Protection and assistance for trafficking victims

Assistance programmes in the contries of destination

Victims of trafficking in human beings have been subjugated to a condition of slavery and/or seriously exploited through work or prostitution. They end up as illegal immigrants, with no access to social security benefits, no lodging, no income or savings, and no social contacts. As a result, they are highly vulnerable.

They require special assistance and those who take responsibility for them must be professionals. As it stands, both the presence of cultural mediators as well as the networking between NGOs, private organisations, local governments, and groups of people in the countries of origin are often indispensable. The assistance and protection offered to trafficking victims should be funded or co-funded by governments.

In general, the assistance offered to victims is provided in various stages. During the first meetings with victims, the aim is to create a sense of confidence and safety and to explain the rights and duties involved in participating in such assistance programmes. Victims will then be placed into protected residential structures, such as families or shelters.

Victims require all of the following types of assistance: medical, psychological, social, legal, and administrative. Psychological help allows them to overcome traumatic experiences suffered when they were enslaved and regain self-confidence.

As victims become more and more independent, they are monitored by social workers who help put them in contact with institutions and organisations which assist them in gaining access to basic literacy classes, training courses adapted to their background, and housing.

At the same time, victims receive help in their efforts to obtain a residence and work permit. Legal assistance is offered when they decide to lodge a complaint against those responsible for exploiting them.

Different models of victim assistance and protection programmes exist. Programmes vary in relation to the country which has set them up, to the organisation which carries them out, and, of course, to the type of victim in question.

The following are examples of methods of victim assistance. Certain programmes put the accent on psychological treatment, others on helping victims to become independent through work, still others are government financed.

Innovative projects for providing psychological assistance

In Italy, the NGO Differenza Donna takes in and assists trafficking victims at its three shelters, which are financed by the province and municipality of Rome. The programmes begin with an interview in order to find out more about the victim's background. These interviews make it possible to analyse the traumatic experiences suffered by victims and to develop methods of providing help adapted to each individual situation. Social, medical, psychological, legal, and administrative help are all offered.

Differenza Donna assists victims with all stages of legal proceedings and submits requests for the special residence permit qualified in article 18 of the Testo unico on immigration. In co-operation with public health services, the group provides medical assistance; and in collaboration with a centre in Rome known as ãBack to Workä, it helps victims find a job.

One of the points that singles out Differenza Donna's approach to victim assistance is that in each of its three shelters victims are encouraged to share their experiences with women who have suffered other forms of violence, for example domestic violence or rape. This social contact allows victims to put the negative experiences they have suffered into a wider context.

Differenza Donna has set up innovative programmes for providing psychological assistance to victims. In particular, self-help sessions are organised. During these gatherings, trafficking victims talk about their experiences and help one another to try and understand what they have lived through and to analyse the effects of the violence they have suffered.

In addition to this, a questionnaire on body perception is given to victims in the shelter. It has been noted that young women suffer from a sense of the separation between mind and body, which is an extreme type of defence mechanism developed against violence. The questionnaire makes it possible both to analyse how seriously the victim experiences this split and to propose well-adapted solutions.

A bioenergetics programme is also offered. It aims to help the individual to recognise and manage emotional stress. During these sessions, the young women express themselves vocally and through bodily movements. Working under the assumption that all forms of bodily expression are in some way a manifestation of the individual who makes them, the young women develop a renewed awareness of themselves.

Differenza Donna has assisted approximately 80 trafficking victims. They were, for the most part, exploited through prostitution, but there were also cases of exploitation through work (in particular, as domestic slaves).

Making victims independent through work

The Turin-based group Servizio Migranti Caritas specialises in assisting victims by making them independent through work. Its assistance programme is set up within the framework of article 18 of the Testo unico on immigration and is financed by the government's Department of Equal Opportunities.

The group's work has also been made possible by the following:

á        co-operation with other local organisations (either public or private);

á        the training of social workers;

á        the use of cultural mediators and psychologists;

á        continuous legal and social aid during the entire process of a victim becoming independent.

In 2000, a total of 800 women called on Servizio Migranti Caritas for help. Of these 800 women, 531 had been exploited through prostitution, of which 302 were from Nigeria. The young women meet first with a social worker, two cultural mediators, and a psychologist.

Those victims wishing to be helped begin a programme to facilitate their insertion into Italian society and are given the choice whether to lodge a complaint against their exploiters.

The social work occurs in various stages. In co-operation with the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration, Servizioe Migranti submits the request for a special residence permit (provided for by article 18 of the Testo on immigration). The young women are taken into protected structures, such as families or shelters. They are also encouraged to make contacts with other families from their own country. These families present a positive model to the victims and encourage them to overcome their distress.

