"The objective of the expert forum in Tallinn is to raise the awareness and competency of the participants and to strengthen the network of specialists in the Baltic Sea region. Participants include judges, prosecutors, police officers, victim support specialists, researchers and state officials from the Baltic States, the Nordic countries, Russia and the United Kingdom," explains Merle Kuusk, project manager of combating trafficking in human beings at the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia.
The forum will be opened by the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers Dagfinn Høybråten and the Estonian Minister of the Interior and Regional Affairs Hanno Pevkur.
Myria Vassiliadou, EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator from the European Commission, will give an overview of the situation and the implementation of laws in Europe. The laws of the EU guarantee a number of rights to protect and help victims of trafficking in human beings (prostitution; forced labour; forcing someone to steal, engage in illegal transport of goods or enter into a fictitious marriage, etc.; removal of organs; etc.), which concern legal aid, medical assistance, temporary permits of residence, etc. However, the victims need to be identified before they can be provided these services. Identifying victims and perpetrators of human trafficking is difficult.
Vassiliadou said 24,000 victims of human trafficking were identified in the EU in 2010, but assuming that many of them are never identified, the real number may be in the hundreds of thousands.
The Nordic Council of Ministers launched its projects against trafficking in human beings in 2002, with the Nordic-Baltic campaign against trafficking in women, which was recognised by the EU as an example of successful regional cooperation. The international expert project of 2013-2015 starts in Tallinn with the forum 'Trafficking in Human Beings: Recruitment, Identification, Victim Support'.
The press are welcome to listen to the discussions in the Flower Pavilion on 24 April until the roundtable portion of the programme. As attendance to the forum is by invitation only, the organisers request that everyone notify them of their attendance in advance.
Click here to read the press release in Russian.
Press contact:
Triin Oppi
Communications Adviser at the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia
Telephone: +372 5213 226
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