Shelter tour: Shared learning for better protection of survivors of trafficking

Running a shelter for victims of trafficking in human beings is no easy task. The first and foremost priority is providing protection and ensuring the safety of your clients while their traffickers are often still at large and looking for them. Shelter staff must navigate bureaucracy while facilitating trauma healing, supplying basic services, such as drinking water, food and sanitation, and finding sustainable solutions for survivors of human trafficking. On top of this, they often have to deal with stigma from people living in the vicinity of the shelters and a tight budget.

The countries in the Horn of Africa are places of origin, transit and destination for over 19 million people on the move. Migration movements within and from the East and Horn of Africa are mixed, with both refugees and economic migrants undertaking journeys that involve enormous risks, like falling into the hands of criminal networks and traffickers. Civil society organisations (CSOs) are working on the frontline to provide protection and support and are often the first to identify victims of trafficking.

In July 2023, 10 organisations that run shelters in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda came together for a shelter study tour in Kampala, accompanied by representatives from the Kenyan and Ugandan government bodies that supervise and coordinate shelters. Facilitated by the Better Migration Management (BMM) Programme, funded by the European Union and Germany, the tour included visits to shelters run by Willow International and Hope for Justice, both international organisations working to combat human trafficking and protect and empower survivors, and Rahab Uganda, an organisation whose mission is to restore the self-image of girls and young women affected by sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

The tour’s motto ‘Learning from each other to improve services and identify areas for cooperation’ was achieved, as Winnie Mutevu from Awareness Against Human Trafficking (HAART) Kenya confirms: ‘We all have similar values and principles, that created a safe space to share, learn and refer survivors.’

The group identified and discussed four main topics – safety and security, the spatial capacity of the shelters and the technical capacities of their staff, how to include survivors’ voices and shelter coordination – and addressed questions affecting daily work in shelters, for instance, what visitors are allowed, whether neighbours are aware that the facility is a shelter, how house rules are put in place and how a conflict between two opposing sides is handled.

Discussion gave rise to action: over 40 good practices were developed, for example, prohibiting or strictly controlling the taking of pictures of people living in shelters to ensure that their privacy is respected and to avoid them being identified and located or the introduction of house rules developed together with the trafficking survivors. A good practice identified for sustainable financing was diversifying sources of funding, for example, by setting up a for-profit arm or partnering with local businesses for in-kind donations and with schools and hospitals for reduced fees.

Furthermore, many direct changes were made: The safe house run by the Centre for Domestic Training and Development near Nairobi has planted a kitchen garden. ‘This will keep the girls busy, boost their farming skills, provide the shelter with fresh vegetables and, in the long term, hopefully improve the livelihoods of the girls,’ explains Paul Mulu Mwandikwa from the Centre. Some CSOs will invest in boreholes so that they could get their water locally and reduce water bills and in solar panels to reduce their energy bills.

One specific idea from a Ugandan CSO was replicated by many others. Children in the shelters were asked to show on a map of the premises where they saw the greatest risks and why. For an adult, seeing a shelter through the eyes of a child can be mind-blowing. ‘It helped us to discover things such as uncovered wires and areas where the fencing wire was broken,’ remarks Mr Mohammed from Tadamun Social Society (TASS), Somalia. In Kenya, even structural changes were made. As shelters were lacking an external conflict resolution mechanism, the Kenyan Counter-Trafficking in Persons Secretariat assigned an ombudsperson for adult victims of trafficking and a separate one for children