NGOs and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Team up to Combat Human Trafficking

A member of Volyn Perspectives chats with a migrant against the backdrop of posters directed at raising awareness on human trafficking at a border crossing checkpoint. Volyn - USAID/Ukraine works to build and fortify existing relationships and partnerships between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state bodies to ensure a concerted national response to trafficking in human beings. The USAID’s Improvement of the System for Identification and Rehabilitation of Trafficking Victims among Deported Persons in Border Regions of Ukraine project engages NGOs and the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) of Ukraine to jointly address the problem of human trafficking.   Over just three months - January through March 2008 - representatives of the NGO Volyn Perspectives interviewed 220 deported Ukrainian citizens at border crossing checkpoints in Volyn oblast.  Thanks to these interviews, along with subsequent requests for legal and psychological assistance, 39 victims of trafficking (VoTs) have been identified among the deported.  The checkpoints covered by this project are major deportation routes from Russia.  Since the project’s inception in June 2007, 63 VoTs (16 men and 47 women) have been identified at the border crossings.   To raise awareness and prevent trafficking among migrants in border, project partners have distributed approximately 8,000 copies of various informational materials regions.  Additionally, they have designed, produced, and hung at each border crossing checkpoint informational posters with TiP (Trafficking in Persons) prevention leaflets, which inform migrants about facts behind trafficking as well as provide contact information for organizations and establishments that assist migrants.   The project also seeks to build the capacity of the SBGS to tackle the problem of trafficking in human beings.  In March, members of Volyn Perspectives conducted training on VoT identification for 30 officers of the Lutsk Unit of the SBGS.  After completing the training, each of the officers pledged to further educate their subordinates on this issue.

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