DUSHANBE, March 31, 2016, Asia-Plus — More than 10,000 youth of the Sughd province will raise their awareness of trafficking in person threats and labor migrants’ rights during a series of information campaigns started in the Asht district today, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Tajikistan.
The campaigns are organized by the Association “Woman and Society” under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Dignity and Rights Project. The project is implemented by the IOM and is made possible by the USAID.
The series of three information campaigns titled “Know Your Rights and Be Safe from Being Trafficked” will give the youth of Asht district, Khujand city, and Bobojonghafourov district an outlook at the trafficking in persons problem in Tajikistan, the popular schemes criminal rings use to trick people for further trafficking and sexual and work exploitations, and ways to keep themselves and their families and friends safe from falling victims to exploitators.
Mrs. Muyasara Bobokhanova from Association “Woman and Society” says, “less educated and less aware youth are especially vulnerable to being trafficked and exploited, because they do not have enough information about working and living conditions and laws in other countries and cities, they do not know much about own rights and how to prevent and defend themselves legally, as well as due to lack of experiences and knowledge of living and working out of own city they are easy target for traffickers. Our information campaigns target especially those who intend to leave the country for work in order to give them a broader view to legal side of the issue and possible threats and complications of suspicious offers.”
During the campaigns, experts from the Association “Woman and Society”, IOM Tajikistan, and related Tajikistan government structures in selected local cities and districts will inform the youth on complications of accepting questionable job offers and the real stories of traffickers’ victims, will moderate different contests aimed at testing the knowledge and raising the awareness of youth on trafficking in persons issues, will disseminate information leaflets, as well as will participate at different TV shows on the topic.
The overall objective of Project is in raising awareness of people, especially labor migrants, of their labor rights, and empowering the civil society to contribute to protection of human rights, rights of migrants, potential migrants and their families, as well as the rights of the population as a whole.
