The European Anti-trafficking Day, 18 October, was celebrated in Skopje through awareness raising about online trafficking and abuse of children and a two-day training of trainers on supporting and protecting child victims of trafficking. The activities were supported by the joint action of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Preventing and combating human trafficking in North Macedonia”, the National Commission for Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Equality Sector of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
“This year, out of eight formally identified victims of trafficking, seven are children. Traffickers make use of the Internet in order to make profit from modern slavery. Children are among the most vulnerable to human trafficking”, said Magdalena Nestorovska, the National Anti-trafficking Co-ordinator in her public statement to the media.
A campaign to raise public awareness about child trafficking was kicked off in the primary school Dimitar Miladinov, where Nestorovska and police officers talked with children about the perils of child trafficking on the Internet and distributed education materials. Such materials will be distributed in all schools in Skopje.
The resocialisation and reintegration of child victims of trafficking was the topic of the training of trainers. 24 professionals responsible for children without parental care learnt how to deal with the trauma resulting from trafficking and abuse, how to support children throughout their experience and rehabilitation, and how to prevent revictimisation. The professionals will transmit the knowledge to other care takers of child victims of trafficking.
"The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is fully devoted to combating child trafficking. Children keep being recruited younger and younger by the traffickers”, affirmed Svetlana Cvetkovska, the Head of the Equality Sector of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
Supporting the domestic authorities and professionals to prevent and to combat child trafficking is one of the components of the joint European Union and Council of Europe action “Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings in North Macedonia”, implemented in the framework of the programme "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022". In 2021, the action developed informing materials on child trafficking and co-organised an online conference on protecting children from trafficking and exploitation in the Western Balkans.
