OSCE helps report human traffickers in Kosovo

For two weeks, the OSCE is supporting an information campaign to promote Kosovo's anti-trafficking helpline. The aim is to increase the information flow between the public and the authorities to combat trafficking in human beings.

According to Richard Sondeijker, Head of the Anti-Trafficking Unit at the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, one of the biggest problems with combating trafficking is that a lot of valuable information remains hidden.

"People are reluctant to talk about problems that affect their families," he says, "and because trafficking has a particular stigma, family members and relatives prefer to remain silent, even if the victim is one of their own."

Records from the police and the International Organization for Migration show that 745 trafficking victims have been identified over the last eight years. But it is hard to know how many victims there actually are, as many cases go unreported.

Refusing to speculate on the number of cases, Arta Kelmendi from the Victims Advocates Unit of Kosovo's Justice Ministry says that, for many families of rescued victims, to admit that their relative was trafficked for sexual exploitation is to lose pride.

"We often face rejections by families, especially in rural areas," says Kelmendi. "Our experts sometimes have to work with a family for two or three months before a rescued victim can be sent back home. But the important thing is that the victim goes home."

Breaking the silence

And while people are staying quiet and keeping to themselves, Sondeijker quotes official US and European Commission sources that show the proportion of internally trafficked victims is on the rise. "That is why we decided to run this campaign - to raise people's awareness of this problem and get them to talk," he says.

The information campaign, which is running from 25 November until 10 December, will promote the Justice Ministry's anti-trafficking helpline, targeting young people, especially women.

"We want them to speak up about what is happening to them or their friends and report the information they have to the authorities," says Ariana Qosaj-Mustafa, Legal Adviser on women's and children's rights at the OSCE Mission.

Riding on Kosovo's popular music scene, the campaign's slogan is "Rock to break the silence! Report human trafficking!" It will culminate in a free concert on 10 December 2008 - International Human Rights Day and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Anti-trafficking ambassadors

During the campaign, artists from the concert line-up will visit TV and radio stations, including Kosovo's public service broadcaster RTK, to talk about trafficking and the need to disclose information about it. "We will act as goodwill ambassadors," says singer Flaka Krelani. "We will be the messengers."

"I am set to give an interview with RTK on their TV show "Amazing be njeri" ("Dude, it's amazing" in Albanian)," she says. "My message will be that girls have to back each other up. Even if our own families don't support us, we have to be there for each other."

Her friend Guri Shkodra, a guitar player in the band "Gillespie", will visit TV 21. "I will speak to both young people and the institutions," he says. "We all know bits and pieces and have to speak up. Institutions must also publicize what they know and be more concrete when dealing with this problem."

Taking it home

The OSCE Mission has provided all the artists with a background briefing on trafficking and is arranging their media appearances. "One thing we want people to be particularly aware of is that, today, more than half of the trafficking victims in Kosovo are actually from Kosovo," says Sondeijker.

"What is even more worrying is that, in many cases dealt with by the police and other authorities, the traffickers were people the victims knew, such as relatives or boyfriends." Out of 139 reported and addressed trafficking cases over the last three years, 60 were cases of internal trafficking within Kosovo, according to police records.

"So it is important to take it home," says Sondeijker, in the spirit of the upcoming concert. "This campaign will only run for two weeks, but we hope to reach young people and get them to start talking, to move things in the right direction."