As
we enter the room, a youth volunteer from the Serbian Red Cross
asks for our identification documents. We freely give him our
passports, ID cards and driver’s licenses, and sit down. We
are not allowed to sit for long before we are given a lecture
by the same volunteer: “Why did you give me your documents?”
“Do you now know that you should be careful?” He smiles, returns
our documents and starts his PowerPoint presentation. On the
first slide, in Serbian and English, we read ‘Trafficking’ –
‘Trgovanje ljudima’. Across these words, he has placed a massive
stop sign. We are participating in a session to prevent trafficking
of human beings (THB) arranged by SRC youth volunteers for young
high school students in Kovin, Serbia.
A little education can be a dangerous thing
In Serbia, as in many other countries across the world, people
of all ages long to be somewhere else, and young people long
most of all, sometimes allowing themselves to end up in situations
they perhaps should have understood were dangerous. 300 Serbian
Red Cross (SRC) youth volunteers trained as peer education in
the counter-THB programme are now starting to spread what can
be life-saving information to their peers. The goal is to make
youth understand that, although things might look better somewhere
else there can be risks involved, so one should always take
precautions. So far, more than 1000 youth have been reached
with the peer education sessions, and another 2500 are planned
to be reached in 2007. To continue the spread of information
after the peer education sessions, the participants in these
sessions are expected to inform their peers through information
on school billboards, newspapers and radio shows.
THB is a form of modern-day slavery, rooted in poverty, lack
of opportunities, gender discrimination, social and political
violence, and demand for services. They might, just like us
in the peer education session, be tricked into giving away their
identification documents, and later be forced into dangerous,
illegal or abusive work. THB is a global problem, considered
the largest organized crime next to drugs and arms. The exact
scale and scope of THB is difficult to determine as there, in
addition to the fact that such activities are necessarily hidden,
are no commonly agreed baseline data or identification mechanisms.
Red Cross and Red Crescent societies have only recently started
working with the prevention of trafficking and the protection
of victims. In Serbia, the counter-THB work started in 2005,
with the support of the Danish Red Cross and mainly focuses
on prevention of trafficking through peer education.
Could it be me?
THB is a complicated subject. Generally, people know about it,
but they do not know it could happen to them. There is a stereotypical
image of victims of trafficking, where most think that it happens
to women for the sex industry and children for begging. One
of the major roles of the Red Cross (RC) prevention work is
to break these stereotypes and the stigma that follows them,
and to explain that anyone can be a victim of trafficking, regardless
of age, gender, occupation or background. SRC has developed
a manual, in cooperation with the national NGO ASTRA, explaining
the topic and giving examples of activities that can be used
to transmit this message.
In the office of SRC branch Sabac, around 30 young people are
standing side by side in a hallway. They have been given a small
piece of paper with a ‘role’ and some information about this
role. A young girl reads statements from the peer education
manual on human trafficking, and encourages those who feel their
role will fit the statement to take one step forward. “You have
never experiences serious financial difficulties.” “You can
study and chose your profession freely.” “You can have a computer
and use the internet.” While some take a step for each statement,
others hardly move. As the first participant reaches the wall
on the other side of the hallway, the activity is over and all
sit back down. The three SRC Youth volunteers open a discussion,
allowing the participants to examine their roles and talk about
how it felt to step ahead of the others or to be left behind.
The discussion is then smoothly brought on to the subject of
human trafficking. Which roles were the most at risk? Is anyone
safe? The message slowly comes across: No one is safe from THB.
While some might become victims of trafficking because they
are looking for a better job and apply to a job ad on the internet
or in the newspapers, others can be trafficked by a person they
trust while thinking they are going on a vacation together.
Both men and women are at risk.
Careful volunteer selection
When selecting the youth volunteers to be trained peer educators,
SRC paid careful attention. The NS decided to use already trained
volunteers with knowledge of the humanitarian values of the
movement. The volunteers should be the same age as the target
group, i.e. between 17 and 24 years old, and able to present
material to their peers. One such volunteer is 26 year old Milan.
He is a trained electric engineer, currently doing his civil
service in Kovin, a branch of SRC. Although he first got involved
in the counter-THB work because it was “new and trendy”, the
topic really touched him. In his university, many students go
on exchange. In the counter-THB manual, there is an example
of a young engineer who became trafficked when going abroad
to study. This, Milan says, “made me realize it could happen
to me!”
SRC staff says that an immediate measure of success of the peer
education component is the high number of SRC youth volunteers
interested in the trainings, and the fact that many of them
have been looking for more information after the initial training.
Also, the information session has led to new volunteers being
recruited at local level. Furthermore, parents have approached
SRC and its local branches looking for more information after
their children have participated in RC sessions.
Positive participant and parent
Sandra, 21, is originally from Kosovo. She studies to become
a pre-school teacher and lives in a refugee centre in Sabac
with her parents for the past three years. In 2006, she participated
in a counter-THB peer education session organised by the SRC
youth volunteers in Sabac. “I did not know much about the topic
before the session,” Sandra said. “It was extremely interesting.
I particularly enjoyed the role plays. I learned that anyone
can be a victim, although the general public usually see young
women as potential victims of trafficking.” After the session,
Sandra went home and told her parents what she had learned,
and she also looked for more information on the topic. Her mother
expresses great happiness that her daughter has learned about
the dangers of THB and passed the information on to her and
her husband. “Parents also need to get information on this topic,”
Sandra’s mother said. “It would be great if there were special
sessions for parents about THB, but if not, at least we can
learn about it from our children.”
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| A SRC youth volunteer peer educator reads out instructions from the SRC manual on peer education against trafficking. |
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| Stop trafficking! SRC is taking the threat of trafficking seriously, and organising its youth volunteers in the prevention work. |
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| Milan (26) is a volunteer peer educator. He says he only realized the real threat of trafficking after he became involved in the prevention work. |
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| Anyone can be a target. The main key message of the prevention work in Serbia is that trafficking of human beings could happen to anyone. |
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| Sandra (21) and her mother are from Kosovo. They are both very happy that Sandra got information on trafficking from the SRC peer education session. |
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