Three days in ”anti-trafficking” zone

Interview with Senior Specialist of Ukrainian International Organization for Migration (IOM) Kateryna Ardanyan

– As an international expert in the field of human trafficking what problems would you highlight common for post-soviet countries?

– Nowadays human trafficking is an actual issue for all the countries of the World, however in post-soviet area, due to high level of poverty and population’s social vulnerability the urgency of the topic is rapidly growing. It may be stated that exactly this common socio-economic problems largely determine problems of the human trafficking. Most countries of the region are trafficking victims’ origin countries, some are countries of origin, transit countries and destination at the same time.

Quite high level of human trafficking exists within the region, for example, the main destination for victims from Ukraine is Russian Federation, citizens from Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia are often enslaved in Kazakhstan, and these kind of examples are not few.

Many examples of common problems may be mentioned however I would particularly emphasize referral mechanisms and victim assistance, victims and witnesses protection during the criminal process, work with the vulnerable groups, prevention of the key reasons for people of getting into the slavery (poverty, low level of citizens’ knowledge on their rights, lack of access to reliable information, etc.).

Human trafficking is not a static problem, it is a dynamic issue that is modified and depends on many factors.

It’s essential for every country to be able to track trends which are topical both for country and for region as a whole, for example track growth of internal trafficking, growth of trafficking for labor exploitation, and be able to respond quickly to them, in particular by exchanging experiences and combining efforts to fight against modern slavery.

– Are there general rules applied during raising awareness among risky groups which may lead to elimination of trafficking cases in society?

– I’m not sure if it is a general rule, nonetheless expierience shows that the more narrowly defined target audience is, the more easier is to deliver your message to that target. So it is necessary to vary forms of trafficking and work with different risky groups separately, also convey information to so-called “clients” (addressing the demand side).

It is vital delivering information to the risky groups via the media channels available for each of the groups; for example if we talk about social advertising it must be placed by channels where a risky group can easily see it (for example stations, main destination country’s consulates etc.).

It is necessarily to accompany an information message about the risks with the hotline contacts or the web-portals where they can get more information and help.

– After three days spent in Armenia in close communication with Armenian journalists in the framework of “How to highlight trafficking in media” Training, what can you tell about Armenian journalists’ qualification in this field?

– I’m very thankful to the organizers for the translation during the whole Training, because it allowed me better understanding of the discussions and enabled me to “listen to” the opinions of the participants. I was pleasantly impressed by the activity of Armenian journalists and their consernment in the topic.

Questions and comments of the journalists demonstrated that they were not strangers in this field and I suppose they have serious interest in highlighting modern-day slavery, but at the same time there is a need to teach journalists to make their pieces not only interesting, but qualitative and appropriate to the standards of social responsibility of a journalist, and at the same time purposeful.

Namely journalists can convey information about the major risks, thereby helping to prevent problems. Just like in medicine – prevention is better than cure and in the fight with the trafficking effective prevention means less need for reintegration.

– Are there any common features that you may distinguish while comparing Armenian and Ukrainian media dealing with covering trafficking related issues?

– It’s hard for me to carry out a full comparative analysis of already published articles, but the dilemmas faced by journalists of both counties are exactly alike, and it became clear from the very first questions asked during the Training.
During the Training we had been talking a lot about journalistic ethics and the moral choice of a journalist: we may also find here a lot of parallels and examples from Ukrainian realities which can be quite applicable also for Armenia.

There are many similarities, but I wouldn’t want to generalize as one of the main points I noted for myself during the Training was big differences between the journalists who participated in it. This observation is very important during training of journalists covering the problems of human trafficking: it is exactly the difference among journalists which allows to engage coverage via different media – traditional and new, regional and national.

I discuss this at a little bit more pragmatic extend understanding that it’s closely connected with conveying the information to different risky groups, because someone gets information only from local newspapers and the other absolutely refuses them reading news in an online newsfeed. These differences help to make a coverage multipurpose, providing the opportunity of reaching to all risky groups and designing such methods of presenting information so that specific reader or viewer and society as a whole receives the maximum benefit from it.

– What are your impressions from the Training, from Armenia, and, of course, from work with Armenian journalists?

– I have the warmest impressions, which may be explained, of course, by my Armenian roots and the organizers’ hospitality! You know, the ability to create an atmosphere where business and companionship complement each other is very important for this type of multi-day events, where participants spend 24 hour together.

The Training proved very well that the effect of such events is more than the one from working sessions. Non-working communication and discussions discover new topics and new aspects of already discussed topics during working processes. That’s how new contacts are established, which can be very useful in further professional activity.

It seems to me that the Training in line with its main goal to “share experience and teach”, achieved not less important goal – “to inspire”. At least I was very inspired and I hope the rest of the participants were as well.