Programme for unaccompanied foreign children and victims of child trafficking

Children are not for sale

Since 2004 to 2006, upon an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Nobody's Children Foundation has run the National Contact Point for Unaccompanied and Trafficked Children within the collaboration of the Working Group of Baltic Sea States.

In 2005 the following activities were undertaken as part of the Contact Point's operation:
· Organizing - in collaboration with the British Embassy and the National Headquarters of the Boarder Guard the first Polish social campaign "Children are not for Sale!", aimed at raising awareness in the area of preventing and combating child trafficking. The campaign was targeted at professionals who deal with unaccompanied foreign children in their work: boarder guards, police officers and employees of emergency shelters and refugee centres. As part of the campaign posters and brochures were published, providing information of the specific characteristics of the offence of child trafficking, as well as detailed information concerning the risk group, child traffickers' typical patterns of behaviour, and the symptoms suggesting that the child might be a victim of trafficking. The posters were forwarded to all boarder guard stations in Poland.
· Organizing a series of training sessions and working meetings with representatives of emergency shelters, refugee centers, the police, and the boarder guard in the Podkarpackie Province. The goal of those meeting was to convey essential information about child trafficking and to work out procedures of cooperation between various services in cases of suspected child trafficking.
· Based on an agreement with the Office for Repatriation and Aliens, in 2005 the Foundation continued organizing interviews of foreign children applying for the refugee status in Poland. The Foundation's psychologists developed expert opinions about such children's psychological state, prepared them for interviews, and accompanied them during the interview. Altogether 24 such interviews were conducted in one of the Foundation's centres. Some of the interviewed children required psychological help, which was provided by the Foundation's therapists.

The programme was financed by:
· Ministry of Education and Science
· The British Embassy