NGOs Team Up with Border Guard Service to Combat Trafficking
USAID/Ukraine works to build and fortify existing relationships and partnerships between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state bodies to ensure a concerted national response to trafficking in human beings. Through its Improvement of the System for Identification and Rehabilitation of Trafficking Victims among Deported Persons in Border Regions of Ukraine project, USAID engages NGOs and the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) to jointly address the problem of human trafficking.
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Educational posters to raise awareness of human trafficking provide the backdrop for a conversation between a member of NGO Volyn Perspectives and a migrant at a Ukraine border crossing checkpoint.
Photo Credit: Volyn Perspectives |
Within the first three months of 2008, representatives of NGO Volyn Perspectives interviewed 220 deported Ukrainian citizens at border crossing checkpoints in Volyn oblast which are major deportation routes from Russia. These interviews, along with subsequent requests for legal and psychological assistance, helped to identify 39 victims of trafficking (VoTs) among the deported. Since the project’s inception in June 2007, 63 VoTs (16 men and 47 women) have been identified at the border crossings.
To raise awareness and prevent trafficking among migrants at the border, project partners have distributed approximately 8,000 copies of various informational materials and posted posters and trafficking prevention leaflets at border crossing checkpoints. Materials also provide contact information for organizations that assist migrants and VoTs.
The project also seeks to build the capacity of the SBGS to tackle the problem of trafficking in persons. In March 2008, members of Volyn Perspectives conducted training on VoT identification for 30 officers of the Lutsk Unit of the SBGS. After completing the training, each of the officers pledged to further educate their subordinates on this issue.
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