The third multi-agency Steering Committee meeting of the action “Strengthening anti-trafficking action in North Macedonia” was held in Skopje. Representatives from the EU Delegation, the Ministry of Social Protection, Demography and Youth, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from civil society organisations (CSO) discussed the current achievements and agreed about the main interventions in the framework of the implementation of the action in 2024.

The key results of the action are achieved thanks to the partnerships and close co-operation with the anti-trafficking public institutions and CSO-s. Therefore, the aim of the meeting was to establish a forum to hear different voices regarding the action’s implementation and create synergies with respect to the planning process and the goals to be reached until the end of 2024, to advance prevention and fight against human trafficking in North Macedonia. During its work, the action focused on building the capacities of labour inspectors, police officers, social workers, journalists and CSO-s to prevent and combat child trafficking and human trafficking for labour exploitation by applying interactive methods.

In the past period, the action advanced the research in the anti-trafficking field. The research commissioned by the action in the field of ICT and human trafficking, on preventing child trafficking for the purpose of begging, labour exploitation and forced marriage and care for child trafficking victims by foster families, as well as the Legislative assessment of access to free legal aid for trafficking victims represent good  basis for designing and implementing different activities aligned with the action’s outcomes. The participants valued the importance of Council of Europe knowledge and tools in the field. In this context the action will continue to organise capacity building activities for police officers, child protection specialists, social workers, lawyers and NGO representatives. These will cover important topics such as information technologies and human trafficking, access to free legal aid and compensation for trafficking victims and capacity building for foster homes for child trafficking victims. It will also reinforce its collaboration with other international organisations supporting the government’s anti-trafficking efforts.

The action “Strengthening anti-trafficking action in North Macedonia” is part of the European Union and Council of Europe joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”.