Unaccompanied and Trafficked Children Regional Cooperation The Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk WGCC Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) Bragi Guðbrandsson, Gen. Director The Government Agency for Child Protection

CBSS 11 member states + EU Commission Russian Federation Estonia Latvia Presidency Lithuania Presidency Poland Germany Denmark Presidency Iceland Norway Sweden Finland

Expert Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk - EGCC The members of the EGCC are senior officials from the ministries responsible for children’s issues in the 11 member states. Activities are coordinated by the Children’s Unit, a small office within the Secretariat of the Council of the Baltic Sea States

Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk - WGCC Priorities: 1. Sexual exploitation in all its forms 2. Unaccompanied and trafficked children 3. Children living in the street 4. The Rights of Children in institutions 5. Young offenders and self destructive behaviour in children

Methods used 1.Expert meetings a.Defining common areas of concern b.Identifying gaps c.Outlining areas for action d.Expert input to the WGCC 2.Conferences a.Political support b.State commitments and joint funding c.Unique networking 3.Web site a.Regional information on children at risk b.Calendar

WGCC ACTION PLANS ON UNACCOMPANIED AND TRAFFICKED CHILDREN  2003 Stockholm Conference on Unaccompanied Children, (Ukrain, Moldova, Belarus also participating)  First Action Plan in 2004, prolonged at a Ministerial Meeting, Oslo, 2005  Second Action Plan adopted Oct and valid until 2011

The Action Plans Aims to Assist:  Unaccompanied/separated asylum seeking children and young persons  Children and young persons trafficked from one country to another  Children and young persons trafficked within one country  Exploited children and young persons as well as children and young persons at risk of exploitation in a country other than their own with valid documents.  Children residing in a country in the region without legal documentation

Some Priority Actions  Network of National Contact Points  Prevention based on knowledge: the study on young peoples attitudes to sex  The need for national coordination and monitoring for assisting child victims  Assisting victims should be mainstreamed into the regular child protection structure  Recognising the need for cooperation, networking and dissemination of expertise for supporting victims

National Contact Points, NCP 1. Operational in all countries except Russia and Germany 2. 4th Meeting of National Contact Points organised in Warsaw in cooperation with the Polish Ministry for the Interior and Administration in May th Meeting in May of 2009 in Copenhagen 4. Discussions at the meetings assist the WGCC in designing appropriate programmes addressing the most pressing demands “Unaccompanied and Trafficked Children in the Baltic Sea Region” A programme implemented by the Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk (WGCC)

Expert meetings 1.Expert meeting on family reunification, identification and age assessment ( Helsinki, December 04) 2.Expert meeting on Care, protection, rehabilitation and reintegration of unaccompanied and trafficked children ( Kiev April 05) 2.Expert meeting on supporting boys and girls leaving institutions (Yaroslavl, Russia, September 05) 3.Expert meeting on Child friendly forensic investigations (Reykjavik May 06) 4.Expert meeting on support to children abused in Internet settings (Sätra Bruk, Sweden, May 06) 5.Expert meeting on monitoring the rights of children in institutions. (Oslo September 06) 6.Expert meeting on Children committing crimes and with a self destructive behaviour. (St Petersburg, November 07) 7.Expert meeting assessing the Monitoring training proposal (Tallinn, March 08)

Challenges when building a training  Training cannot be a one-off event –Should reflect the complex issues support staff face –A need to build sustainability –” Too many trainings ” –Transparency essential  Training should build on existing structures –Coordination by responsible ministry essential –Support and develop existing expertise –Continuous networking with other national and regional initiatives  Content should mirror reality –Too much focus on the idealised victim –Build on the fact that young people have their own agency  Build accountability –Experts trained should remain a resource nationally and regionally –Experts need to remain available and their details need to be protected  Experts should reflect different working contexts –Governmental welfare agencies, outpatient clinics, NGOs, institutional settings

2 year Training Programme  Funded by: EU through the Daphne II programme, by Save the Children Sweden and by the Oak Foundation  Involved 12 teams from 10 countries in the region..  Five training 2 days each –Each of the 55 expert participants had to participate in all training events  Each team consists of 4 experts working with direct assistance to unaccompanied children and children victims of trafficking –Psychologists, staff within institutions, medical doctors, social workers and social pedagogues.  Content of the training: 1.Protective care for victims of trafficking. Motivational interviewing of teenagers with zero trust in adults. 2.Psychological and social rehabilitation techniques. How to adapt the techniques known to young persons with extremely exploitative experiences. 3.Children’s participation in shaping their own healing context 4.Family therapy and work with broader social network. Establishing family ties where these have been disrupted. 5.Reintegration in old environment or integration in a new context. Interplay between the psychological/social assistance given to the young person and the interventions to find educational facilities or work.  National follow up events in all countries  Establishing/supporting a regional network of experts  Establishing/supporting a national network of experts  Connect the experts to the existing network of National Contact Points

