 22 round tables programmed.

The Euro-Arab Foundation’s participation in this scientific event focuses on the organisation of the round table discussion entitled The paradigms of the prevention of radicalisation, which will be held tomorrow, Thursday, July 20, within the framework of the international INTERRAD project on The internationalisation of the prevention of the phenomenon of violent radicalisation of a jihadist nature.

This session, led by the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation of the University of Granada, Inmaculada Marrero Rocha, and moderated by the Euro-Arab Foundation’s Executive Secretary and professor at the UGR, Antonio Sánchez Ortega, will address different aspects of the prevention of radicalisation:

  • The prevention of violent extremism from the 3N model of radicalisation by Manuel Moyano, from the University of Cordoba.
  • Bridging the Gap: Research on radicalisation and the problems of prevention, Javier Ruipérez Canales, Euro-Arab Foundation and University of Granada.
  • Radicalisation and deradicalisation in prison: moving towards a future paradigm, Salvador Berdún, Association of the Corps of the Administration of Penitentiary Institutions and University of Granada.
  • The challenges of risk assessment to improve the prevention of radicalisation, Josep Garcia Coll, Euro-Arab Foundation.
  • Impact of psychological and structural factors on radicalisation processes, Roberto M. Lobato, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
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EN Unchained Projects

Recognition by the Murcia Local Police for the cooperation with the Euro-Arab Foundation in the UNCHAINED project on Human Trafficking

The sub-inspector of the Local Police of Murcia and responsible for European projects, José Martínez, and the Prosecutor for Human Trafficking and Foreigners in Murcia, Silvia Benito, present a plaque in recognition of the work carried out by the Euro-Arab Foundation team, Jose María González, responsible for the UNCHAINED and BIGOSINT projects, and Karen L. Hough and Daniel Pérez, researchers at the Euro-Arab Foundation.

With this recognition, the Murcia Police, host of the UNCHAINED training, highlights the good synergies that have occurred in the trainings that the Euro-Arab Foundation and Agenfor have developed this past Tuesday in Murcia, on July 11th, as well as in the training of trainers that took place last February in Venice, which they also attended.

This week’s training in Murcia covered topics such as European judicial cooperation in the fight against Trafficking in Human Beings (THB), as well as practical sessions on the use of the technological platforms OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), HUMINT (Human Intelligence) and FAST for data analysis and monitoring of THB. A specific section on Virtual Reality immersion has also been included.

A moment of the training given this week in Murcia to the Local Police.

Combating Trafficking in Human Beings with a money-tracing approach

The dynamic THB nature and the plurality and complexity of its forms make it particularly difficult to investigate. However, these highly lucrative crimes are very difficult to operate without leaving an economic footprint.

In this sense, the European UNCHAINED project aims to improve the capacity of experts and investigators operating within anti-trafficking, organised and financial crime investigation units to use financial enquiries and macro-data analysis in suspected cases of THB.

Training is also an important part of this project, and work has been done on the creation of a European network of experts and trainers who can maintain the training that has been carried out beyond the end of the project itself.

The UNCHAINED project, led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Padua, is financed by the Internal Security Fund of the European Commission and its consortium is made up of members from Spain, Italy, Greece and Germany.

The researcher Jose María González Riera and Miguel Pérez, inspector of the Local Police of Murcia, holding the plaque awarded to the Euro-Arab Foundation.

Photos: Communication – Local Police Murcia City Council.

Categories
EN Bigosint EN Unchained Projects

The Euro-Arab and the Murcia Police hold a training on Human Trafficking in the framework of the European projects UNCHAINED and BIGOSINT

The UNCHAINED project held yesterday 11 July a ‘Training of Trainers’ at the Artillery Barracks in the city of Murcia, organised by the Euro-Arab Foundation and the Murcia Police, where judicial, technological and investigative knowledge was imparted to Law enforcement agencies, especially the police corps.

Today, 12 July, the same venue is hosting a training session on BIGOSINT, a similar project to UNCHAINED, which aims to investigate human trafficking chain. The UNCHAINED project focuses on tracking the economic footprint of this highly lucrative crime, while BIGOSINT focuses on investigating human trafficking through Big Data analysis and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).

These trainings aim to improve the capacity of public authorities, law enforcement agencies and technology companies to identify suspicious financial activities and to achieve close public-private cooperation. Members of law enforcement agencies from countries such as Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are taking part, along with agents from different parts of the Murcia region in Spain.

Spanish press media interviewing the Euro-Arab Foundation researcher Jose María González Riera.

The BIGOSINT training taking place today focuses, among other topics, on a police approach to Trafficking in Human Beings (THB), what are the different indicators and indications of a possible human trafficking crime and offers an operational approach to the verification of human trafficking documentation, as well as a practical analysis workshop for these documents.

Yesterday’s UNCHAINED training addressed European judicial cooperation in the fight against THB, led by the Prosecutor for Aliens and Human Trafficking Silvia Benito Reques together with Karen Latricia Hough, researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation. There was also a practical training in which attendees learned how to use the OSINT and FAST platforms for data analysis and monitoring of human trafficking. The day ended with a Virtual Reality training. The technological block was given by FALKOR, MBS Engineering and AGENFOR.

The trainings follow on from the ‘Train the Trainers’ trainings’ held in the framework of the UNCHAINED project in the previous months in the cities of Padua and Venice in Italy and in Athens, Greece, with the next training next week in Bremen, Germany.

Presentation on the police approach to human trafficking in the BIGOSINT training, given by Victoriano Martínez, Commissioner General of Foreigners and Borders of the National Police.

The UNCHAINED project, led by the Padova Public Prosecutor’s Office, is funded by the European Commission’s Internal Security Fund. Its Consortium is made up of the Euro-Arab Foundation, the AGENFOR Agency of Italy, the KEMEA Centre for Security Studies of Greece and the Bremen School of Public Administration, Germany.

The BIGOSINT project, led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trento, shares the same European funding as the UNCHAINED project. Consortium members are the AGENFOR Agency, the Bremen School of Public Administration and the Euro-Arab Foundation.

UNCHAINED training session on European judicial cooperation against trafficking in human beings by researcher Karen L. Hough.

Photos: Communication – Local Police Murcia City Council.