The first national stakeholder meeting of the project PROTECT - Preventing sexual and gender-based violence against migrants and strengthening support to victims, funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020), was held on 20 February 2019 in Ljubljana. A representative of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and NGOs working in the field of migration and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) participated at the meeting to share their experiences on existing national support services in the field of prevention and assistance related to SGBV among refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers.

The stakeholder meeting started with a presentation of the activities under the PROTECT project and a presentation of the results of the national mapping exercise conducted by the IOM office in Ljubljana in the period between November 2018 and January 2019. Association Legebitra, the project implementing partner form Slovenia, presented the available services and programs for LGBT asylum-seekers and migrants. In addition, the Slovenian Red Cross and the Institute EMMA presented their on-going project Psycho-social support and SGBV prevention and response activities in Slovenia, funded by the UNHCR. The meeting concluded with an open discussion among the participants.

The PROTECT project started in October 2018 and is implemented in 12 European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Spain) with the overall objective to strengthen the capacities of existing national support services for sexual and gender based violence to coordinate better and make these systems available for refugee, migrant and asylum seeker victims and potential victims of SGBV. The project also aims to raise awareness among and empower these communities.