Deschide Ochii (Open Your Eyes)
Love 146 are currently in the process of rolling out a national prevention campaign with partners across Romania called Deschide Ochii or “Open Your Eyes” in Romanian. Project partners Not For Sale – Choose for Your Own Sake Romania, National Agency Against Trafficking in People Romania and Nea Zoi Greece have banded together to produce a poster campaign for schools and colleges outlining the dangers of bogus job offers abroad. There is also a website with stories and international helplines being advertised through radio adverts.
Responding to intelligence from victim identification teams in Greece and Austria, Love146 and its project partners identified that almost one in every two new girls on the streets and in brothels was coming from Romania. This accounts for one in five of all trafficking victims in Europe. Some victims are trafficked via boyfriends who sell the girls or become their pimps but many victims are trafficked through job adverts which result in rape and forced prostitution. A large number of these victims are minors. In the words of one of the victim identification workers, “please do all you can to stop them coming, it is so very hard to help them once they are here!’
The campaign posters have been printed in Romanian and Hungarian to ensure we reach minority communities that are often targeted. There will also be higher level activities taking place in three specific regions from where many trafficking victims are currently being recruited. To learn more about this initiative, please visit the Deschide Ochii site.
