Recognise and react! Protect yourself from human trafficking!

The Child Rights Centre (CRC) has taken a new initiative to promote the digital platform “Protection of children from human trafficking“ and the video “Between Dreams and Reality” in primary and secondary schools throughout Serbia, in order to inform children and youth about the phenomenon of human trafficking, risks they may be exposed to and how to protect themselves. The platform has been designed in co-operation with the DX Club and NGO Atina as part of the project “Awareness raising campaign on trafficking in children in the Republic of Serbia”, conducted within the joint European Union and the Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.

With an aim to reach as many children and youth as possible, the CRC, in cooperation with DX Club, has created the poster “Recognise and React! Protect Yourself From Human Trafficking!”, as part of the activities implemented together with NGO Atina within the framework of the project “Empowering children to recognise and report trafficking in human beings in the Republic of Serbia“, supported by the European Union and the Council of Europe as part of the joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” in the period 1 November 2021 - 15 June 2022. The poster contains a QR code leading to the digital platform “Protection of children from trafficking in human beings”, intended for children and youth, but also for everyone who is in contact with children, and provides answers to the most important questions about human trafficking, how to recognise a human trafficker and a victim of human trafficking, what every young person can do about it, i.e. how to recognise and where to report a suspicion of trafficking in human beings, and also why the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings is important as an umbrella document and a universal guideline in the protection of victims of trafficking. The platform also provides practical instructions on how children and youth can protect themselves from human trafficking, and informs about the most common prejudices related to this phenomenon. For all those who want to test their knowledge of this problem, the platform offers a quiz. In order to inform as many children and youth as possible about this phenomenon, posters will be displayed in schools throughout Serbia, as well as in social welfare centres and police stations.

According to the statistics of the Centre for the Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking, 46 victims of trafficking in human beings, including 16 girls and 1 boy, were officially identified in Serbia in 2021. As in previous years, the majority of identified victims are women, as many as 80%, which indicates that human trafficking has a component of gender-based violence. Sexual exploitation continues to be a prevalent type - 50%, followed by multiple exploitation - 17% and forced begging - 10%. Professionals working in this area warn that the number of victims is much bigger, because the statistics includes only the ones detected and identified.