The staff of the Center for Combating Trafficking in Persons (CCTP) under the Ministry of the Interior could be halved by order of President Vladimir Voronin, voiced on Monday at a meeting of the Supreme Security Council. The reason set forth is that the officers favored illegal migration instead of stopping it, Info-Prim Neo reports, citing a release from the presidential press service. According to the press release, the Supreme Security Council has discovered serious weaknesses in the activity of the Center for Combating Trafficking in Persons. Among other, it has been found that the Center was involved and offered protection to certain organizations that were smuggling migrant workers. Some CCTP officers, ignoring their duties and the law, were offering certain services to the traffickers for fees, including, ending legal proceedings on charges of human trafficking and smuggling, and covering and destroying evidence. The Moldovan workers were usually smuggled through a number of travel agencies that set up a real network of collecting money. It was also said that the underground activity of the CCTP officers was possible because of the insufficient control on the part of the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Border Guards Service. The head of state instructed relevant officials to produce and implement with all speed an action plan to redress the situation of combating trafficking in human beings, demanding that the persons involved in the illegal schemes be punished with all the severity of the law.