Victims take Italian lessons and are given various forms of help in order to get them into the work-place. For example:

á        with the help of training centres, the young women are able to participate in vocational training programmes for jobs in the restaurant and the mechanical engineering industries;

á        in co-operation with the Diocesan Labour Exchange, a large majority of victims take advantage of vocational training grants, which take the form of three- to six-month training programmes in local factories, and in particular in the Oltre co-operative. The training programmes are financed by the Diocesan Labour Exchange. Not only do these programmes teach the young women what they need to know to perform a specific job, but they also teach them to respect a daily timetable, use public transport for commuting, and work with other people. In 2000, a total of 38 women received training grants and 33 of them were hired at the end of their training programmes. Four young women holding the equivalent of a Master's degree completed their training programmes at the University of Turin. They worked as secretaries or at reception desks. During the course of these professional training programmes, the young women are monitored by a social worker and a psychologist.

á        In partnership with a group known as ãA Project with a Feminine Touchä, certain victims chose training courses in the areas of domestic work and care of the elderly.

Street Groups and Help Centres: the First Stage of Assistance for Young Women Exploited through Prostitution

A group known as Associazione ãOn the Roadä provides assistance and protection to women and children exploited as prostitutes.

The particularity of its way of functioning is the emphasis it puts on street work. Social workers and cultural mediators meet the young women out in the streets, where they are forced to prostitute themselves. When they are approached directly in this manner, the victims do not feel judged and find it easier to talk to and confide in their interlocutor. The street groups pass on to victims information leaflets in their mother tongue, answer any questions they might have, and try to provide for any needs they might express. These groups also bring general problems related to these women's presence on the streets to the attention of the health authorities and social services.

Another way of gaining access to social assistance programmes is through what are known as drop-in centres. These are places where young women can come and talk and find people who will listen to them. Social workers and cultural mediators, among others, are present in these centres, and women can receive medical attention, obtain advice on legal and social questions, and get informed about how to get out of their webs of prostitution and exploitation.

Women who agree to try and get out of prostitution can take advantage of special assistance programmes set up within the framework of article 18 of the Testo unico on immigration and adapted to each individual case.

These programmes make it possible for victims to attend different types of shelters before being given lodgings in independent flats. Medical assistance and psychological counselling is continually on offer, while On the Road provides administrative and legal help.

As far as social assistance is concerned, both language classes and vocational training courses in local companies are offered. These training courses make it possible for victims to learn the rudiments of a job. Costs are covered by On the Road, and it is understood that, when the course is completed, the companies will attempt to hire the trainees.

Caring for Victims of Domestic Slavery

In France, the ComitŽ Contre l'Esclavage Moderne (CCEM) is the only body which provides help and protection to victims of domestic slavery. Ever since its creation, the CCEM has intervened to help approximately 300 victims.

The first contact made with a victim is extremely important. A series of meetings and hearings make it possible to piece together the victim's history. If, after verifying the veracity of the details, it turns out that the person in question is actually a victim of domestic slavery, he or she is taken into care. A charter of rights and duties inherent to this providing and accepting of care is then signed both by the victim and by a CCEM representative.

A majority of these victims come from West Africa and Madagascar. From an administrative point of view, they are illegal immigrants, and often they possess no official form of identification. Very often, a return to their own country is out of the question, and in cases such as these the CCEM sets up help programmes, adapted to each individual case, which aim at permanent integration into French society.

In order to provide help, the committee has set up a comprehensive programme of social assistance. Initially, victims are given urgent shelter in a protected flat. Next, they are lodged in hostels or halls of residence, or they are taken in by volunteer families.

They are entitled both to legal aid to help them defend their rights in court and to administrative assistance to help them obtain residence and work permits. At the same time, victims are provided with continuous assistance as they move towards independence.

Continuous medical and psychological help is provided in conjunction with the public services.

Still within the framework of the CCEM's comprehensive social assistance measures, partnerships have also been established with vocational training centres where the victims can take basic literacy classes, French language classes, and then vocational courses. These classes make it possible for victims not only to continue their studies and learn a vocation, but also to meet people from different backgrounds with different types of problems.

For those victims who have never done any other form of work except that related to domestic tasks and child-care, the CCEM offers access to vocational courses in these areas in order to allow victims to use their prior work-experience and obtain recognised training.

Victims are monitored by social workers from the CCEM throughout the duration of the classes as well as after their completion, when they begin to look for work and lodgings.

Victims can also get together in a recreational context organised by the committee, where volunteers propose various types of activities. For example, painting and dance classes allow victims to get together with one another and enjoy themselves, as well to cultivate any artistic inclinations they might have.