Together in the fight against human trafficking

Sremska Mitrovica – In City Hall (Gradska kuca) in Sremska Mitrovica a meeting was held today where the  working body was formed and its members who will be working on preventing and solving the issue of human trafficking selected.

Subotica has formed the team for combating human trafficking

April 20, 2018

Subotica, a city in northern Serbia, located on the migrant route, is the high risk area for human trafficking.  The most vulnerable are women and children - single mothers, persons that come from deprived families, as well as the ones who are recipients of different type of social welfare.

Simonetta Sommaruga, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police, was a guest of NGO Atina and our social enterprise Bagel Bejgl shop during her visit to Belgrade.

Recent research of "Konrad Adenauer" Foundation, Association "Atina" and Macedonian Lawyers Association has shown that the refugee crisis is not over, that it simply changed form, and it implies new needs of migrants, given that they are now staying in our country for longer periods of time. Director of the Asylum Protection Center, Rados Djurovic, believes that the integration of migrants in our society is “much needed”, and that the system, plan and state must have the main role in the process of integration of migrants.

It is time for the integration of migrants into Serbian society

Institutions in Serbia can no longer treat migrants from Middle East as if they are passing through our territory, but need to take responsibility for their integration into Serbian society.

Belgrade, December 18, 2017, 23:25

That is the message of today’s conference of the Association for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings “Atina” and Konrad Adenauer Foundation in the Media Center.

Serbia should work on creating conditions for long-term support and integration of refugees and migrants, as they are not simply in transit any longer, but are staying in the country for up to 10 months on average - this is the conclusion of the presented research “Opportunities and obstacles for the inclusion of refugees and migrants into the main streams of society in Serbia”.

On Monday, December 18, at 11 o’clock, in the small hall of the Media Center, there was a presentation of the results of a research “Opportunities and obstacles for the inclusion of refugees and migrants into the main streams of society in Serbia” (Protection of refugees and migrants in Serbia from 2015 to 2017). The research represents an overview of data on the position of migrants and refugees in Serbia, with a special focus on the rights of women among the migrant population.

Representative of NGO Atina, Jelena Hrnjak, was a panelist at the event organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) titled “Strengthening the capacities of actors to improve the level of protection of migrants in everyday practice”. Other speakers at the panel were representative of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Svetlana Velimirovic, representative of UNHCR, John Andrew Young, Vesna Dejanovic from UNICEF, Emilija Joksic from the Asylum Office of the MoI of Serbia, and Miroslava Jelacic, representative of NGO Group 484.

Atina's representative gave a speech at the House of the National Assembly

An international workshop “Cooperation of European parliamentarians in the fight against human trafficking in the Western Balkans” was held on May 18, 2017, at the House of the National Assembly of Serbia in Belgrade. In addition to the members of the parliaments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania, Great Britain, and Serbia, participants were also representatives of international and nongovernmental organizations,  among whom was a representative of NGO Atina.

Sharon Gesthuizen, a member of the Dutch Parliament and the Socialist Party, met with the representatives of NGO Atina during the SCI visit to Serbia. The meeting was held in a positive atmosphere and resulted in a fruitful discussion about the refugee crisis, as well as the situation in Netherlands regarding national policies and integration.