Over 1,100 Romanian teenagers set to learn about human trafficking through escape room truck
Approximately 1,100 teenagers will learn how to protect themselves from human trafficking, especially sexual exploitation and exploitation through forced labor, in an Escape Truck, namely a truck transformed into a mobile escape room, as part of the Child Protection Compact (CPC) project, carried out by World Vision Romania and the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons.
Radu Dumitrescu · Journalist
· 2 min read
The participants, especially middle school students and young people from residential care centers, will learn how recruitment begins in human trafficking cases, what vulnerabilities traffickers can exploit, and how they can recognize signs that a person could be a victim of exploitation.
The activities will take place between September 14-19 in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Brașov, Câmpina, and between October 5-11 in Pitești, Craiova, and Timișoara.
The experience is based on two scenarios dedicated to the most common forms of human trafficking: sexual exploitation and exploitation through labor. The method starts from the true stories of victims, and the information becomes an experience that can be lived and understood. Subsequently, participants have to decode clues and solve situations that help them understand the mechanisms of human trafficking and identify the early signs of exploitation.
The Escape Truck will be used by teenagers and young people, but also by future police officers, who can understand the phenomenon of trafficking from the victim’s perspective as well. As such, the activities will also target the educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the “Vasile Lascăr” and “Septimiu Mureșan” Police Agents Schools – Câmpina and Cluj-Napoca, and the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy – Bucharest).
“For a teenager to be able to protect themselves, they need to know how to recognize a dangerous situation, understand how they can be manipulated, and whom they can ask for help. We hope that through this experience we can turn a difficult-to-understand subject into a lesson that young people can remember. Escape Truck helps us talk about human trafficking in their language, without losing sight of the seriousness of the phenomenon,” said Mihaela Năbar, executive director of World Vision Romania.
The number of human trafficking victims identified in Romania in 2025 was 16% higher compared with 2024, while almost half of the victims were minors, according to the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons.
Escape Truck is a Dutch initiative meant to prevent human trafficking, but also a joint effort by Romania and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The tool was developed by the Dutch RESHAPE Foundation, with the support of the Dutch National Police and the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands.
The Child Protection Compact (CPC) project is coordinated by World Vision Romania and implemented together with World Vision US, the eLiberare Association, FONPC – the Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for Children, the Terre des hommes Romania Foundation and Code for Romania, in partnership with the Government of Romania, through the public authorities with responsibilities in the field, and with the support of the United States Department of State.
