Ireti

Europe is one of the most common destinations for victims of trafficking and before the current anti-boat docking policies, which have significantly contributed to limiting not so much the departures but the arrivals, in recent years the identified cases have increased significantly, especially for young women coming from Nigeria and Ivory Coast (GRETA and IOM data). Apart from arrivals by sea, many women are also trafficked from other countries and through other routes, such as the flows ì Latin America to Spain or from Albania / Moldova / Romania through the Eastern route.

The IRETI-Empowering Women and Strengthening Socioeconomic Integration project was born from the idea of providing real support to victims of trafficking, through the sharing of good practices in the field of adult education, thus promoting social integration processes, gender equality and creation of equal opportunities for women victims of trafficking, by encouraging the formation of an entrepreneurial spirit and acting as a provider of services and opportunities through the creation of the online platform.
At the same time, the realization of the final products, such as the methodological toolkit and the guide to good practices, as well as the international training opportunities have allowed working directly with frontline social workers, increasing their skills and tools to carry out quality work.

In this sense, it was very important to ensure the involvement of the operators and bodies involved for the entire duration of the project, with some of them participating in the various mobilities (both short and long term). From the point of view of the involvement of the direct beneficiaries, it is important to underline that because of the bureaucracy (in terms of travel documents and visas), it was much more difficult to manage the participation of survivors of trafficking, however guaranteeing more than satisfactory results. It is also important to note the contribution of the women and the social workers in the creation of the final products, through highly valuable final inputs and feedback. In total, thanks only to the international mobilities, 40 beneficiaries directly took part in IRETI’s activities.

Great success also regards the methodology chosen, as in fact, the main results refer to the activation of training through non-formal education, with which many participants were confronted for the first time, and with great enthusiasm. This has led to an increase in transversal skills, also through the online platform where victims of trafficking can find training and mutual support opportunities thanks to the activated European network, in order to also raise global awareness of the phenomenon.

The platform, and the project in general, also ensured great media visibility of the Erasmus Plus Program and European opportunities for victims of trafficking and for the volunteers and professionals involved.
In the long term, we expect great exploitation of the produced materials, especially the toolkit, in order to support evidence-based and international approaches to combat the socio-economic inequalities faced by victims of trafficking and greater competitiveness on the labor market. Finally, the platform has shown a great potential that goes beyond what was expected and implemented within the project, therefore, it will certainly represent a starting point for other initiatives.