Improved exchange of information on victims of human trafficking needed, concludes OSCE-supported working group in Ukraine

To improve the efficiency of procedure for granting the status of a victim of trafficking in human beings it is necessary to enhance information exchange between social services and law enforcers, concluded the experts of the working group on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), on 9 September 2015, in Kyiv.

The NRM is the interagency scheme created to assist people who suffered from one of the fastest-growing criminal activities - human trafficking.

The working group, supported by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) gathers civil servants, NGO activists and members of international organisations, agreed to work on a new joint order for the Interior and Social Policy Ministries on information exchange.

The group analysed practices of identifying people who suffered from various forms of human trafficking and reviewed ways to make the state-led assistance more accessible and trustworthy for trafficking victims, as well as improving referral between NGOs and state institutions.

Special attention was paid to harmonisation of statistical data of various NRM agencies. Since August 2012, 104 people have been granted the status of a victim of trafficking in human beings across Ukraine. 

“The numbers of trafficking victims identified by the ministry, law enforcers and civil society organisations vary dramatically, and people are often reluctant to apply for the state assistance,” said Nataliia Fedorovych, Director of Department for Family, Gender Policy and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Ukrainian Social Policy Ministry. “We need to ensure efficient identification, referral and high quality help to those who suffered from the crime so than more and more of them turn to us for assistance.”

This meeting was part of the project funded by the Government of Canada. With this activity the PCU supports the Social Policy Ministry in strengthening the NRM for victims of trafficking in human beings in Chernivtsi, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky, Luhansk and Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Rivne, Sumy, Volyn and Zhytomyr regions as well as the city of Kyiv.