Safe Haven: Strengthening survivor services across borders

Written by Adisa Redzic, Safe Haven Project Director, World Vision Bosnia and Herzegovina

Survivors of human trafficking often move across regions and national borders before reaching safety and support. Along the way, they may encounter different referral systems or levels of care — creating uncertainty during some of the most vulnerable moments of their recovery. This World Day Against Trafficking in Persons highlights an important question: how can countries ensure that survivors receive quality support regardless of where they seek help?

In response to this challenge, World Vision and partners launched the Safe Haven Project, a four-country regional initiative supported by the U.S. Department of State Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office). Working across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia, the project is helping strengthen survivor-centered services through common standards, accountability mechanisms, and cross-border collaboration.

Across the Western Balkans, shelter services have traditionally operated within established legal frameworks. But common gaps remained: monitoring focused largely on compliance and licensing requirements, survivor feedback was often informal, infrequently sought, and inconsistently used, and service quality was rarely measured through survivors’ lived experiences. As a result, systems provided services to survivors without being systematically informed by survivor perspectives or outcomes.

To address these gaps, the project has supported the upgrade and standardization of Minimum Standards of Care for shelters across these four target countries supporting survivors of trafficking. The standards promote a shared understanding across the region of what quality, survivor-centered services should look like — insisting that standards go beyond basic accommodation and protection requirements, to include safety, dignity, participation, accessibility, communication, accountability, and reintegration support. Most importantly, these standards introduce mechanisms that help ensure services are measured not only by what is provided, but by how survivors experience that support.

A major achievement has been the introduction of two complementary mechanisms: Survivor Feedback Mechanisms and Government Monitoring Mechanisms. Across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia, they help establish standardized procedures for collecting, analyzing, and responding to survivor feedback, while strengthening government oversight through common monitoring tools, reporting systems, and quality indicators. Together, they represent a significant regional shift from compliance-based monitoring toward a focus on service quality, survivor outcomes, and accountability.

At the heart of this approach is survivor voice. Survivors are no longer viewed solely as recipients of services, but as essential contributors to improving them. Through safe and accessible feedback channels, they can share input on issues such as safety, dignity, participation in decision-making, accessibility of services, staff conduct, communication, and reintegration support. Their experiences help identify gaps, inform service improvements, strengthen policies, and ensure that shelters remain responsive to real needs. In North Macedonia, the establishment of a Survivor Advocacy Group takes this further — creating opportunities for survivors to contribute directly to discussions on service quality and system reform.

The regional dimension of the initiative is particularly important because trafficking is a cross-border crime. Survivors may move between countries during identification, referral, recovery, or reintegration processes — and the support they receive should not depend on which side of a border they happen to be on. By promoting common standards and shared approaches, the initiative helps create opportunities for local actors to exchange knowledge, share good practices, and collectively strengthen anti-trafficking responses across the region.

Sustainability and local ownership are the cornerstones of this work. Rather than creating parallel systems, the mechanisms are being embedded within existing national standards, referral mechanisms, legal frameworks, and government structures. Government institutions are actively involved as co-designers and future owners of the monitoring frameworks, while civil society organizations and shelter providers receive tools, procedures, training materials, and ongoing capacity-strengthening support. This helps ensure that quality assurance, accountability, and survivor participation continue long after project funding ends.

Ultimately, strong systems matter only if survivors experience better support. For survivors, system strengthening means safer shelters, more consistent and sustainable services, meaningful participation in decisions that affect their lives, and the ability to access quality care across borders. By embedding survivor voices into standards, strengthening accountability, and supporting regional cooperation, this initiative is helping transform protection systems into services that deliver care, safety, dignity, and hope — where they matter most.