Trafficking of human beings is a difficult field of
intervention and very recent in Portugal (RCM nº 81/2007), where most of the known
victims are for labour exploitation, therefore research struggles with many
obstacles. In order to develop the CEINAV work the Portuguese team has a new
associate partner: APF (Portuguese Family Planning Association - http://www.apf.pt/apf.php?lg=pt
; http://www.apf.pt/apf.php?lg=uk ). This NGO is
specialized in intervention in the field of trafficking of human beings and
runs a shelter for women victims. Besides this NGO, CEINAV also keeps
networking with CIG (Portuguese Commission For Citizenship and Gender Equality)
where Manuel Albano acts as the National Rapporteur for trafficking.
To deepen some issues around trafficking for sexual
exploitation, CEINAV met in Porto with CIG and APF, in the 8th of April, and
discussed the following topics: assisted return, difficulties in the assignment
of the victim status, access to health care by illegal immigrants and the
difficulties in finding volunteers to be interviewed by the CEINAV project.
This meeting is part of a networking process which is
highly relevant to an epistemological position linking research and practice in
the field of human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
