Migrant population in local communities in Serbia

Publication “Migrant population in local communities in Serbia” is produced within the project “Opening a dialogue in local communities between citizens and migrants on mutual tolerance and non-violence”, which was realized from November 2013 to December 2014 by Citizens’ Association for Combat against Trafficking in Human Beings and all Forms of Violence against Women Atina, in partnership with AsylumProtection Centre, and with the support of the European Union and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. The goal of the initiative was to develop effective models of response and reduce xenophobia and prejudice in local communities in Serbia. A goal formulated in such a way can also be understood in the light of creating an adequate mechanism for prevention of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation and violence which migrant population in Serbia is potentially exposed to. Project activities were focused on strengthening capacities of civil society organisations and professionals whose engagement is directed towards providing support to, and protection of, migrants. A general situation in which the research took place is characterized by an increase in the number of migrants and asylum seekers, and by the obligation of Serbia to build an asylum system that would effectively enable admission, accommodation, exercise of rights to financial assistance, access to healthcare and education, etc. It certainly entails a coordinated approach of different sectors and different levels of government, including increased demands set in front of actors at the local level. At the same time, fundamental reform processes have been taking place for years now, in all the sectors relevant both to assistance and integration of the migrants - social welfare sector, healthcare, education, the police - and which, among other things, include gender sensitivity, orientation towards preventive programmes, approach based on human rights, as well as increased responsibilities of local governments when it comes to care for particularly vulnerable groups. The specific research goals are defined as follows: i) Understanding international standards of protection, in the fields of migration and asylum issues, relevant to national context; ii) Understanding national legislative and regulatory frameworks in the field of migrations, with a focus on standards in protection of the rights of migrant population; iii) Gaining an insight into the understanding of the migrations and vulnerability of migrant by professionals; iv) Gaining an insight into characteristics of the response of local systems to migrations and the status of migrants, as well as into the quality of cooperation between different actors; v) Understanding challenges and obstacles in the implementation of existing regulations and in exercising the rights of migrants, and particularly vulnerable groups of migrants, in local communities, with a special focus on attitudes towards migrants; vi) Formulating recommendations for improvement of the response to the needs of migrants. As the local context in which migrants interact with citizens has not been a subject of special studies so far, it was particularly important to combine different sources of qualitative and, to a lesser extent, quantitative data. Thus, responding to the first specific goal we used primary documents of international and national system which regulate the area of migration and asylum. In answer to other specific research goals, the analysis is primarily made on the basis of data obtained from focus-group interviews with representatives of different systems that have the authority to provide assistance, or work on measures of integration of migrant population at the local level. Their insights - primary data obtained from interviews, were combined with the data provided by state agencies and institutions

Research Methodology; International and National Frameworks for the Protection of Children on the Move

The publication is produced within the project of Social Protection Reform of the World Fit for Children initiated by the international organisation Save the Children in 2012 in cooperation with the civil society organisations, NGO Atina and Group 484, funded by the European Commission, Open Society Fund and Save the Children. The term “children on the move” although new, implies the well-known phenomena of migrating children who are exposed to various risks during these migrations. These are “children that for various reasons, willingly or forcefully, within the country or across countries, with or without parents or guardians migrate, and who are exposed to risks of inadequate care, economic and sexual exploitation, negligence and violence while on the move” (Save the Children). This definition also implies different groups of children: refugees, internally displaced children, asylum seekers, irregular migrants, victims of human trafficking, children living and working in the streets, returnees under the readmission process. The subject of the research is the current policy for and practice in the protection of children on the move in Serbia who, for various reasons, willingly or forcefully within the country or between countries, with or without parents or guardians migrate and are possibly exposed to risks of inadequate care, exploitation, neglect and violence. The goal of the research is to get an insight into and ensure better understanding of the phenomenon of children on the move in Serbia, identification of the existing services and practices as well as formulating recommendations for improvement of the welfare system in order to adequately meet the increasing need to provide the support to children on the move and to secure exercising of the rights of the child. Specifically, the research questions are: i) What are the existing international standards and instruments for the protection of children on the move?; ii) What is the existing national normative framework for the protection of children on the move?; iii) What is the perspective of children on the move in terms of exercising the rights of the child?; iv) How professionals who work in the fields relevant for the children on the move understand and assess this phenomenon?; v) How was the phenomenon of children on the move manifested in the period 2008 – 2011 in Serbia?; vi) What is the perspective of children in terms of migrations, what are their experiences?; vii) What programmes and services are available: what are the mandates and programmes of different service providers, what are the existing cooperation mechanisms between different actors: what are the internal rules of treatment, practice and procedures of service providers and what are the existing obstacles for the quality protection?; viii) What are opinions of children on the move in terms of support, programmes and services they need? An interdisciplinary framework of research methods has been used: i) Analysis of primary and secondary sources – international policies and instruments, reports of state organs, legislative documents and public policies that concern with the children on the move; ii) Semi-structured in-in-depth interviews and focus groups interviews with the representatives of the state institutions and organisations of civil society, both with professionals directly engaged in working with children, and with those who deal with creation of policies and decision making in the field of protection of children on the move; iii) Focus group and half-structured interviews with children from the most representative category of children on the move in Serbia: children who seek asylum; children returned upon the procedure of readmission, children that migrate in the country, children victims of human trafficking

International, national and local standards for the protection of victims and prevention of human trafficking; Social welfare reform in local communities; Protection of victims and prevention of trafficking in local communities

Publication Local communities in the fight against human trafficking is produced within the homonymous project, that was designed and implemented by the organization Atina, in partnership with Novi Sad's Humanitarian Centre, and in cooperation with the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, with the financial support of the European Union, Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and German Federal Government through the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH". The project is motivated by the need to strengthen the role of civil society organizations in decision-making process and, more specifically, their competence to monitor local strategies and action plans relevant to the field of human trafficking; empowering relevant stakeholders for intersectoral partnerships in order to provide support to vulnerable groups, and strengthening vulnerable groups to participate in decision-making process. Enabling better understanding of the protection of victims and prevention of human trafficking in the context of the reform of local social security system, the research should contribute to achieving these goals. In other words, the research has been fueled by recent changes in the area of human trafficking and in the area of social protection – a growing need to increase capacity and find answers to problems of the protection of victims and prevention of human trafficking at the level of local community, starting from local public policies, to everyday practice within disparate sectors. The report is organized in three parts. The first part, except for introductory and methodological guidelines, gives an overview of some of the most relevant documents of the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union for the prevention and protection of victims, national, legal and strategic framework which regulate protection and prevention within different systems. The second and third part of the report present the findings of the research with professionals – representatives of different systems, with the use of secondary data for local and national level, as well as the results of the monitoring activities of Social Welfare Centers and local policies in this area. Basic features of social protection reform on the local level – the key processes, actors, characteristics of intersectoral cooperation, implementation of local strategic documents in the field of protection of vulnerable groups, as well as the key challenges, are presented in the second part of the publication. This segment also includes the analysis of the local response to the problem of human trafficking – an overview of social groups at risk of trafficking and victimization factors, the role of different actors and the characteristics of their cooperation; the key challenges of the current system, with associated recommendations relating to local level of prevention and protection of victims of human trafficking, especially in the context of the current reform of social security system. This part of the publication contains the report of the monitoring process of Social Welfare Centers in seven cities/municipalities. The third part of the publication presents a special overview of the local regulatory framework (from three towns involved in the project), with consistently transferred reports of collaborative network, that are the result of the monitoring activities of local policies for the protection of victims, and prevention of human trafficking