“The voice of the invisible work force” is the new awareness raising campaign, kicked off in North Macedonia on the occasion of the International Anti-trafficking Day - July 30. The campaign launched by the Association of journalists for human rights, grantee of the EU and Council of Europe joint action “Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in North Macedonia” aims to raise awareness about prevention of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation. During the campaign vulnerable groups and communities at risk in North Macedonia will be informed about the risks of trafficking for exploitation in certain industries, such as agriculture, hospitality, construction, textile industry, and about the ways and means to protect oneself from the perils of trafficking.

“Poverty, unemployment, low education level, pandemics and the recent migration flow are contributing factors to human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation. Our message is: Be careful with job promises, and job offers about which you are not sufficiently informed and do not sign blank employment contracts!” said Natasha Dokovska, representative of the Association of journalists for human rights.

“The NGO Open Gate calls upon workers to report violations of employment rights, including human trafficking for labour exploitation and calls upon the competent bodies to sanction any such violations” stated Stojne Atanasovska Dimishkovska, representative of the NGO Open Gate. “There is an important need to raise awareness of the business sector about human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation” she affirmed.

Representatives from civil society organisations in North Macedonia as well as representatives from EU delegation, CoE Programme Office in Skopje, journalists and experts debated about ways to prevent and to detect cases of human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation, and discussed actual cases of human trafficking. The conclusions of the debate will be considered for the next steps of the campaign.

The action “Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings in North Macedonia” is implemented under the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019 – 2022”.