Prevention, Protection and Assistance Schemes to Victims of Trafficking: Policy and Examples of IOM Prevention and Return & Reintegration Programmes(From Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Deviance, Violence, and Victimization, P 431-438, 2002, Milan Pagon, ed. -- See NCJ-206198)

• NCJ Number: 206210
• Author(s): Anelise Araujo-Forlot
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: College of Police and Security Studies
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: Slovenia

Annotation

This paper reviews the IOM's (International Organization for Migration's) experience in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans in preventing trafficking and providing victim services, particularly involving women and minors trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Abstract

High profits combined with low risks have resulted in the domination of trafficking in humans by criminal organizations. Extensive research conducted by IOM provides ample evidence that despite an extensive mobilization of international instruments, strategies, and actions to combat trafficking, large numbers of women continue to be trafficked from Central and Eastern European countries into the Balkans, European Union Member States, and other countries. The objectives of IOM are to curtail migrant trafficking and protect the rights of migrants involved through awareness-raising campaigns, return and reintegration activities, and capacity-building with relevant authorities, such as nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) and international organizations. In Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, IOM has been conducting a number of counter-trafficking activities at the regional and national levels in partnership with government authorities, international organizations, and local NGO's. Information campaigns have focused on preventing trafficking in human beings in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Baltic States. Currently, IOM is planning to implement an information campaign in the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. IOM has also conducted information campaigns in the Balkan Region, including the FYR of Macedonia, Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Information campaigns consist of a variety of communication activities that use several media to reach a wide audience. Prior to each information campaign, action-oriented research is performed in order to develop a comprehensive, balanced vision of the trafficking phenomenon in the country, as well as to design the most effective intervention. This paper provides details on the information campaign in Kosovo and describes return and reintegration schemes for victims of trafficking in Romania. This paper advises that it is important to address issues directly related to criminal networks, and it is equally important to deal with other issues that have the potential to decrease the vulnerability of the victims of these networks, such as improving socioeconomic opportunities in the country of origin, protection measures in the countries of destination/origin, and legal opportunities for women to migrate. 8 notes