Child trafficking is one dramatic consequence of the economic plight that Albania finds itself in. Terre des hommes (Tdh) offers support to local people who are actively fighting this scourge.


Solutions proposed by Terre des hommes

Child trafficking – In the main towns and cities of Albania, Tdh supports the creation of special units whose task it is to coordinate public as well as private efforts in the fight against child trafficking. These units take on individual cases and offer further training to school psychologists.

Looking after vulnerable children – To ensure that children do not need to work, prostitute themselves or beg, Tdh offers families of school children the option to obtain micro-credits.

Support for minorities – The people belonging to the Roma minority are regularly subjected to discrimination and stigmatisation. Tdh defends them in their dealings with the authorities.

Transnational cooperation – Most victims of child trafficking are taken to Greece to work as beggars. In conjunction with the Greek NGO Arsis, Tdh intervenes directly in the streets to offer its help to Albanian children.


Results achieved in 2008

Child protection units – Tdh has set up new protection units (it now has seven). These units are an integral part of communal social services.
Prevention – Tdh and its partners have distributed information leaflets on the topic of child trafficking to 156 schools.

Looking after vulnerable children – Home visits to 426 families made it possible to monitor children who are particularly vulnerable. With the help of individual solutions, children could be sent to a kindergarden or to school, and professional training could be provided for the young.

Support for minorities – Tdh and its partners provided recreational and sports-based summer activities for over 2,400 children belonging to disadvantaged ethnic minorities. These summer camps also offered an opportunity to raise awareness of the problem of trafficking among the children.


Challenges to be taken up

Lack of infrastructure – Albania has still no effective mechanisms for the prevention of child trafficking. There is no official adoption network, which would be one way of permanently removing children from a high-risk family environment. Tdh is campaigning for the respective new laws to be adopted by the government. Developing child protection units – At community level, the fight against child trafficking frequently depends on the goodwill of the mayor. There are few if any independent actors. Developing the capacities of these protection units is therefore one of the main objectives of Tdh in Albania.


"We need to act in order to defend the rights of children" Interview with Vasilika Laçi, in charge of the child protection project of Tdh in Albania.

What made you work with children?
I have worked for various NGOs in the field of gender equality and the fight against corruption. I wanted to defend human rights in general. But in view of the plight of children, I have decided to get more involved in this field. All stakeholders are in agreement that we need to join forces to defend the rights of children; this is not necessarily the case in the other fields that I have previously been working in.

What gives you the greatest happiness in your job?
When I achieve my goal after a lot of hard work. I would like to use the example of our work regarding the registration of the births of children belonging to the Roma minority. Until recently, the people from this minority were punished if they did not comply with the deadline set for registering births. Thanks to our work, the government decided to set a three-month period during which all children could be registered.

Which is the achievement that you are most proud of?
In conjunction with the BKTF coalition, we organised a conference against child trafficking which was attended by the Prime Minister, the Labour and Social Affairs Minister as well as the US Ambassador. This is where the Prime Minister acknowledged for the first time that child trafficking was a serious problem of which the government had not been sufficiently aware.