Meeting of the Multi-Disciplinary Task Force, Brest

On the 21 st of May, 2014 a meeting of the multi-disciplinary task force in Brest took place. The main responsibility of the task force is to identify, refer and provide assistance to VoTs in Brest oblast; to strengthen NRM in Brest oblast, to share experience, information and latest statistics in the field of combating and prevention of trafficking in human beings.

The meeting of the task force was chaired by the Chief of Mission of IOM – Zeynal HAJIYEV; National Project Coordinator/Deputy chairperson of the Department/ Chairperson of the second unit on combating trafficking in drugs and human beings of the criminal militia of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Belarus, Sergey KOLTUN and Coordinator of the International Technical Assistance Project “Building the capacity of the Republic of Belarus in the field of combating trafficking in human beings” – Natalia ZHAK. Meeting of the multi-disciplinary task force was organized with technical and organizational support of the Red Cross Organization and was held on the premises of the Brest city executive committee. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the agencies, which signed the MoU and other interested organizations, including: Department of the Interior Affairs, of labor and social welfare, of health, of education, of migration and citizenship, investigation committee, bar association, border guards group, prosecutor`s office, Brest oblast NGOs, including Red Cross, Business Women Club from Brest and Kobrin, and also the representative of the donor – USAID agency was attending the event.

During the meeting all the representatives had an opportunity to share the latest information and statistics and to talk about the latest trends in the field of THB in Brest region, special attention was given to the issue of rendering assistance to victims of trafficking and to the issue of labor exploitation of Belarus citizens in Russia and their identification as VoTs, also discussions were focused on the cases of children who suffered from sexual violence and the necessity to improve responses of both state and non-state actors in this regards.

In the course of the work of the task force it was decided:

• to more actively engage into sharing information and statistics between the interested parties of the MoU in the field of prevention of THB and provision of assistance to VoTs;
• to adhere to the principles of confidentiality, availability, free service for VoTs when rendering assistance;
• to more actively initiate the meetings of the task force;
• to conduct the next meeting of the task force no later than December, 2014;
• to increase preventive work among relevant actors for the purpose of decreasing the number of cases of children sexual abuse;
• to more actively use the resource of crisis rooms when rendering assistance to NGOs;
• to invite journalists, other representatives of mass media, representatives of religious confessions to the meetings of the task force;
• to invite to the meetings of the task force the representatives of volunteer groups, of informational brigades for sharing best information actions practices.
• the representatives of NGOs of Brest oblast should discuss with local authorities the questions of participation of NGOs in the system of state social sub-contraction;
• to widen the list of the MoU participants with the representatives of the court, prosecutor`s office, investigation committee, department on citizenship and migration.