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Zagreb, 03.07.2008
IOM Croatia organized in
cooperation with the French Embassy in Croatia an international workshop
on “Protecting and supporting minors victims of trafficking and unaccompanied
minors”, at IOM Zagreb, on 2 July 2008. The workshop was part of a three days
visit of a French delegation, Mrs. Marie-Anne BAULON, Mrs Géraldine
THOMAS-CHOUIN and Mr. Benoit AUZOU, experts in issues of minors victims of
trafficking and minors authors of violence, with the purpose to exchange
experiences and discuss problems and challenges in Croatia facing this still
unresolved topic. National participants were representatives of Croatian
authorities, the Ministry of Interior, the State Attorney’s Office, responsible
institutions in the framework of social welfare (Red Cross, Centre for Social
Policy Initiatives (CSPI), and NGOs (CLC – Croatian Law Center, Ženska Soba,
Organization for the Integration and Prosperity) and International
Organizations (IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF) which are working successfully on Combating
Trafficking in Human Beings in the Republic of Croatia.
The Workshop under the title “Protecting and
supporting minors victims of trafficking and unaccompanied minors”, organized
by IOM and the French Embassy in Zagreb, on 3 July 2008 at IOM, Radnička Cesta
41/7, was an important step towards a joint cooperation of national and
international partners for improving the protection and assistance of
unaccompanied minors potential and/or victims of trafficking in the Republic of
Croatia. From the French site, a group of experts on minors victims of
trafficking or authors of violence exposed the current legal and social
protection policy for minors victims or delinquents in the Republic of France.
Mrs. Marie-Anne BAULON, French judge for minors, who worked as expert advisory
of the Ministry of Interior of France
on EU pre-admission reforms in Romania
and currently in cooperation with IOM in
Budapest, conducted the exchange of expertise
and experiences in the two countries, France
and Croatia.
Mrs Géraldine THOMAS-CHOUIN, also judge for minors in Paris, presented the
legal provisions, judicial procedures and the link between civil and criminal
law related to delinquent minors and in cases of foreign and/or illegal,
unaccompanied minors and her points of view due to deficits of legal provisions
protecting the best interests of minors and unaccompanied minors in Croatia.
Mr. Benoit AUZOU, representative of the French ONG “Children in the streets”,
exposed the work, experiences and cases of the ONG, which is working in
particular with minors from Romania
in Paris and the periphery of Paris. The ONG offers a safe shelter for
foreign, illegal and unaccompanied minors, with special assistance and
protection programs for minors victims of trafficking. The presentations were
followed by an intensive debate on constraints of taking minors into care and
challenges and hindrances which Croatia
is still facing.
Thus the Republic of Croatia
has recognized children as a particularly vulnerable group, focusing on a
special approach, involving particular measures of prevention, assistance and
protection for children (see the National Plan for the Suppression of
Trafficking in Children 2005-2007), operational standards for assistance and
protection, in accordance to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, are
still not sufficiently provided by the responsible authorities and institutions
in Croatia. It is a matter of fact, that the number of unaccompanied
minors potential and/or victims of trafficking has increased in Croatia
and the region in general.
Croatia’s committment to the Rights of Children however, is not reflected
in the Aliens Act, which does not regulate at all the problem of children who
are victims of trafficking. While children in general are entitled to education,
the right is currently not guaranteed to children, who are found in a situation
of illegal migration, or to victims of trafficking. The particularly vulnerable
position of trafficked and illegal residing children in Croatia should be
addressed by incorporating specific legal provisions protecting the best
interest of minors and unaccompanied minors and by establishing a specialised
institution for assistance and protection of foreign unaccompanied minors.
There is still a lack of of cooperation between national authorities (the
Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the State Attorney’s Office, the Ombudsperson
for Children), responsible institutions providing assistance and protection and
national and international organizations and the civil society, acting jointly
in the benefit of minors victims.
National Plan for the
Suppression of Trafficking in Children 2005-2007
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