Kosovo Campaign against child exploitation by forced begging

11 Oct 2009 | begging street activities child exploitation child trafficking forced begging

Pristine, Kosovo: Kosovo police and OSCE started a joint campaign to inform the general public about the risk of exploitation and trafficking of children begging on the streets of the main cities of Kosovo.

The press conference launched the national campaign against forced begging and child exploitation last week. Through the extensive media campaign, people will be informed about the consequences of giving money to children. Most of them don’t go to school and at risk of being exploited by adults.

After the identification of children by the police, cases are referred to Task force multidisciplinary teams, composed of social workers school psychologists, teachers, police, local CBO’s and NGO’s. Through appointment of a case manager, an action plan is made in order to find a constructive solution for each child.

This week, during its street work activities, Tdh team identified more than 25 new cases of children in street situation, mostly from Albania. This phenomenon shows that the issue of begging is spread in spite of borders and needs a transnational action. [SH]

TV Spots in Albanian and in Serbian