ANTANANARIVO – Lanto left her home in Antananarivo in 2016, convinced to be headed towards a well-paying job in a green tea factory in China. Unfortunately, once she arrived there, she was forced to marry a man and suffered several years of abuse. In March 2019, she managed to return to Madagascar. Lanto is one of the 42 Victims of Trafficking assisted by IOM under the project “Promoting Human Rights and Enabling Economic Empowerment for Women Victims of Trafficking in Madagascar” funded by the Government of Australia through the Direct Aid Program (DAP).

Lanto is also one of the close to 250 Malagasy women that have returned to Madagascar and have been identified as victims of trafficking (VoTs) in the year 2019. This record number is two times more than the year before, and a five-fold increase from 2017. While the significant increase in safe repatriation and identification of VoTs underlines a determined engagement of the Government of Madagascar to respond to the crime of trafficking, the unprecedented volume of returns has overstretched local capacities to provide first care, and reintegration services to the victims.

Under the Australian Aid Programme, IOM provided support to government authorities for the care and reintegration of trafficked women through the provision of emergency assistance to identified VoTs; and through the promotion of their economic reintegration through access to vocational training and/or income-generating activities (IGA).

Nathalie, another DAP beneficiary, underlined that “the assistance made me understand that as a woman we can and should be independent.” She continued that “during the assistance, I met a lot of women who have experienced the same situation as me, I started to open up to others, to communicate, to share, to help people. In spite of what we went through, I now know that we are not the only ones who have gone through this, and that we can help each other.”

While the trauma of VoTs remains often very deep, rendering critical the provision of emergency assistance and care services, such as medical and psychosocial care (primary and specialized care), this project also sought to put emphasis on women VoTs empowerment, through rehabilitation of women’s fundamental rights to live in freedom from fear and in dignity, and to recover an active social actor role in the family and within the community.

At the close of this project, IOM and the Ministry of Social Affairs gathered on Tuesday in Antananarivo, counter-trafficking Governmental stakeholders and social workers, project implementing partners (including doctors, expert trainers, and facilitators), and beneficiaries for a one-day roundtable discussion to review and exchange on the project’s results, as well as on challenges and opportunities for scaling up and subsequent programming of initiatives aimed at empowering women VoTs.

On the margin of the event, Daniel Silva y Poveda, IOM Chief of Mission in Madagascar noted that “the testimonies of beneficiaries – in their own word – we have heard in this roundtable discussion today are an opportunity to replace the sometimes abstract trafficking in persons statistics with concrete facts at the heart of our daily lives. Through these testimonies, these young women have also shown that if they have been victims at some point, they are not condemned to that status.”

Natasha Morris, representing the Embassy of Australia for her part underlined that “we know that women are left in vulnerable positions because of the lack of opportunities open to them; and we know that addressing inequality against women will help to reduce the risk to women against TIP. I applaud the women who are here today working with IOM to improve their lives. As the IOM publication “Second Chance” shows – these women are grabbing with both hands the opportunities made available to them and trying to make a difference, providing an example to us all in resilience and strength.”

Since the mid-1990s, IOM and its partners have provided protection and assistance to close to 100,000 trafficked persons globally. IOM takes a comprehensive approach to addressing human trafficking. In Madagascar, this effort complements IOM’s multiyear support program to the Government of Madagascar and civil society organizations aimed at enhancing criminal justice system’s response through victim-centered investigations and prosecutions of trafficking cases; strengthening coordination of the national anti-trafficking response; and improving data collection and reporting.

The "Second Chance" publication is available for dowanload in English and French at the following links: https://ropretoria.iom.int/publications/second-chance-0  | https://ropretoria.iom.int/publications/deuxieme-chance-0 .

For more information please contact Daniel Silva y Poveda, IOM Madagascar (+261.32 56 54 954, dsilva@iom.int)