The awareness raising campaign “Opportunity or Exploitation” in North Macedonia held its final event on 25 November, however will continue to affect its followers. The NGO Open Gate with the support of the EU and Council of Europe joint programme Horizontal Facility II - action "Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings in North Macedonia" finalised the 3-month campaign aiming at informing different communities on various aspects surronding human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation and false job offers. 

Stojne Dimishkovska from Open Gate shared that social media posts and information were reached out by approximately 100 000 viewers, whereas the information platform about trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation had 16 333 visitors and over 5 000 interactive users. Internet influencers brought information to 11 000 young people. The four videos disseminated during the campaign collected 700 000 views. Information was also shared via national televisions and print media, as Open Gate specialists gave interviews about the risks of human trafficking for labour exploitation and the ways how to protect oneself from becoming a victim of this crime.

Ana Burageva, Secretary of the National Anti-trafficking Commission, recalled the Commission’s work and its new strategic documents in the area of preventing and combating human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation and recognised the Council of Europe amongst the first actors who started delivering multi-disciplinary trainings on detection and identification of possible victims.

Jasmina Rajkovska, Director of Open Gate, addressed the COVID-19 crisis as a factor increasing the vulnerability of young people to human trafficking. Based on data gathered from their activities, she concluded that public awareness activities should continue and target high school students who lack information about the perils of this crime.

The closing event gathered 30 participants from the National anti-trafficking Commission, civils society originations, the State Labour Inspectorate, the Ombudsman’s Office and international organisations.

The action “Preventing and combating human trafficking in North Macedonia” is implemented under the EU and Council of Europe joint programme "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” aiming to assist Beneficiaries in South-East Europe to comply with the Council of Europe standards and European Union acquis in the framework of the enlargement process, where relevant.