Consolidation of Russian Language Hotline at Regional Level. Providing of Information Service to Victims of trafficking from CIS Region

The IOM Moscow in collaboration with the partner NGO “Angel ” Coalition lunched a new project “Consolidation of Russian Language Hotline at Regional Level. Providing assistance to Victims of Trafficking from CIS Region”. The implementation period of this project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), is from February to December 2009. The project is rolled out in synergetic progress with the EU funded project “Prevention of Human Trafficking in the Russian Federation” implemented by IOM from March 2006 with co-funding received from the US Government and the SDC.

The Project contributes to the existing efforts to counteract and prevent human trafficking in Russia and other CIS countries (as origin, transit and destination countries) and in Switzerland (as a destination country).

The main project purposes are:

1. To provide professional information and consultation services to Russian speaking VoTs and at-risk individuals in Switzerland and Russia through a Russian language toll-free hotline.

2. To increase the capacity of organizations, running information and consultation hotlines for VoTs in CIS countries, and to facilitate the exchange of experience among these service providers.

3. To improve the cooperation among NGOs from CIS countries working in the field of counteracting human trafficking.

4. To increase the capacity of NGOs in CIS countries to provide direct assistance to VoTs, and to strengthen the cooperation among them and with IOM in the field of regional referrals of VoTs.

The project consists of 4 components:

1. Running of Russia Language Hotline in Switzerland
2. Updating database of NGOs
3. Consolidation and regionalization of the experience of hotlines for VoTs in CIS countries.
4. Capacity building for NGO’s from CIS countries in the field of direct assistance to VoTs.

In the framework of one of the project’s components, a project partner the “Angel” Coalition organized in May two-day Study visit to Kyiv. A round table meeting with the participation of the representatives of Ukrainian governmental and non-governmental organizations, providing consultative services to at-risk groups and victims of trafficking was organized on 19^th of May. At the round table the “Angel” Coalition, together with the counterparts (organizations operating hotlines in Ukraine) made presentations about their work, discussed good practices on providing consultations and dealing with particularly problematic cases, exchanged statistical information and information on the availability of service providers in both countries, and discussed the overall cooperation in the field of counter-human trafficking. The event gathered regional governmental and non governmental organization which operating hotlines for at-risk groups and victims of trafficking in their country.

During the second day of the meeting specialists of “Angel” Coalition visited offices of local service delivery organizations (with operating hotlines), in order to get a first hand experience on their activities.

In order to consolidate the outcome of study visit IOM together with the “Angel” Coalition will organize a two-day event in Moscow, devoted to the work of information and consultation hotlines dealing with the prevention of human trafficking. This workshop will bring together NGOs from Russia and from several other CIS countries (including the hotline service providers from Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus), as well as relevant governmental agencies. The workshop will focus on the issue of providing information and consultation services to VoTs, including: the work of the hotline operators, dealing with particularly difficult cases, best practices on running a hotline, and cooperation among NGOs and between NGOs and governmental agencies. The workshop will also give the possibility to consolidate the experience gained during the project life, and in particular by the “Angel” Coalition through the 3 study tours, and will allow the participants to formulate a set of recommendations (good practices) on the operation of a hotline for VoTs and on cooperation among relevant counter-human trafficking actors in the CIS region.

On 27-28 May 2009 a two-day workshop for NGOs, providing direct assistance to VoTs, from Russia and CIS countries was organized. The agenda of the workshop was based on the experience of IOM Moscow Medical Rehabilitation Center for VoTs, operating since April 2007. The participants shared their experience of effective cooperation in dealing with the issue of counter-human trafficking on a regional level.