Examples of Action in Dutch Society

A national campaign directed by the Ministry of Justice to inform the clients of the prostitutes to recognise trafficking was started in 2006, including the creation of a hotline/national telephone number to report the crime. Up until now, the campaign has been a clear success with more registrations of trafficked persons in the first three months of 2006 than in the whole year of 2005.

Dutch police check the legal brothels several times a year. They often encounter victims of human trafficking. Unfortunately, in most of the cases, the women do not press charges, hampering the police efforts in tracing and prosecuting the offenders of the crime.

Stichting tegen Vrouwenhandel (STV) helps trafficked people by making sure they get the appropriate assistance and providing them with a temporary safe shelter somewhere in the Netherlands. SVT works together with Bonded Labour in the Netherlands (BLinN), which provides services like temporary financial support, social contacts, psychological or educational assistance, and assistance to find a job.

The International Organisation for Migration -The Netherlands facilitates the return of migrants who are unable to stay or do not wish to stay in the Netherlands. They have a special department for counter-trafficking.

'Maatwerk bij Terugkeer' is a special desk of Cordaid specialised in helping people that has been denied the status of asylum seeker or of victim of trafficking and that wish to return to their home country. Returnees can be provided with a ticket, pocket money and/or in some cases an additional re-integration allowance in their home country.

Stichting Religieuzen tegen Vrouwenhandel (SRTV) is mainly active in prevention and voluntary re-migration by using their international Religious network.

Gender is a sensitive topic in international cooperation issues especially when talking about the role of religion in conservative countries and the empowerment of women. Nevertheless, the issue of "women suppression by religion and means to deal with it" is very important for value driven organisations like SRTV and Cordaid. Cordaid consider it as a key-issue with an important role to play to open discussions about the conservative way of thinking; as well as to assess the values and standards in a society compared to the role of women in their religion, in a certain country.

SRTV

SRTV, the Dutch Foundation of Religious against Trafficking in Women, is a worldwide network composed by lay and religious co-workers from 13 different congregations. Their multi cultural experience and their world wide network of contacts are very valuable to spread information about and assistance in the fight against trafficking in women.

Set up in 1991, SRTV's first objective is to work on prevention and awareness raising. It is also the foundation's intention to contribute to the creation of a respectable future for the victims of this trade.

SRTV produces leaflets in 49 languages distributed through its network of religious and women organisations around the world. The foundation has even produced a film for awareness raising, as well as for opening debates.

This network of religious and women organisations aim to create awareness about trafficking in human beings and possible dangers related to migration. They attend to and lead workshops all over the world, and edit 2 times a year the magazine Transaction. Furthermore, they also assist victims and support projects in the home countries of the victims to help them to reintegrate in their society and be financially independent.

Congregations all over the Netherlands support their work morally and financially. (http://www.srtv.info/ )

Cordaid

Founded in 1999, Cordaid is one of the world's largest international development organisations, with a network of more than a thousand counterparts in some forty countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe.

Cordaid is committed to poverty eradication through the support of local organisations in the areas of Participation, Emergency Aid & Reconstruction, Health and Well-being and Entrepreneurship.

Fight against trafficking in women is one of the priorities of the new Cordaid Programme on Women and Violence (area Participation). In the light of the fact that at least one of every three women is facing some kind of violence, Cordaid aims to raise awareness of this widely unknown and insufficiently recognised situation, as well as of the different forms of violence that women are confronted to in the world: women in conflict areas, sexual violence, domestic violence, trafficking in women and girls, genital mutilation etc. (http://www.cordaid.nl/)

International approach: Trafficking of women in Cordaid's programmes
Many Dutch organisations are working on trafficking of women, concentrating mainly on Eastern Europe and Asia. Therefore, Cordaid's main focus in 2006 is on Latin America.
Important aspects in the projects supported in Latin America: prevention, empowerment and gender equality, information about risks to civil society and lobby to their governments to create the right laws against human trafficking, as well as protection of and assistance to victims.

Apart from that, Cordaid is supporting her partners to participate in the creation of a Latin American network on Trafficking and to have a collaborative intervention to investigate the laws and routes and opinion in societies of Brazil, Dominican Republic and Surinam.

In the Netherlands Cordaid's focus will be raising awareness, lobby to government and networking on this issue with social organisations. Cordaid thinks that networking across the borders is essential to effective action worldwide.

Trafficking in women has to be fought on an international level and that is why organisations like SRTV and Cordaid joined Coatnet.

Link: http://www.victomology.nl/ (for more information about reports of the Bureau National Rapporteur of Trafficking in Human Beings in The Netherlands: just click upper button Library Search, then put under Title: Trafficking in human beings; under Country: Netherlands and click on Search)