Dubai: The Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWAC) has launched its second awareness campaign for groups most vulnerable to human trafficking.
Held under the slogan ‘Be Aware’, the campaign is a part of the foundation’s contribution to combat human trafficking along with other entities at the UAE National Committee.
The foundation received three victims of human trafficking from different nationalities in the first half of 2016, which is 75 per cent lower than the number of victims reported in the same period last year, said Afra Al Basti, director-general of DFWAC.
This year’s campaign included dozens of awareness visits to facilities concerned with human trafficking victims such as domestic workers and recruitment agencies, where 20,000 brochures in five different languages were distributed.
The campaign also raised awareness through the media, by broadcasting messages in different languages, including Arabic, English and Urdu, on different radio stations over a six-month period.
Awareness messages are also available on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Al Basti stressed that the UAE’s achievements in the field of human trafficking is proof of success, especially with the country’s great development boom over the past years and its openness to different nationalities from around the world.
She added the fast-paced development in the UAE makes it a target to be a transit country and a destination for human trafficking. However, despite its openness to diversity, human trafficking is not a phenomenon in the UAE, as the number of victims reported is considered low in comparison with the average rate in many other countries.
Badria Al Farsi, programme and research director at DFWAC, said that the foundation hopes to educate the categories most vulnerable to human trafficking about their rights through the campaign. She called on members of the community to help in spreading awareness about human trafficking through their interaction on the campaign’s hashtag #BeAware, and by spreading the help line number 800 111 to those who have inquiries and are in need of assistance.
