On Tuesday, March 23, 202, the publication The Safety of Trafficking Victims snd Service Providers and the risk assessment was presented at an online event.
The publication aims to provide a summary of the risk assessment for the safety of victims of trafficking and for the safety of service providers. In other words, the aim is to shed light on ways to prevent compromising of the safety of trafficking victims and the victims’ assistance providers, as well as to identify oversights in the implementation of current legislation and practice. The main driving force for producing this paper has been a long-standing non-recognition of the issue of safety of trafficking victims, as well as of aid providers.
The author of the research, Filip Stojanović, and the representative of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, Tamara Šmidling, and the representative of the TRAG Foundation, Jelena Popović, spoke at the presentation. Marija Andjelković, CEO of ASTRA, was in charge of moderation.
Summary of recommendations for improving the safety of victims of trafficking and service providers
- Risk assessment and security procedures in trafficking cases should be established without delay, with clear roles and responsibilities for all actors involved.
- The establishment of an anti-trafficking team through multi-sectoral cooperation with civil society organizations should be advocated, which would work on developing methodology and risk assessment indicators.
- Existing memorandum of cooperation between state institutions and CSOs need to be consistently implemented, especially in the area of direct assistance to victims.
- Implement training related to employees’ personal safety in shelters for victims of human trafficking and raise the level of safety culture (primarily through training on recognizing potential dangers and reporting to law enforcement agencies).
- Encourage the conduct of research on the safety of service providers for victims of trafficking.
- Establish support and information services at the building level, ie unite the existing services to serve both the court and the prosecutor’s office.
- Develop a network of technical possibilities that will enable the victim to be interrogated through means of image and tone transmission.
- Develop procedures for summoning and bringing the victim to testify in order to prevent contact between the perpetrator / accused and the victim/support in the corridors.
- To ensure privacy and reduce additional victimization, the public’s exclusion from the process should always be proposed.
- Strengthen cooperation between all state actors and civil society organizations that provide support to victims.
- Provide regular supervisory (psychological) support to providers of assistance to victims of trafficking.
- Each organization/institution must have a plan of procedures (step by step guidelines) in case of endangering the safety of employees by traffickers.
- State actors should take proactive steps and support civil society efforts to support victims of trafficking.
The publication The Safety of Trafficking Victims snd Service Providers and the risk assessment was created with the support of the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation and the OAK Foundation. The edition is bilingual and can be downloaded from the following links:
Serbian: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S7wHd1wg0Ucwm62Y6wGzdoTcrd2Mf8tb/view
English: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xN60ZEH-VSXpcMAcNerLIt7AVatLY5S3/view