Child trafficking begins unnoticed. Romania has created a national mechanism to detect trafficked minorstranslated

"Child trafficking does not begin at the moment of exploitation. It begins with vulnerabilities that, too often, remain unnoticed," Loredana Urzică-Mirea, executive director of the eLiberare Association, said on Thursday.

That's why the organization worked with the authorities in the field of preventing human trafficking to create for the first time two sets of instructions for specialists in the child protection system and for youth workers in communities, with an emphasis on children from rural areas and those in vulnerable situations.

"These instructions change the paradigm from a reactive intervention to a preventive one, giving professionals concrete tools to identify the risk before a child becomes a victim", says Loredana Urzică-Mirea.

Guides with dozens of indicators and examples The guidelines were developed by the National Authority for the Protection of Child Rights and Adoption (ANPDCA), the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (ANITP), the UNICEF representation in Romania and the eLiberare Association.

The new tools help specialists to identify early and children at risk of exploitation and to intervene before…