The grass is not greener on the other side

Reports and data often mention that Romani and Balkan-Egyptian communities are particularly vulnerable to trafficking in Albania. Hence, ‘traffickers exploit Albanian children, mainly from the Romani and Balkan-Egyptian communities, for seasonal work and forced begging’.* This is the true story of a child-turned-man from the Romani community, a story that breaks a number of myths surrounding human trafficking in the country.

Mandi* is a long-time beneficiary of ‘Different & Equal’ organization, that is being supported by UNICEF Albania for the provision of identification and reintegration support services for Potential Victims/ Victims of Trafficking (PV/ VoTs) in Albania. Mandi comes from a dysfunctional family of the Romani community with severe socio-economic problems. He did not know his father while his mother abandoned him when he was 9 years old.

Until the age of 18, Mandi lived in a Residential Care Institution, where he claimed to have been exploited for forced begging from a very young age. The boy did not attend school until the moment he entered the institution. After a few years, he had to drop out of the institution once he reached 18 years of age. Having no support system, without any plans or a family, he ended up being homeless.

Mandi was often in the company of suspicious persons older than him (23-28 years old) who committed theft and sold narcotics. They gave him shelter for 6 months in their apartment and started exploiting him for narcotics distribution and other petty criminal activities. Psychological abuse was a constant for Mandi, while they also beat him up often. 

Being in this difficult situation and under their pressure to commit criminal actions, Mandi found the strength to leave the apartment but having nowhere to go to, he went back to living on the street. His only income was some scarce money, that he was able to provide either by begging or by collecting and selling materials from garbage containers.

And there came the day when Mandi was identified by the Mobile Unit of Tirana in street situation and was referred for support to "Different & Equal" organization. The change started the very day he joined the shelter. Mandi was immediately given  psychosocial counseling (individual counselling sessions by the psychologist), free legal assistance, he was informed on his rights (how to obtain the orphan status, how to register and receive the ID and health card), medical assistance treatment whenever necessary, meeting his daily basic needs (food and clothes), apartment rent, knowledge on services available to him and assistance on how to access those services, counselling and support for employment by helping him to find a job and to attend a professional course (pizza-making), registration and attendance of an English language course paid by the shelter, engagement in activities to improve social skills, and many other services.

If you get to see Mandi today, he is a totally changed young man.  The curve of his reintegration plan is moving only upwards, showing steady progress for over a year, showing a drastically improved emotional and health status strengthened by work stability.

Mandi now has two jobs, a storekeeper during the weekdays, while during the weekends he keeps his pizza-making skills rolling as a cook assistant in a local restaurant in Tirana. An even more important achievement is the relationship with his estranged sister, to the point that they now live together in a rented apartment.

Mandi’s reintegration journey took two long and tiresome years. His story is one of courage and persistence, one of great character and the choice to make a dignified living. The grass is much greener on your own backyard, especially when you care and work hard for it!

*Note: Reference made to TIP Report 2024 for Albania.

*Note: The name used is fictitious to protect the survivor's identity.

The project is implemented by "Different & Equal" organization in framework of ‘Transforming the National Response to Human Trafficking in and from Albania’ programme, led by UNICEF Albania and funded by the government of the United Kingdom.