Arise Albania Coordinator, Anxhela Bruci, gave an excellent interview to national news outlet Top Channel TV last week, discussing victims of human trafficking and missing children in the UK.
She was interviewed alongside Brikena Puka, the Executive Director of Vatra, an anti-trafficking shelter providing psychosocial support to vulnerable women and children.
Anxhela discussed the recent youth exodus Albania has faced, and how this has fuelled fears of human trafficking. As she mentions, over 1,400 potential victims of human trafficking from Albania have been referred to UK authorities. Some of these individuals are at risk of sex trafficking and forced labour - including forced criminality.
Young Albanians have gone missing from hotels run by UK authorities, potentially abducted or recruited by organised criminal gangs. Anxhela and Brikena also discuss mitigation and prevention, and the need to support returning victims of trafficking in Albania.
Watch the full video below, first published by TopChannel TV, on the 26th of June 2023.