Coordination Key to Anti-Trafficking 
Regional Cluster Groups Share Information to Support Partnerships to Combat Trafficking

GJIROKASTËR—With growing awareness that young women were being trafficked, NGOs across Albania have sought ways to prevent trafficking and rehabilitate victims. Because many NGOs are located in communities in remote areas of the country and lack the opportunities to meet one-another and build cooperation, the efforts have been at best, sporadic.

That is beginning to change, however, with the support of USAID’s The Albanian Initiative: Coordinated Action Against Human Trafficking (CAAHT). Since 2004, CAAHT national conferences and Regional Cluster Groups have been providing forums for sharing information and building skills of government and civil society actors to enable better coordinated anti-trafficking activities.

“D&E participated in the [CAAHT] Launch Conference to learn about other organizations,” said Marjana Meshi, executive director of Different & Equal, Albania’s only long-term rehabilitation and reintegration shelter. “I am a member of the [Central] Cluster Group which coordinates organizations so that action can be taken.”

Long before disbursing over $2 million in grants to 19 local and two international NGOs, USAID had set in motion cooperative activities that would mobilize entire communities in the fight against trafficking.

Even when they had limited experience and financial resources, NGOs and the Anti-trafficking Police were in the forefront of the anti-trafficking work in Albania. Therefore, they have been particularly encouraged to participate in coordination forums where they have been building strategies for cooperation with other governmental bodies such as social services, educators and employment officers. 

“There has been a change in the perception in the community about trafficked victims because of these meetings,” said Fatbardha Idrizi, founder and director of the Gjirokastra Community Center (GCC), a CAAHT grantee. “We convened meetings with the prefecture, education directorate and other officials.”

This coordination approach has been adopted and formalized by the Government of Albania, in large part, due to consensus building activities through CAAHT Regional Cluster Groups. In June 2006, Albania’s Prime Minister signed an Administrative Order that created the “Regional Committees in the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings (RC)” which includes directors of police, education, employment and social services, as well as mayors and representatives of NGOs. The RCs are led by the Prefect, the most senior official from the Central Government at the regional administration level, and provide a bridge between central and local governmental offices, in cooperation with local NGOs.

"We [anti-trafficking police] are the first to be faced with this phenomenon because we have first contact with victims,” explained Armand Lelaj, chief of anti-trafficking police unit and member of the RC in the Gjirokastra region. 

“The RC works and it is significant that trafficking should be specifically addressed by a broader group, because before trafficking was addressed only by the police, prosecutor and courts,” Lelaj said. 

According to Lelaj, the RC has provided another advantage—at special invitation from the Prefect, the district prosecutor has joined the group. When stories of trafficking began to circulate, victims were often treated with disdain or even as criminals. Without a better understanding of trafficking, prosecutors did not aggressively pursue traffickers.

“Being a member of the RC makes the prosecutor more engaged and more motivated to pursue trafficking cases, which is different from before,” said Lelaj. “His presence in the RC helps him to understand better all aspects of trafficking.”

The very morning he was interviewed, Lelaj had presented three cases of trafficked girls to members of the technical roundtable of the RC. “I presented these cases because I was hoping that both the representative of the department of employment and education directorate would be in attendance and could suggest how to assist these cases,” he said.

Increased cooperation with the media is also essential. Through USAID’s CAAHT grants, the Gjirokastra Association of Professional Journalists has been able to promote ethical principles and professional conduct required when reporting on trafficking, especially when dealing with victims.

“The problem was that the kind of reporting being done was not appropriate. There were ethical and legal problems such as publishing a victim’s identity, home location and making vulgar and sensational references to them and labeling them as prostitutes or sex slaves,” said Raimond Kola, director of this NGO. “Another bad practice that we rectified under the CAAHT project was to stop publicizing pictures and videos portraying victims.”

Mobilizing civil society, local government and the media in the fight against trafficking provides perhaps the best method of prevention, but to fully succeed, the efforts must be ongoing.  

“Better coordination has helped to fight trafficking in Gjirokastra because of the establishment of the RC and awareness raising that has occurred through its support,” said Lelaj. “It is important that this phenomenon [human trafficking] continues to decrease. I am happy that this work is being done. It doesn’t matter if I’m no longer in this position, the work should be done.”

Asked whether the police’s collaboration with NGOs and local authorities is helpful to trafficked victims, Lelaj shakes his head and smiling answers, “shumë, shumë, shumë” - “a lot, a lot, a lot.”