Meet Our Members: La Strada Moldova
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La Strada Moldova is a member of GAATW based in Moldova. In August 2022, Jennifer Janssen from the GAATW Secretariat conducted this interview with Tatiana Fomina, Senior Analyst and legal counsellor at La Strada Moldova, to better understand the organisation’s history, current work, and context.
Jennifer Janssen: Firstly, thank you for joining me today in this interview. Can you please tell me a bit about yourself and about La Strada Moldova – when was it founded, and why?
Tatiana Fomina: When I started working at La Strada in 2002, it was a recently created NGO –service provider for trafficked women and children and groups at risk. I didn't know much about human trafficking, and I thought I would stay in this organisation for about a year, but then I learnt more about the topic and became passionate about it. I suggested to our director to enlarge our scope of work and develop a new research programme based on all the information that we gathered from the beneficiaries of our direct assistance. At that time, we had already collected information about 200 cases of trafficking. The director agreed and I became involved in the research field. I’m also a lawyer and I started contributing to drafting of legislation and regulations, including national anti-trafficking strategies and action plans, the national referral mechanism for trafficked persons, etc. Now I am an analyst and I’ve been with the organisation for 20 years.
Our organisation was founded in 2001. It was part of a large international programme called La Strada and led by the Dutch Foundation against Trafficking in Women (Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel - STV). This programme had begun in 1995 with STV and NGO partners from the Czech Republic and Poland. Later, new NGOs joined, from Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. At that time, preventing and combating human trafficking was a completely new area of work. According to the design of La Strada programme, each new member would find a partner in a neighbouring country or help establish an NGO. Our organisation was founded with the support of La Strada Ukraine and La Strada Ukraine was founded with the help of La Strada Poland. And this is how the La Strada network was created. La Strada Poland was created in 1995, La Strada Ukraine in 1998 and La Strada Moldova in 2001. In 2004, the whole network was transformed into the International La Strada Association, officially registered in Amsterdam.
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Border police distributing La Strada leaflets for groups at risk of trafficking |
We started working before our country ratified the main international instruments for combating trafficking. Moldova ratified the Palermo Protocol in 2005 and the Council of Europe Convention on action against trafficking in human beings in 2006. Our work helped the country to recognise the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings. We did a lot in this sphere, mainly focusing on human trafficking. Later, we enlarged our areas of work and now we are working on preventing and combating not only trafficking but also violence against women more broadly (domestic violence, sexual violence, etc.), and online child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
In each of these 3 areas, we have five types of activities:
- prevention work (awareness raising and reduction of vulnerability, which is supported by a specialised hotline or trustline);
- direct assistance to each group of beneficiaries, such as psychological and legal assistance;
- data collection and research;
- advocacy and development of legal and regulatory framework;
- capacity building and training for professionals.
JJ: What was the impact of the pandemic on your work?
TF: Our office was closed for three months because of lockdowns, we worked from home, and of course, that impacted the efforts and our activities. The pandemic had a twofold impact: some activities became impossible, but others increased. We tried our best in this situation, re-structured our work and mainly conducted activities in online format. In general, our work was quite effective.
For example, our anti-trafficking hotline worked very effectively at that time and received a lot of calls from migrants who were travelling and needed information about the changed rules for entry and exit from countries and border crossing. In the first months of the pandemic, our state agencies didn't provide any official information about travel restrictions, so the information of our hotline was in great demand.
The lockdowns also increased domestic violence. Our trustline for women affected by domestic violence received many calls. We strengthened our cooperation with the police to react properly to these calls.
For me personally, because I am a researcher, I could conduct some additional analytical work at home and developed a publication.
I should also note that starting from 2020, some of our work has moved online. Slowly, we started organising activities online or in hybrid format (online and offline), such as trainings, capacity building, working group meetings, etc. It has become more normal and allows us to save project funds.
JJ: I'm glad the online side of it worked out. What about other work or working with groups who don’t have access to a phone or computer?
TF: It was very difficult for our lawyers, because we support women and children in court proceedings. And of course, during the pandemic, all court sessions were postponed. For the people who work in this area, it was very difficult. We offered psychological support through a phone or computer, but the legal support in court was impossible and had to stop for three months.
JJ: What are the main challenges for victims of human trafficking, domestic and sexual violence in Moldova?
TF: The main challenges for victims of human trafficking are that court proceedings can take a very long time - up to two years. Most victims are poor, unemployed people from rural areas, who have to migrate due to low wages and lack of jobs. So it’s often impossible for them to stay home for two years and wait for the final decision of the court.
