HESTIA national round table meeting

Aiming at achieving common understanding of the sham marriage phenomenon and its direct link to human trafficking, on March 19, the Ministry of the Interior and non-governmental organisation “Shelter “Safe House”” organised a national round table meeting within the framework of HESTIA* project, in which 26 representatives from the government, local government and non-governmental sector participated. During the meeting, participants discussed the concept of sham marriage, its use in Latvian and English language, previous experience of experts and specialists, identified issues in resolving the cases of human trafficking with an intent to enter into a sham marriage, as well as necessary preventive measures to reduce the spread of sham marriages in Latvia and European Union. Project "Preventing human trafficking and sham marriages: A multidisciplinary solution" (HESTIA) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Grant Agreement Nr. HOME/2013/ISEC/AG/THB/4000005845. #HESTIA_THB 07.04.2015.