About the webinar:
The years 2015-2016 saw an unprecedented increase in the numbers of people travelling by sea and overland along the migration routes to the European Union, with a total of almost one and a half million people irregularly entering EU countries. Trafficking and exploitation are a major cause for concern among migrants on the move to Europe but the number of victims who are actually formally identified remains extremely low, as shown by a recent study conducted by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) along the Western Balkans route.
The aim of this webinar is to present the main research results of the study “Trafficking along migration routes to Europe: Bridging the Gap between Migration, Asylum and Anti-Trafficking”, with a special focus on unaccompanied and separated children travelling to Europe along the Western Balkans route. Besides the full study, a Briefing Paper (shorter version with key results) was recently published.
The study was carried out in the framework of the EU-funded project “Trafficking along Migration Routes (TRAM): Identification and Integration of Victims of Trafficking among Vulnerable Groups and Unaccompanied Children”, aiming at supporting and enabling the early identification, referral, protection and rehabilitation of trafficked people along migration routes. The research assessment was carried out in Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Serbia and Sweden. The project is co-funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs and is implemented by ICMPD in partnership with the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat (CBSS); the Greek National Centre for Social Solidarity (EKKA); the Bulgarian National Commission to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings (NCCTHB); La Strada International (LSI); and Terre des hommes (Tdh).
About presenters:
Maria Antonia Di Maio is an independent consultant with more than fifteen years of professional experience at the international level in human rights, child protection, anti-trafficking, asylum and migration issues, primarily in Southeast and Western Europe. Between 2001-2004, she worked in Moldova managing programmes aimed to support the re/integration of trafficked persons and other ‘at risk’ groups through income-generating activities. In Kosovo (2005-2006), Maria Antonia Worked with the IOM as as Consultant on Anti-Trafficking Issues, based at the Prime Minister’s Advisory Office on Good Governance (AOGG). Between 2006 and 2010, she worked on protecting children on the move with Save the Children, first in Albania and later in Italy and at EU level. Since 2011, she has been working as freelance consultant and has been involved in a number of research and policy projects with several NGOs, international agencies and foundations, primarily in the field of migration, asylum and anti-trafficking, with a specific focus on children.
Roberto Forin is currently working as Programme Coordinator for the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) in Geneva. Before moving to Geneva Roberto worked as research coordinator for the Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) where he coordinated the research assessment of the Anti-Trafficking along migration routes in Europe project. He also acted as thematic expert on protection of migrants and on anti-trafficking in conflict & other humanitarian settings. Before that Mr. Forin worked in Greece as Deputy Head of Mission for the ICRC during the height of the migration crisis in 2015/2016. Roberto builds on over ten years of experience in the protection and assistance of refugees and displaced populations, having worked for the ICRC and IOM in Sudan, Colombia, Haiti, Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 2014 Roberto has been extensively covering migration issues in the Mediterranean and North Africa as researcher. He has conducted research on involuntary immobility and migration in countries in crisis at the university of Oxford and has collaborated with the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute of Florence and the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute on migrant labour exploitation in Italy and lived experiences of migrants transiting through Libya, respectively. He has authored several research publications mostly focused on mixed migration, protection for people on the move and migration policies in the wider Mediterranean.
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