Local communities in the fight against human trafficking

Publication Local communities in the fight against human trafficking is produced within the homonymous project, that was designed and implemented by the organization Atina, in partnership with Novi Sad's Humanitarian Centre, and in cooperation with the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, with the financial support of the European Union, Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and German Federal Government through the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH". The project is motivated by the need to strengthen the role of civil society organizations in decision-making process and, more specifically, their competence to monitor local strategies and action plans relevant to the field of human trafficking; empowering relevant stakeholders for intersectoral partnerships in order to provide support to vulnerable groups, and strengthening vulnerable groups to participate in decision-making process.

Enabling better understanding of the protection of victims and prevention of human trafficking in the context of the reform of local social security system, the research should contribute to achieving these goals. In other words, the research has been fueled by recent changes in the area of ​​human trafficking and in the area of ​​social protection – a growing need to increase capacity and find answers to problems of the protection of victims and prevention of human trafficking at the level of local community, starting from local public policies, to everyday practice within disparate sectors.

Research will continue to serve as a basis for improving local response to human trafficking and the networking of actors, working in the field of protection of vulnerable groups, in seven cities/municipalities involved in the project – Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Vranje, Nis, Novi Sad, Subotica, Sremska Mitrovica.

The research activities include the analysis of relevant documents in the field of international standards, national legislative and strategic framework, as well as relevant local strategies and action plans in the field of social protection, that are of importance for human trafficking. The second segment of the research was carried out with professionals who have experience in direct work on protection of groups that are particularly vulnerable to the phenomenon of human trafficking, as well as in creating local policies. This segment of research involved Cila Stojanovic from Novi Sad's Humanitarian Centre, who performed focus group interviews with professionals, and Tijana Moraca, who prepared an overview of international, national and local framework, performed focus group interviews with professionals and, with the analysis of secondary data, participated in the preparation of the final report.

Professor Dr. Sladjana Jovanovic, a longtime associate of NGO Atina, and Lidija Milanovic, director of the Office for Coordination of the Protection of human trafficking victims, were in charge of the segment of monitoring the work of Social Welfare Centers and creating the report segment in this area (Chapter Quality of Social Welfare Centers' work in the field of protection of human trafficking victims).

Especially important project activity, and also a publication segment, are products of collaborative organizations and their representatives on the project. Alongside Tijana Moraca, on the chapter Answer to the problem of human trafficking in local communities also worked: Darko Ignjatovic, Ana Sacipovic, Sinisa Atanasov, Vera Otasevic, Nikola Jovanovic, Dobrilo Pejin, Dejan Hornik, Stevan Nikolic, Milena Dimitrijevic, Tijana Jovanovic, Ljiljana Aksentijevic, Milanka Stevovic, Snezana Konjevic and Nenad Radmanovic. Research activities carried out in this area, as well as analysis of the obtained data, with an exceptional commitment to cooperation and professionalism of our associates, can be considered as project success per se.

The report is organized in three parts. The first part, except for introductory and methodological guidelines, gives an overview of some of the most relevant documents of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union for the prevention and protection of victims, national, legal and strategic framework which regulate protection and prevention within different systems. The second and third part of the report present the findings of the research with professionals – representatives of different systems, with the use of secondary data for local and national level, as well as the results of the monitoring activities of Social Welfare Centers and local policies in this area. Basic features of social protection reform on the local level – the key processes, actors, characteristics of inter-sectoral cooperation, implementation of local strategic documents in the field of protection of vulnerable groups, as well as the key challenges, are presented in the second part of the publication. This segment also includes the analysis of the local response to the problem of human trafficking – an overview of social groups at risk of trafficking and victimization factors, the role of different actors and the characteristics of their cooperation; the key challenges of the current system, with associated recommendations relating to local level of prevention and protection of victims of human trafficking, especially in the context of the current reform of social security system. This part of the publication contains the report of the monitoring process of Social Welfare Centers in seven cities/municipalities. The third part of the publication presents a special overview of the local regulatory framework (from the cities involved in the project), with consistently transferred reports of collaborative network, that are the result of the monitoring activities of local policies for the protection of victims, and prevention of human trafficking.

We would like to thank all the project participants, which crucially influenced in making this publication comprehensive enough, and providing a complete overview of local community's capacities to adequately provide assistance and support to victims, and provide appropriate preventive action. Many activists of civil society organizations, social workers, policemen, professionals from education and health system, prosecutor's office and courts, employees of local governments, and elected representatives of local authorities are, with meager and often insufficient resources and a lot of enthusiasm and commitment, making the job and civic obligation to help establish a better and more just society – possible. Special thanks go to the victims of human trafficking, our fellow citizens, which, despite their suffering, or perhaps because of it, made ​​an invaluable contribution to our work, wanting to help prevent others from experiencing what they did.