Understanding trafficking of children in the region

Mapping project Looking at how children in the region that are trafficked are assisted including interviews with child victims 1. Domestic/internal trafficking of children is a bigger problem than international trafficking but receives less attention and much less resources 2. International donors ’ priorities have a decisive influence on who is assisted and how the assistance is carried out 3. International organisations, not the government, are in many countries providing statistics, analysis and resource allocation 4. Where there is a governmentally managed coordination, resource allocation is more evenly distributed 5. International donors ’ prefer to support short projects. Financial and narrative reporting takes increasing amount of time for NGOs. These reportedly spend 50% of their time filing reports and applying for continued or new funding. This has severe consequences for the quality of care given to child victims of trafficking

Prevalence of child trafficking  Lack of reliable statistics  Example from Ukraine, official stats less than 400 cases of trafficking; IOM estimates  Official statistics v.s. NGO´s  Data collected from NCP

Official numbers of suspected Child Trafficking  Denmark: 14 cases  Estonia: No cases  Finland: 5 cases8  Iceland: No cases  Latvia: 5 cases  Lithuania: 3 cases9  Norway: 23 cases  Sweden: 3 cases  Belarus: 23 cases  Germany: 62 cases

Some known cases of trafficking of children in the region Russian Federation Estonia Latvia Presidency Lithuania Poland Germany Denma rk Presidency Iceland Norway Sweden Finland Belarus Ukraine Moldova

Unaccompanied and Trafficked Children in Iceland  Very few cases of unaccompanied children or supected trafficked children investigated  Althought a National Contact Poin has been identified, a clear and unambigous work procedure have not been in place  The importance of the New Action Plan for Children

Actions targeted at children  All procedures concerning suspected child trafficking should be revised – Focus on asylum seekers, unaccompanied children and children of foreign origin without parental care.  If a child is identified belonging to this category, this should be reported to the relevant Local Child Protection Services and the Government Agency for Child Protection without delay.  The police should ensure the child protection services access to the criminal investigation, including representation during interrogations and court dispositions.  In cases of suspected child trafficking, it is recommended that the child victim be interviewed in the Children´s House.

Children´s House Medical Exams and Evaluation Joint Investigative Interviews Victim Therapy Family Counselling/ Support Education, Training and Research Networking Local/ National Iceland:

Trafficked Children/Iceland  The child should be ensured an assessment and consequently appropriate support, including psychological, medical and social services.  During the investigation the child should be placed in accordance with the Child Protection Act, either in foster care or other appropriate facility.  The child should never be returned to his/her country of origin unless his/her safety has been ensured.  The Gov. Agency of Child Protection assumes the role of contacting the relevant child protection services in the country of origin for this purposes and makes arrangement for the child´s save return.

Trafficked children/Iceland  Should it be assessed against the best interest of the child to be returned, the child can be placed in permanent foster care in Iceland according to the Act on Child Protection  The role and the responsibilities of the police in fighting child pornography is especially highlighted with special regard to the proposals commonly suggested by the Nordic State Police Chiefs that the Nordic Ministers of Justice have already approved  To the present day no proven cases of child trafficking have been discovered in Iceland. Few cases have emerged that have merited suspicions but none that have been investigated by the police

Some of the Remaining challenges  Sustaining the networks of experts regionally –Face to face meetings important –Include them in regional meetings –Build on their expertise whithin new programmes and initiatives  Sustaining the networks of experts nationally –Keeping them in the loop –Recognising the investment made –Giving the experts opportunities to train colleagues  Content development –Need to develop the content to meet new requirements –Building a dynamic continuous exchange in the region  Continuing and supporting established contacts between protective, caring and rehabilitative contexts –Governmental welfare agencies, outpatient clinics, NGOs, institutional settings

Identification of children victims of trafficking – collateral damage  Imperative to discuss identification/recognition  What happens to children that are not identified/recognised?  The core of child trafficking is not the criminal, it is the exploited child and the repercussions of the exploitation  Trafficking of children, in all its diversity, points to the urgent need for child protection programmes and mainstreaming of support for children victims of violence in all countries

Challenges  National coordination of efforts should be prioritised. It is imperative that the coordination is carried by the responsible authority  Children trafficked for exploitation outside of the sex market receive less attention even though reports indicate that this group is bigger  Assistance measures for children victims of trafficking need to be included in the regular programmes assisting children victims of violence  Trafficking prevention and support to victims must move from being a project into being a part of general child protection