Emirates Airlines is taking its security measures to sky high levels.

The Dubai-based airliner announced that it will be training its frontline staff on how to spot perpetrators and victims of human trafficking.

Emirates launched the initiative to fight human trafficking in October 2017 in cooperation with the UK government.

While cabin crew will be the key individuals to spotting such cases, all Emirates staffs will undergo the training.

The e-learning initiative will also teach Emirates employees how to spot drug smugglers and thieves.

In addition to learning how to recognize behavioural traits of smugglers and traffickers, the trainees will learn how to handle situations when their suspicions are raised.

Dr. Abdullah Al Hashimi, divisional senior vice president, Emirates Group Security, said that “we have developed this new training module with the aim of helping our staff become more aware and observant of the behavior of potential crime offenders and possible victims of human trafficking.”

CEO of the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority at the UK Home Office, Paul Broadbent, told an aviation security conference in Dubai on Sunday: “Hundreds of millions of vulnerable people are trapped in slavery as a result of abuse of labour laws. We understand this is abhorrent; others do not.”

Dubai, as well as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, have shelters for human trafficking victims. The shelters were opened by the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking after a law was passed in 2006 criminalising human trafficking.

(source: Crisismonitor)

The majority of human trafficking victims are forced into prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, and forced labour.

In 2015, an excess of 5,000 “potential” human trafficking cases were recorded by the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Nearly 2,000 of these involved victims under 18.