This one-year project mapped and identified resource persons and organisations to contribute vital information on trends related to child trafficking.
The project organized three workshops aimed to:
- contribute to an increase of the information on child trafficking available in the region;
- strengthen the national multidisciplinary networks preventing child trafficking;
- contribute to the establishment of permanent channels of information-sharing on child trafficking within and between the countries involved.
The project developed a report exploring information structures on child trafficking with the ambition of mapping existing information and intelligence structures aiming to picture information streams.
The project culminated with an additional conference. At the invitation of the Norwegian Minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion, the Trafficking in Children: A Criminal Act Calling for a Child Protection Response conference was held 20-21 June 2011 in Oslo, Norway. It was attended by over 100 law enforcement, prosecution, child protection, outreach work experts from all over the region as well as researchers and representatives of governmental and non-governmental services.
The specific focus was on the cooperation between law enforcement and child protection in cases where children are exploited in begging and in criminality as part of the trafficking crime. The situation for asylum seeking children and the exploitation of their vulnerability was also presented and discussed.
The conference report includes conclusions covering issues of awareness-raising amongst the target groups and competence building among professionals in order to support increased identification of victims, and increased provision of care and justice services.
Points of action include to secure the rights of children trafficked for the purpose of exploitation in criminality and in begging. The results gave input to developing training material for professionals meeting with asylum seeking children. This work laid set the scene for what would eventually become the PROTECT Children on the Move Programme.
This project was led by the CBSS in partnership with Save the Children Denmark, Carits Lithuania and Tartu Child Support Centre in Estonia, with co-funding from the Daphne III programme. The additional conference was financed by the The Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion and the CBSS Expert Group on Children at Risk.