The round table was held as a wrap-up event at the end of project “Alert and Assistance – Prevention of Human Trafficking and Assistance to Women and Children Victims in the Russian Federation”. The project was implemented by Stellit, a regional NGO based in St. Petersburg and pursuing social projects to improve the welfare of the population. It covered three cities of Russia’s North-East (St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk and Kaliningrad), where events were organised to discuss the need and opportunities for launching shelters for women and children who became victims of human trafficking.

 

Recent research in the United States suggests that some 600,000–800,000 people worldwide become victims of human traffickers every year. The European Commission in 2001, estimated the number of women and children trafficked each year into the Western Europe for sex exploitation at 120,000.

 

Russia is simultaneously a departure, entry and transit country for victims of human trafficking, which calls not only for preventive and punitive measures but also for assistance to victims. However, the country still lacks government-sponsored shelters for victims of human trafficking. All previous attempts by NGOs across Russia to launch such centres did not receive state funding. Operations of the shelters that were set up using grant money have been discontinued after the grant funds have been spent. But the problem still persists. Victims of human trafficking are mostly left to their own devices, which is a violation of many international laws, including Model Law “On Assistance to Victims of Human Trafficking” passed by the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States on 3 April 2008.

  

 

 

 

Yelena Zabadykina,Stellit regional social welfare NGO, St Petersburg

Experience of Operating a Shelter for Victims of Human Trafficking

Yulia Melnichuk, Central Asia Regional Migration Programme in Russia, the International Organization for Migration

 

The Need and Opportunities for Launching Shelters for Women and Children Who Became Victims of Human Trafficking

MariyaMokhova,Sistersregional independent charitable centre for assistance to victims of sexual violence

 

 

Debate participants: Yelena Andreyeva, Fiscal Policy Centre; Olga Zdravomyslova, the Gorbachev Foundation; Dmitry Lisitsin, Soprotivlenie human rights movement; Nadezhda Usoltseva, the National Foundation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; Yekaterina Selenina, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory for Socio-Psychological Problems in the Prevention of Child Neglect and Orphanhood, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education; Dmitry Nazarenko, Absolut-Help Charity Foundation; Igor Maingardt, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Russia mentoring programme.