Managing Migration for the Benefit of All
Moldova - Information Campaign Targets Students
IOM and partners have launched a new information campaign in Moldova aimed at students wanting to participate in the highly popular summer work and travel programme (SWT) in the United States.
The campaign, funded by IOM, the U.S. State Department, the OSCE mission to Moldova, and the cosmetics company Mary Kay Company and called "Know Your Rights!" will inform students of the potential risks related to such a programme and on their rights.
The US State Department's SWT programme provides bona fide foreign students an opportunity to get an insight into the life and people of the United States through travel and temporary work for a period up to four months during summer holidays. It was launched in Moldova in 2002.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau, more than 5,000 Moldovan students spent their summer holidays working in the US last year with another 850 students already having received their visas for summer 2008.
However, local SWT recruiting companies are taking advantage of the high demand in Moldova for employment opportunities offered within the programme.
In 2007, about 500 cases of violations and abuse were reported informally among Moldovans including a much lower payment of salary than promised, employers not existing upon arrival, accommodation and/or working conditions not corresponding to what had been agreed, and assistance upon arrival in the US not being available.
To protect SWT participants, the campaign will establish formal and informal mechanisms to report the abuses including the setting up an email address - swt@mfa.md - administered by the Department of Consular affairs and the Moldovan embassy in Washington where breaches of contract can be reported and where students can get information on free legal counselling. The quality of services provided by SWT recruitment companies will also be monitored in order to gauge the need to create a regulatory framework preventing future abuses.
The campaign, with partners including various government ministries, the Centre for Combating Trafficking in Persons within the Ministry of Interior, the National Employment Agency and non-governmental organizations such as La Strada, and the Students Alliance of Moldova, will also include a 24 hour hotline to provide information.
In addition, IOM and partners will hold a series of information sessions at universities across Moldova in the coming weeks.
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