PROSPECTS FOR SUCCESSFUL REINTEGRATION

PROSPECTS FOR SUCCESSFUL REINTEGRATION

While survivors of human trafficking--both Polish citizens who returned to Poland and foreign-born victims who reside in Poland before returning to their countries of origin— receive considerable assistance, most of the support takes a form of emergency assistance. There is virtually no assistance aimed at long-term re/integration into the larger society and attainment of sustainable economic and social self-sufficiency.

This was not always the case. Shortly after Poland’s accession to the European Union, the La Strada Foundation took advantage of the availability of financial resources offered by the European Social Fund and designed a three-year program called Intervention- Reintegration-Initiative-Self-Reliance (or IRIS). The main objective of the project was to create effective mechanisms of social and professional reintegration of victims of trafficking, with emphasis on job placement and livelihoods. The program was quite comprehensive and included advice helpline, crisis intervention services, psychological counseling, shelter, social services, vocational training, and job placement.

The most innovative feature of the program was collaboration with five public social service and employment projects whose activities nicely complemented services offered by the La Strada Foundation :

The Center for the Advancement of Women; Municipal Employment Office of the Capital City Warsaw; Social Welfare Center of the Śródmieście Neighborood in Warsaw; Department of Social Assistance and Integration in the Ministry of Social Policy; Employment Department of the Ministry of Economy and Labor.

In addition, the program partnered with two foreign projects: ü HEADWAY--Improving Social Intervention Systems for Victims of Trafficking, a

transnational program operating in Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Portugal; and

ü LIFT, another program transcending international borders and operating in Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The idea that spear-headed the reintegration program was a desire to help trafficked women who returned to Poland to find a suitable job and to remain employed. The La Strada staff realized that many returned survivors were able to find a job, but had considerable difficulties with maintaining steady employment. As a result of their traumatic experiences, even the smallest problems in the workplace or at home resulted in an almost immediate decision to quit working. With this program, the La Strada staff aimed at increasing the likelihood of long-term employment among returned victims. The staff has always believed that long-term employment was the sine qua non of social and economic independence of their clients.

Most of the beneficiaries of the IRIS program were young women between the ages of 19 and 25, many hailed from dysfunctional families with a history of intergenerational unemployment and dependence on welfare. The young women also did not have much schooling (usually basic education). Most came from rural areas. Lack of family support, high levels of unemployment, and lack of familiarity with the working environment put them at-risk for poor judgement regarding job offers.

TABLE 4: SERVICES RECEIVED BY IRIS PROGRAM BENEFICIARIES

Target Men Women Total %

95 1 106 107 112.6 Total number of beneficiaries

60 1 37 38 63.3 Graduated from labor participation training

30 0 38 38 126.7 Continued education (vocational training)

30 0 7 7 23.3 Computer training

20 0 6 6 30 Language training

23 0 18 18 78.3 Internship

As Table 4 shows, more women wanted to avail themselves of the services provided by the IRIS program than originally planned, but not everybody successfully graduated from the program. The staff attributed these outcomes to the severity of the trauma the young women experienced; the majority were trafficked for sexual exploitation. In a few instances, however, the women left the program for promising job offers.

The program ended in 2009 and neither La Strada nor any other of the Polish NGOs working with returned survivors managed to secure funding for more long-term reintegration programs. The services that were on offer in 2015 when we conducted this study continue to be time-bound, short projects aimed at providing emergency services. With few exceptions, the survivors do not receive any assistance in the country of destination before they return to Poland. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) assists some in returning home mainly by acting as a travel agent and paying for their transportation costs. Upon return to Poland, few survivors seek assistance from IOM; the majority turn to the La Strada Foundation.

Most program managers and social workers interviewed in the course of this study were somewhat pessimistic about the survivors’ ability for successful economic and social reintegration into the wider Polish society. This pessimism was especially pronounced when they spoke about female survivors trafficked for sexual exploitation.

For example, the nuns who worked with victims of sex trafficking indicated that the women have not been well reintegrated because they stay with partners who in the sisters’ opinion negatively influence the women. As suggested above, Alina’s partner is abusive towards her and her daughter and Barbara’s partner is a pimp.

Another social worker remarked that the women she worked with had difficulty maintaining mainstream employment, because they set up websites where they advertised sexual services and treated casual work in the sex industry as supplemental income. One of the women who graduated from a shelter and lived alone in a flat, came to the shelter to recruit the residents to be call girls.

The shelter staff tries very hard to create a "real home" for the survivors. "We teach them everyday chores, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning their rooms and the common spaces. We also organize birthday parties and holiday celebrations,” said one of the shelter workers. “We respect the culture and customs of the foreign-born residents,” explained another social worker.

Shelter staff refer many survivors for psychological counselling and anger management training. Aggressive behavior seems to be one of the major problems faced by women, especially aggression towards their own children. Addiction to alcohol seemed to have been the major stumbling block for some of the survivors to resume productive lives.

The interviewed survivors did not always agree with the assessment of the social workers regarding their ability to re-integrate. They pointed out that they live independently, that they have learned to be more cautious and scrutinize job offers closely, that they have no intention to migrate, and that they understand they need to work hard to make a living.

There was, however, consensus among social workers and survivors that reintegration process is complex and will take time, especially for those survivors who endured longer periods of time in the hands of traffickers and have been severely traumatized by their experiences.