Another problem is the (re)integration of trafficked persons because social services are decentralised. Victims of trafficking can obtain, on a national level in the capital, only short-term assistance - they can stay in specialised shelters for one to three months and obtain assistance there. After that period, they must move to a permanent place of residence and local authorities assist them in their social (re)integration. However, services for victims of crime are undeveloped on the local level. Sometimes, this situation may push victims again into trafficking and exploitation. We have about 120-140 victims per year who ask for assistance from the State. We have 33 raions (districts) in Moldova, so in each raion we have 4-5 victims of human trafficking who need help with social integration, including medical, psychological, and legal assistance, support in capacity building, obtaining qualifications that are relevant to the labour market, help with employment, and so on. It’s very difficult for victims of trafficking to become independent, so they need these types of assistance and support. However, there aren’t enough services on the local level because, as I mentioned, there aren’t many victims and it's not a priority for local authorities to organise such services. We also don't have many specialised NGOs who offer such services at local level.
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LS booklet for school teachers on harmonious relations in the family |
Speaking about victims of domestic violence, a huge challenge is to overcome the fear and dependence (psychological, financial, etc.) from the spouse. Often they’re not integrated in the labour market and they have the same needs as trafficked persons – help with social integration.
Services for victims of sexual violence are undeveloped because it is a completely new area of work. Moldova ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2022 and has only now started amending the national laws. The specialised services for this group are provided only by development partners.
JJ: How do you incorporate the views and experiences of victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual violence in your work?
TF: We offer direct assistance to victims and this allows us to collect information about their opinions and needs, as well as about existing problems and gaps in national policy. This gives us the opportunity to incorporate their views in our advocacy projects and projects and when we develop the national legal and regulatory framework in relevant areas.
In addition, we conduct research that includes interviews with victims and we ask them about their needs and suggestions for national policies. It is quite interesting for us. They make great suggestions for policy changes. Right now, we have a project on evaluation of the National Anti-trafficking Strategy (2018-2022) and as part of the methodology, we included interviewing victims to ensure that their opinions will be reflected and contribute to our recommendations for the next policy cycle.
JJ: In your opinion, what is unique about La Strada Moldova?
TF: I would say, it is the development of legal and regulatory framework in the areas where we work. We not only lobby, but also propose concrete amendments to legislative acts or develop drafts of the new legal and regulatory framework. We elaborate national policies (strategies, national actions plans, etc.) and our experts have developed a number of legal documents that have been officially approved by the Government or other state structures.
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Discussion and review of draft Guide on identification of victims of trafficking |
Of course, we don't work alone. For example, this year we developed a new Guide for identification of victims in human trafficking in mixed migration flows in response to the military conflict in Ukraine. Our country is mainly a country of origin for trafficking, i.e. citizens of Moldova are subjected to exploitation in more developed countries, and our regulatory framework is aimed at protection of victims who are citizens of our country. But at present, we have about 80,000 displaced people from Ukraine who are at a very high risk of human trafficking. Therefore, we started to develop guidelines how to identify and work with victims of trafficking who are foreign nationals. In May, we formed a special working group, to which we invited representatives from the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases, the Center for Combating Trafficking in Persons (specialised police unit), the Bureau of Migration and Asylum and the General Inspectorate of Border Police. The La Strada lawyer was one of the main authors. Thus, we elaborated a draft guide for frontline officers who work with migrants on how to identify victims of trafficking. At the end of July, the draft Guide was validated by participants in a workshop we organised. And in August, the Guide was officially approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is now mandatory for all structures that participated in its development.
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La Strada Moldova president Elena Botezatu with the country’s Deputy Minister of Interior |
La Strada Moldova has worked more than 20 years, we are very well-known on the national level and our experts are trusted by our partners from government structures. They know that La Strada uses comprehensive approach – we provide direct assistance to our beneficiaries, we know victims’ needs, we conduct research, we develop recommendations, and based on these recommendations the Government can improve the legal and regulatory framework. So, when we develop a detailed draft piece of legal work, the government can move forward with it very quickly to correct existing problems. But of course, this requires political will, and in this regard, the country's course towards European integration helps us.
I also would like to note that we use strategical planning in our work and elaborate strategic plans for our organisation for 3-5 years. After expiration, each our strategic plan is evaluated. We analyse the situation in all areas of our work and elaborate relevant theory of change. We use the approved strategic plans for developing our projects. This is also pretty unique for civil society organizations in Moldova.
JJ: I have no more questions. Is there anything else you would like to add?
TF: No, thank you for inviting me for this interview, it was a pleasure for me to speak with you and to explain the work of our organisation.
JJ: It was a pleasure to learn more about La Strada Moldova as well. Thank you for your time.