Stories behind the change ┃ The Passport
THE PASSPORT ┃ It crossed borders with people's hopes, then returned home with them, where it was safer...
A passport is usually a good thing.You take it out of the drawer when you are about to go some-where. You check it a few times before your trip, so that you don't forget it at home or to check if it hasn't already expired. You keep it in your pocket, in your bag or in a safe place and most of the time, you associate it with something that is about to start: a trip, a job opportunity, a visit to relatives, a vacation or maybe even a better life abroad.For thousands of Moldovans, especially after the 2000s, the passport meant exactly that: the hope that somewhere, across the border, a new opportunity awaits them. But for some, the same cherry red cover was the beginning of an entirely differ-ent story, because a passport can open up the world, but once in the wrong hands, it can do just the opposite."La Strada" has known, over the years, countless stories in which a simple passport was no longer proof of someone's identity, but a tool through which someone else controlled someone's life. Built around it, were fake promises, scams, sophisticated forms of exploitation and journeys that did not lead to where people thought they would. Sometimes, it was confiscated immediately after crossing the border and used as a tool of control: without papers, the victim was no longer free to leave, to ask for help or even to prove who she was.On the surface, a passport is just a piece of paper. In reality however, it means a person. A young woman who wanted a job. A man who wanted to support his family. A mother who hoped that by leaving for a while, she could give her children a better future. People who before leaving, collected a few clothes, said goodbye to their loved ones and started off with the hope that things would be better.For all of them, the passport was the freedom to leave and the assurance that no matter how far the journey will take them, there is always a way back. For 25 years, "La Strada" has been striving to make sure that there is this way back. A road back to safety.
To their loved ones. Towards freedom. Towards one's own life. Over the past two and a half decades, "La Strada" has helped hundreds of thousands of people make informed decisions about migration and exercise their right to safe migration, helping to prevent human trafficking and labor exploitation.To be able to go anywhere with hope and full of dreams. To arrive safely. To return free. This is what we believe in and what we fight for, day after day.
217.540 calls were related to advice on safe migration.
33.786 young people participated in seminars to promote safe migration.
21.639 nationals of the Republic of Moldova were legally employed abroad with the support of “La Strada”.
120.000+ visitors annually to the information portal www.migratiesigura.md.