The European Commission awards Anti-Trafficking Project on sham marriages

Ievietots: 01.09.2014

In August 2014 the Grant Agreement was signed between the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia and the European Commission on the implementation of the transnational project “Preventing human trafficking and sham marriages: A multidisciplinary solution” (HESTIA). The project is co-financed by the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union.

To address the problem of sham marriages in Europe in October 2013 the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia in cooperation with the society “Shelter “Safe House”” (Latvia) has developed a project proposal inviting as partners governmental and non-governmental organisations from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ireland, Finland and the Slovak Republic. In total 76 project proposals were submitted to the European Commission and 13 project proposals were granted.

Ms Lasma Stabina, National Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, Ministry of the Interior, an author of the project informed that “The objective of the project is to create a shared understanding of a new, evolving from of trafficking in human beings – through sham marriages, and initiate a comprehensive action for its prevention”.

In the framework of the project it is planned to carry out an analysis and a comprehensive research about the phenomenon of sham marriages in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ireland and the Slovak Republic, to elaborate training methodology and implement training inviting to participate social workers, teachers, media representatives, national and municipal police, NGOs, social pedagogues, to organize informative campaigns and an international conference in Riga in the end of 2016.

The project begins in 1 January, 2015 and will last for 24 months. The total budget of the project is 640 000 euros.

The leading partner of the project:
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia

Partners:
NGO “Shelter “Safe House”” (Latvia);
NGO “Mittetulundusühing “Living for Tomorrow”” (Estonia);
NGO “Caritas Lithuania” (Lithuania);
Immigrant Council of Ireland (Ireland);
Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic (Slovakia);
European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, Affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI) (Finland).

Associated partners:
The State Police (Latvia);
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia;
Department of Justice and Equality (Ireland).