THE VICTOR PROJECT

Background

The project Victor establishes a strong partnership among a broad range of public and non-governmental actors working in the field of child trafficking in the region of Southeast Europe.

The project aims at strengthening capacities towards generating common actions related to the priorities set up in the EU Strategy towards the Eradication of THB, and particularly identifying, protecting and assisting victims of trafficking, stepping up prevention activities, as well as enhancing coordination and cooperation among key actors.

The project is funded by the EU Programme “Prevention of and Fight against Crime” (ISEC) of the D.G Home Affairs of the European Commission and is expected to be completed in January 2015.

Objectives

The project aims to achieve the following objectives: 

  1. Promoting and developing coordination, cooperation and mutual understanding among law enforcement agencies, other national authorities and civil society in combating trafficking in children.
  2. Improving the situation in the field of the identification of children victims/potential victims of trafficking by providing training to professionals likely to come into contact with these groups.
  3. Stepping up prevention of trafficking in children through awareness raising activities focusing on the vulnerable groups of children at risk and the potential “clients” of goods and/or services provided by victims of trafficking.
  4. The enhancement of the Southeastern European Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (SEEC), coordinated by "The Smile of the Child”.  

Activities

  1. Trainings for those actors working in the field most likely to come into contact with children victims/potential victims of THB (law enforcement professionals, health care workers, judiciary, labour inspectors and NGOs).
  2. Operation of Information desks on child trafficking, a pilot NGO in-house model, for a period of 6 months, in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Slovenia.
  3. Workshops aimed at organizing and evaluating the pilot work of information desks, as well as developing recommendations for the EU Guidelines on the identification of victims of child trafficking.
  4. Raising-awareness campaigns in countries of origin and countries of destination, addressing (potential) children victims of trafficking and potential “clients” of goods and services provided by victims of trafficking. 

The Partnership

The project Victor builds upon a wide range of active and well-experienced public and non-governmental key actors working in the field of child trafficking in Southeastern Europe. The project is being implemented in Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine and is expected to foster the transnational cooperation in the region among the actors involved in the fight against trafficking in children.

The Coordinator: The Smile of the Child – Greece


International Organizations: SELEC (Southeast European Law Enforcement Centre)

Public Authorities

Ministry of Public Order & Citizen Protection, Greece

Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, Greece

National Commission for Combating THB, Bulgaria

National Agency against Trafficking In Persons, Romania

International NGOs

Terre des Hommes, Regional Office, Budapest, Hungary

National NGOs:

Astra-Serbia

La Strada-Moldova

Nadja Center Foundation-Bulgaria

Save the Children-Romania

Society KLJUC-Slovenia

Child Well Being Fund-Ukraine


The participating Experts: 

EPLO - European Public Law Organization – Greece

Southeastern European Center for Missing and Exploited Children (SEEC) – Greece

Expected results

The Victor project and its activities are expected to contribute to:

  • The enhancement and improvement of cooperation among all relevant stakeholders across the region and the exchange of good practices on the identification of victims of trafficking;
  • Improving the knowledge of professionals on the identification of children victims of trafficking and the links of missing children and unaccompanied minors phenomena with the child trafficking problem;
  • Raising awareness on child trafficking and improving the level of prevention in countries of origin and in countries of destination focusing respectively on (potential) victims of trafficking and “clients” of goods and/or services provided by victims of trafficking;
  • The establishment of information desks and the creation of a good practice model in order to provide direct and easily accessible information on child trafficking to vulnerable groups most at risk for human trafficking and promote the use of child alert systems of assistance and protection. 
Child Well-being Fund Ukraine Greek Ministry of Justice Transparency and Human Rights Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the European Union La Strada Ministry of Public Order & Citizen Protection Nadja Centre Foundation National Agency against Trafficking in Persons NCCTHB NGO ASTRA Save the Children SEEC SELEC Society Kljuc Terre des hommes' The Smile of the Child