About 130 children will be repatriated from Russia through “Help the Country’s Children” Project by 2009

During the next three months social partners from Moldova and Russia will work out a new procedure for assisting the Moldovan children that are victims of abuses, exploitation and trafficking. A working group composed of representatives of public organisations and child protection services of Moldova will come together for a meeting in October. A bilateral meeting with the participation of partners from Russia will follow afterwards, a communiqué from the Swiss Foundation “Terre des hommes – Moldova” informs. “Given the absence of a bilateral procedure for the protection of children in difficulty in a foreign country, the necessity of formulating a regulatory document for the involved players from Moldova and Russia became imperative,” said Antonina Comerzan, coordinator of the Transnational Action of “Help the Country’s Children” Project. According to the Foundation, “Terre des hommes – Moldova”, the document will improve the mechanism for protecting the repatriated children. The Project “Help the Country’s Children” aims to repatriate about 130 children from the Russian Federation by the end of 2009. Afterwards, the children will be offered the necessary assistance. A procedure for identifying, protecting and voluntarily repatriating and reintegrating the children was drafted as part of the given Project after organizing 11 repatriating missions during 2005 – 2007. The procedure was first discussed in Moscow during the meeting of the bilateral Working Group organized by the Foundation “Terre des hommes – Moldova” as part of the abovementioned Project. The Project “Help the Country’s Children” is supported by the Moldovan Embassy in Russia, the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Youth, the Temporary Placement Centre for Minors, the Placement and Rehabilitation Centre for Children of Early Age, implemented with recourses from UNICEF, SDC and OSCE .