US State Department: Serbia Needs More Aggressive Prosecution of Human Traffickers

ASTRA Anti sex trafficking action

Serbia is a country of origin, transit and destination for women and girls victims of both internal and transnational human trafficking schemes, with the aim of commercial sexual exploitation, states the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons 2007 Report.

The foreign victims usually come from Macedonia, the Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Albania, and some of them pass through Serbia on their way to Western Europe.

\"The internal trafficking of women and girls, citizens of Serbia, has been on a rise over the past several years, with trafficking gangs increasingly using internet chat rooms and SMS messages to recruit their victims. There were also cases of child trafficking for purposes of forced labour and begging\", states the Report.

The State Department warns that the Government of Serbia doesn�t fully meet the minimal standards for elimination of trafficking in persons, but adds that it does invest significant effort in that area.

\"A comprehensive national strategy was adopted, the state intensified its preventive activities and continues with national and local level training programmes. The state needs to be more vigorous and aggressive in the judicial prosecution of trafficking cases and to secure that the sanctions for traffickers reflect the hideous nature of their crime�.