The European Union Delegation currently organized a research "Trafficking in children in Armenia", which demonstrated that adults are more aware on trafficking than children. The level of awareness in Syunik, Lori and Ararat marzes is lower than in Yerevan.

The Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia Ambassador Raul de Luzenberger says that the research provides an opportunity to the Armenian government to adopt new laws or reform the existing legislation to strengthen defense of children's rights.

The research was carried on October-December 2009, involving 1200 households from all marzes of Armenia. 800 children (5-18 year old) from 5 marzes were interviewed.

Target groups were selected among children from secondary schools and also different special schools. The first issue to explore was how well the RA population is informed about the phenomena of trafficking, how well the target groups are informed about the situations describing trafficking.

Mira Antonyan, the head of the research says that girls are more informed than boys.

"Particularly, well-doing families are more informed than poor families. The awareness on trafficking depends on well-being and the level of education, and it is the same for adults and children. 64.2% of 9-11 grade students know about the trafficking.?

Mira Antonyan also mentioned that the majority of interviewed -56.9% noted that they were not afraid of trafficking at all. This speaks about vulnerability of our society.

"Even if they have heard about trafficking, they say that they are not concerned. Moreover, they are ready to send their children out of country to work, if the salary is high. They just mention, if they are good conditions without specifying what they mean under good conditions," says Mira Antonyan and adds that during the research they did not meet cases of trafficking but only some cases of violence.

The project was funded by the European Union and the government of Czech republic, 90% of 448454 Euro was provided by the European Union.

Earlier, Director of the Armenian Relief Fund Child's Support Center Mira Antonyan said that according to data of the Center, the violence against children increased compared to last years. In 2007 there were 31 cases, in 2008- 39 and last year 44 cases were registered. Mira Antonyan mentioned that every year they discover teenagers who suffered from violation and then became prostitutes.