Varna: Campaign for prevention of trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation
During 1 April - 31 May 2021, the Local Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and the Directorate "Prevention" – Varna Municipality, together with the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, conducted the annual campaign for prevention of trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation "Where do you travel?", as part of the National Campaign for prevention of trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising unemployment, there are prerequisites for accepting dubious job offers at Bulgaria and abroad. A focus of this year's campaign has been the real increase in the risk of being involved in trafficking for labour exploitation. The main objective was to raise public awareness and risk groups of the mechanisms used in involvement, as well as to draw attention to the specific signs of identifying victims of trafficking for labour exploitation.
Together with the partners from Border Police - Varna Airport, 600 informative materials were distributed.
Due to the restrictive measures imposed on the occasion of the COVID 19 pandemic, six schools in Varna with preventive clubs took part in the campaign: "Dr. P. Beron", IV Eg "Frederic G. Curie", "K. Preslavski" University of Education, Vocational Technical High School, "G.S. Rakovski" University of Education and "Nikolay Haytov" University of Education. 35 volunteers working on the peer-to-peer method took part in the campaign. They held training sessions on topics like "Trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation", "Mechanisms for engaging in the exploitation of victims and how to protect ourselves". These sessions covered 280 students. During the campaign, preventive materials was disseminated with information about the dangers of falling into labour exploitation. The campaign reached 2,490 students.
Volunteers from the school preventive clubs produced a video in which they presented the dangers and ways to prevent them and sent messages to all young people to be informed and cautious when looking for work. The video was posted on Facebook. Facebook framework was also prepared. The parents of the students were also informed about the campaign through the e-diary in shkolo.bg.