Angel Coalition - Combatting and Prevention of Human Trafficking

Ambassador John Miller, Director of the Trafficking in Persons Office of the US State Department visits Angel Coalition staff in the TVAC, Moscow, in 2003.

Angel Coalition Trafficking Victim Assistance Center (TVAC) - is the national hub of rescue/repatriation operations in Russia.

The Angel Coalition TVAC and its network of 9 regional safe house partners currently functions as the hub of rescue, repatriation and rehabilitation activities for Russian trafficking victims - a complex operation requiring close liaisons with Russian and international government agencies, law enforcement and NGOs focusing on all aspects of counter-trafficking.

Currently, the TVAC coordinates Russian and international rescue and repatriation of trafficking victims; operates toll-free Russian and international help lines; receives trafficking victims in Moscow and safely transfers them to regional safe houses; oversees safe house referral, financial, and programmatic operations; provides ongoing training and capacity building for regional NGO partners; and facilitates the Russian advocacy of those partners at the federal level in Moscow.

TVAC staff meet trafficking victims in airports, train stations, bus terminals where traffickers are usually waiting to re-capture the victim. Victims are quickly removed to a safer place while TVAC staff help them buy transportation to the regional safe houses. Often victims arrive in winter with inadequate clothing and no money for food. The TVAC maintains a "victims assistance fund" which is used to buy tickets, food and some warm clothes so that the victim can continue on to safety. Rescues have lead to difficult confrontations with traffickers and not all rescues have been successful.

Regional youth training and education
against trafficking in Murmansk.

Since starting operations in June 2003, the TVAC has provided direct assistance in repatriation and finding missing persons to more than 800 people from the Russian Federation, Germany, Belgium, U.S.A., Ukraine, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, U.A.E., Turkey, Israel, Uzbekistan and Great Britain. It has also been directly responsible for the successful rescue and repatriation of 52 CIS nationals, including 11 survivors who were rescued by TVAC staff directly at Sheremetyevo Airport following deportation from Israel and Europe.

In summary, during the first two years, more than 25,000 staff hours have been spent to achieve the following:

• Russia's first fully operational Trafficking Victim Assistance Center (TVAC).

• Russia's first network of 9 safe houses with operational protocols specific to the unique needs of victims of trafficking.

• Russia's first 24 hour toll-free national and international rescue/help-lines for trafficking victims (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, US,Russia)

• Direct help-line assistance in Russia and 13 other countries to more than 4,000 people-including victims, families and those seeking information about the risks of working abroad.

• Successful TVAC international rescues and repatriations of more than 50 Russian-speaking trafficking victims.

• Partnering with Russian and international law enforcement to instigate 2 ongoing, full-scale international investigations of criminal trafficking rings.

• Working with survivor witnesses, police and regional prosecutors to develop 9 cases now going to court in Russia.

• Performing multiple emergency interventions in partnership with the Russian police to prevent trafficking from occurring at Russian borders.

• Initiating more than 20 successful missing persons cases through the police in destination countries including the United States, Israel, Turkey and EU.

• Participating as experts on more than 25 television programs, in over 100 news interviews, and in 16 newspaper investigations of the issue of trafficking to, from and within Russia.

• Publication of the "Counter-trafficking Protocol and Plan of Action for the Russian Federation," written with input from NGOs and Russian and international governmental agencies which is currently used as the template for NGO/government counter-trafficking partnership by Angel Coalition and the Ministry of Interior of Russia.

• Publication of the "Victim Assistance Protocol" as a standard of "best practice" for the operation of safe houses in the Russian Federation.

• Serving as consulting trainers for the National Training Academy of the Ministry of Interior to develop a law enforcement counter-trafficking and victim profiling curriculum that will be taught to cadets in 2006.

During 2004, the TVAC developed the Counter-Trafficking Protocol and Plan of Action for the Russian Federation which has been widely distributed throughout government ministries federally and regionally and has served as a template for the development of NGO/governmental partnerships. For a copy of the Protocol, click on the following:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD " ANGEL COALITION COUNTER-TRAFFICKING PROTOCOL AND PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION"

For a copy of an eight page brochure describing the work of the Trafficking Victim Assistance Center (TVAC), click on the following: