Combating human trafficking
Last Thursday the International Labour Organization project, “Counteracting Human Trafficking with the Aid of Labor Market Instruments,” was officially launched after Ukraine’s labor and social policy minister Mykhailo Papiiev and ILO representative Beate Andrees signed an agreement on its implementation in Ukraine and Moldova. The program will be funded by the European Commission and the government of the Republic of Ireland. It has a two-year mandate, and the budget for both countries amounts to some one million euros. The Day was told by the labor ministry’s press service that Ukraine has already received 700,000 euros.
The ILO has been providing technical assistance to Ukraine in its struggle against human trafficking since 2003, within the framework of an operational project aimed at combating trafficking of women. Thanks to assistance and funding provided by this international organization, an interaction model for employment agencies and NGOs was created in Chernivtsi oblast to identify women as potential and actual targets and victims of human trafficking, help them obtain vocational and business training through employment agencies, find jobs, and even start their own businesses. The labor ministry’s press service pointed out that 17 women started businesses after receiving microcredits amounting to nearly 26,000 dollars.
According to the labor ministry’s statistics for the first quarter of 2007, a total of 136 cases of human trafficking were registered in Ukraine. “According to our estimates, this is a small number compared to the number of individuals that currently fall under the category of human trafficking victims,” noted Papiiev.
Experts believe that there are some 2.5 million migrant workers laboring abroad. According to the ILO’s data, most of them have no legal status in their host countries. Volodymyr Halytsky, director of the State Employment Center, says that the main problem of the unregulated status of migrant workers is the lack of social protection for Ukrainians working abroad. The ministry is working on bilateral agreements between Ukraine and countries with the largest numbers of such migrant workers (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Poland).
There are also plans to monitor labor migration, assess the scope of this phenomenon, resolve matters in favor of the national labor market, and improve the political and legal framework aimed at regulating the migration process and combating human trafficking.
The ILO project will be implemented along with the program “Dignified Work in Ukraine,” which was signed by the labor ministry, its social partners, and the ILO on March 3, 2006.
