Valladolid trains social workers to recognize signs of human trafficking

This is part of a broader Intercultural Citizen Coexistence Plan

Today, 12 April, a 3-part online course will begin in Valladolid, which will have the purpose of boosting local social workers’ skills in terms of identifying and reporting crimes related to human trafficking. The local authorities consider it unacceptable that in the 21^st century such practices still exist, and even thrive, so this is a necessary action to take into recognizing and preventing it.

Women and girls are the main victims of this, but the issue affects men, too

The whole course is planned to take 6 hours in total, divided into 3 sessions (on 12, 14 and 19 April), which are reportedly part of a broader training programme called ‘Let’s talk about trafficking’, organized by the local Department of Social Services. The programme itself will conclude with a cycle of three conferences in the month of May – and these will present different perspectives of the issues, such as police, judicial and labour aspects combined with international practices.

Naturally, such a complex problem has a multitude of dimensions and it is necessary for people working in that field to be well-aware of all of them. Reportedly, in Spain, 1561 trafficking victims were released in 2019. Of these, 71% were women and girls, which demonstrates that this social ill can affect all genders and ages.

There are also numerous reasons why people get trafficked. This happens not only transnationally but also within a country’s borders. Sexual exploitation is expectedly one of the major reasons, and when it comes to that women do represent the astounding majority of victims (96%).

However, there are other reasons, too, such as labour exploitation, begging, forced marriages and even the forced commitment of crimes. As such, there is a variety of psychological, social and economic deficiencies and incentives that contribute to the problem. The Valladolid Department of Social Services will pay special attention to the guidelines for detection, intervention and support for the victims during the training, as these are the three pillars of social work.