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Preventing child trafficking in SEE

May 12, 2005

Dear Wenchi,

Thank you for your questions and feedback. SEE is a fascinating region in transition with lots of potential for concrete structural improvements within the State's mechanisms, but also within the many communities.

The study does not stipulate to categorically prevent child trafficking from happening. It attempts to outline a strategy to alter the existing paradigms of key participants explicitly present in the child's life whom with the guidance and assistance of local NGOs, Int'l Orgs (such as UNICEF, IOM, World Bank) may assimilate concepts of child protection, human rights, and self-improvement into their daily lives for long-term sustainable results.

The analysis of the study conveyed how the deficiencies within the two policy environments (family and community), ranging from poverty and poor education on the parents' side to corruption and misallocation of resources on the community's side, are the key pillars sustaining the vulnerable environment in which the children of the region are growing up.

The policy recommendations hence outline how an Int'l Org could engage in pre-trafficking preventative efforts with local NGOs as their primary partners. The NGOs will be responsible for the implementation of the program activities, the IO will provide more of a technical role.

More specifically, the families and communities in SEE can be mobilized through the following activities:

1. Assess the level of poverty and education of the selected community to identify families and children that may be at high risk. This assessment will identify the primary target group for preventative intervention.
2. Assess the level of awareness, professional skills, demographics, and income scales of the selected community. This assessment will provide information about the individual policy environment in which activities have to be implemented.
3. Improve people's attitudes towards child trafficking through community workshops/roundtables. Equip people with a paradigm based on child protection, human rights, and intolerance for violence. This can also be achieved through collective and individual activities such as psychosocial education and information campaigns.
4. Enable the participants to feel owners of their new-found paradigm by establishing community committees (uniquely formed of community members) in charge of propelling such paradigm through their own initiatives. Initially, the committees may be formed based on the availability of eager participants/volunteers. Gradually, as participation increases, informal elections may be warranted. Herein lays the long-term self- sustainability of the program. At the beginning, however, there should be close cooperation and exchange between the NGO and the community committee.
5. Circulate information on an array of socio-economic topics: local, national, and regional labor markets; national emigration laws and immigration laws in Western Europe/USA; procedure to get micro-financing or financial loans to launch private business activities; the recruiting dynamic of trafficking as well as the risks and consequences of being trafficked. Information is power and for isolated women in rural areas this particular task could prove crucial.
6. Provide vocational training (covering an array of academic as well as technical courses) to adults, especially women; and adolescents, especially those in institutions or coming out of institutions.
7. Provide support to street children. Place them in "foster" homes composed of particularly well-adjusted families.

Should those not be available (especially in the short term) place them in state institutions but require them to attend certain NGO-led activities in order to tend to their psycho-social skills and ensure their well-being. Should state institutions not be present in the selected community, work with teachers or religious figures to find an adequately safe home for them.
If I were in charge of setting up the project, I would focus on Albania, Romania and MOldova, as these are the countries with most trafficking activities involving children. The strategy - however - could be implemented in other countries being somewhat affected by child or women trafficking in SEE.

Looking forward to more discussion and feedback. Annalisa

Annalisa Corti, Duke University Fellow