European project TRIPS: Finalization of the European deliverables at the Final Expert Seminar in June 2021
On 22 and 23 June, the partners of the European project TRIPS gathered online and in person in Paris alongside European associate experts, and invited national experts to exchange on the activities implementation and to finalize the European deliverables. TRIPS is co-funded by the European Union and aims at better identifying and responding to special needs of trafficked beneficiaries of international protection in their integration path.
Since January 2020, Forum réfugiés-Cosi and its European partners Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI), Italian Council for Refugees (CIR), Organization for Aid to Refugees (OPU) have implemented the project TRIPS – identification of TRafficked beneficiairies of International Protection Special needs. Project’s associate European experts, the French Protection Office of Refugees and Stateless persons (OFPRA), the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII), the Secretariat of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) and Amicale du Nid participated and enriched the discussions thanks to their respective expertise and experience.
Following an important research work carried out in 2020, the project partners have finalized in early 2021 the elaboration of the European toolbox for practitioners. This new toolbox aims at providing global guidelines and at inspiring national focuses that will include practical perspectives. Based on this common template, each national partner have drafted their national toolboxes adapted to their context and needs. It includes key information related to human trafficking and international protection, trafficked international protection beneficiaries’ special needs related to integration, and follow-up and referrals options for practitioners. Each national toolbox has been produced in national languages, and a clear and attractive format have been created to ensure a suitable and easy use format for frontline workers. These national toolboxes have been produced in close partnership with the national focus groups created during the first steps of the project. Each national partner organized in 2021 a first meeting with their focus groups to collect their needs and expectations in order to address the different gaps identified during the research, followed by a second meeting to introduce the new toolbox and collect comments and feedback in order to finalize the deliverable. These consultation processes represented a key step for partners to elaborate adequate toolboxes to the practitioners’ needs and to ensure durable ownership on the long-term. In order to start the dissemination of the toolboxes at national level, the partners will organize three training sessions in Czech Republic, France, Ireland and Italy. The trainings will provide also an opportunity to share the main national findings and recommendations to reinforce policies and practices to identify and address trafficked international protection beneficiaries’ special needs during the integration process.
Moreover, the Final Expert Seminar was the opportunity to finalize the European comparative report which provides a detailed presentation of the project’s findings. The partnership has also invited several national experts to participate to a working session on the identification and the continuum of care of trafficked international protection beneficiaries to ensure long term integration and recovery. The Czech Anti-Trafficking NGO La Strada, UNHCR Italy, the Italian Parsec Association, The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, The Irish Refugee Council Law Center, and other national frontline workers (manager of Italian reception centre, Irish lawyer, and Italian Anti-Trafficking expert) provided rich and insightful contributions during the working session and the whole seminar. Thanks to these fruitful contributions, the participants have finalized the European common recommendations during a specific break out session. Participants closed the seminar to prepare the dissemination strategy and the Final European Conference which will be organized on early December 2021 in Brussels to present the final findings and deliverables of the project.
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