The project to combat sexual and labor exploitation can get back on track «Let’s give ourselves wings – From emergence to integration»whose agreement was renewed for the sixth time by the Municipality of Brescia and the cooperative Luleleader of the project implemented in Brescia by the cooperatives Fight against marginalization and Kemay and by the association Bethel Home 2000.
The project can now join the call 6/2023 of the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers issued for the Lombardy Zone 2, lasting one year, from 1 March 2024 to 31 July 2025. The aim is to combat human trafficking in illegal economies and promote the social inclusion of victims with various actions, from protection with legal advice and medical assistance to residential reception with paths for job placement and housing independence.
Novelty
«Most of the hours spent focus on sexual exploitation – explains the head of the Municipality’s Social Planning and Planning staff unit -. It is not easy to find the right location to place the people asking for protection, but there was the possibility of always finding the right answer also through the participation of local organizations that are experts in reception”. New compared to the last announcement is the protection of minor victims of sexual exploitationco-financed by the Administration.
Approaching victims is not an easy task, as Gessica Gosetti of the Sesto San Giovanni cooperative Fight against marginalization says: «It is very difficult to bring out the condition of victim in the person himself», she explains. The work on indoor prostitution is also very complex, indoors: «The results – he explains – are minimal, but I think it is not a waste of time, because we have a map of the hot areas of the city». The Casa Betel 2000 Association for women’s reception and the Kemay cooperative for men’s care take care of the initial assistance, in secretly addressed structures where the guests, followed by an educational team, begin a process of reacquiring autonomy.
The numbers
During the previous call, between 1 October 2022 and 29 February 2024, 163 people were approached by the Lotta, Di Bessimo and Calabrone cooperatives. The road approaches, in Sant’Eufemia, Mandolossa and via Milano to Brescia, and in the municipalities of Castegnato, Ospitaletto, Gussago, Bornato, Rezzato, Mazzano, Ciliverghe, Molinetto and Ponte San Marco, intercepted 113 people victims of sexual exploitation of nine different nationalitiesalmost all of which are known to operators, confirming a low “turn over”.
For indoor prostitution, out of 259 advertisements mapped on four sites, there were 40 contacts and 2 people met. Eighty-four accompaniments to local services (legal, health and employment), while out of 28 requests for evaluation of the indicators of trafficking and serious exploitation for persons requesting international protection, 21 people, four men and 17 women, were recognized as victims: 11 of prostitution, five of labor exploitation (four in agriculture and one in personal services) and the same number of trafficking. Finally, of the 21 people met in social secretarial interviews by the three cooperatives, 13 joined the assistance and protection program.
«It is a project that makes it possible to study the extension of the phenomenon – comments the councilor for educational policies Anna Frattini -. We have to deal with a few lives but we try to take charge of them: it’s an attention to the micro that isn’t found in many services».
