As a Secretariat of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators in South-East Europe (NATC SEE), ICMPD supports the Slovenian chairmanship of the Network to mark the EU Anti-trafficking day. The Network issued a Joint Statement addressing the vulnerability of the millions affected by the war in Ukraine to exploitation, abuse and human trafficking.
NATC SEE invite the governments of the countries faced with the influx of people that fled the war, to consider a set of recommendations as the essential minimum to avoid that human trafficking will become a crisis within a crisis:
- Keeping track of the developments in the human trafficking field placing particular attention on monitoring the situation concerning people fleeing from Ukraine.
- Ensure continuous dissemination of information about potential safety risks, exploitation and human trafficking among the authorities responsible for the first contact.
- Prepare the national anti-trafficking mechanisms for identification of trafficking cases by providing training and capacity development to key first line responders.
- Ensure access to the labour market and to language and vocational courses that could be attended in parallel with employment.
- Coordinate with the Ukrainian diaspora in order to obtain access to vulnerable groups.
- Actively identify violations of workers’ rights.
Read the full text of the Recommendations and the full Joint Statement here.
Furthermore, the Joint Statement announces the dissemination of public action messages developed under the initiative of the Government of Slovenia to address the vulnerability to human trafficking among the people fleeing the war in Ukraine. The messages are prepared by ICMPD and will be disseminated via the social media channels of the NATC SEE Members in the period 18-21 October 2022.