The conference was opened by Lucca Bianconi, Head of the Political Section at the European Union delegation to Serbia, national coordinator for combating trafficking in human beings, Mitar Đurašković, and co-coordinator of ASTRA, Tamara Vukasović. After that, participants of the conference adressed the issue of irregular migration and its connection to human trafficking and the topic of adequate approach to psychotheraputic work with victims on two separate pannels.

Actualized by the visa liberalization, high unemployment rate and the poverty, irregular migration is becoming a pressing issue in Serbia. Irregular migrants are identified as persons under a greater risk of falling victims to human trafficking, both because of their illegal status and work and great dependance on people organizing their tranzit to the destination country. All of the curently migrating persons, that is one billion people according to international assesments, can befall into that position. Representatives of organizations operating in countries that constitute migratory route Turkey – Greece – Macedonia –Serbia – Croatia – Germany presented their experiance with the interconnection between irregular migration and human trafficking on ASTRA’s conference. Also, Pablo Rojas Coppari, representative from Migrant Rights Centre Ireland presented examples of good practice implemented in his country.

The panel on psychotherapy of human trafficking victims included presentations of psychotherapeutic methods of work promoted by different theoretical approaches – psychoanalytical, humanistic, behavioral and constructivistic. Apart from individual therapy, group and family methods of work were presented to members of ASTRA network of therapists and other participants of the panel. In interactive sessions, panelists exchanged their experience in working with trafficking survivors with world renounced specialists like dr Michael Korzinski, independent expert from Great Britain and dr Mary C. Burke from Carlow University, USA. In that way, capacities of national experts to provide psychological support to trafficking victims were strenghtened. This should lead to facilitation of the process of victims’ recovery and reintegration process.

The conference is implemented within the Not for Sale! – Building Towards Consensus on Combating Human Trafficking in Serbia project that is supported by European Union through European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) program.

Work on this case is an example of successful cooperation of the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, Counter-Organized Crime Service and Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. Since appropriate penalizing of perpetrator is necessary in order to combat human trafficking, we hope that this judgment will be affirmed by the higher court. This is the first human trafficking case accepted by the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime after long time. As trafficking is a serious and organized crime, we hope to see more examples of good practice in prosecution and punishment of human traffickers.

NGO ASTRA – Anti Trafficking Action was actively involved in search and emergency care for one of the victims and still provides direct assistance in the process of her recovery and reintegration.

Victims are trafficked around the world for sexual exploitation, forced labour, begging, petty crimes, removal of organs and for other exploitative purposes. Trafficking in persons is a truly global phenomenon: between 2007 and 2010, victims from at least 136 countries were detected in 118 countries worldwide. Because of this diffusion as well as the hidden nature of trafficking crimes, it is difficult to estimate the size of the problem.

Many countries have recently passed a legislation criminalizing trafficking in persons as a specific offence. However, definitions of human trafficking vary, as does the capacity to detect offenders and victims. Even though, there is a general increase in the number of prosecutions and convictions globally, the overall criminal justice response to trafficking in persons appears to remain very weak.

The Report has revealed that 27 per cent of all victims of human trafficking officially detected globally between 2007 and 2010 are children, up 7 per cent from the period 2003 to 2006. Also worrying is the increase in the number of girl victims, who make up two thirds of all trafficked children.  Girls now constitute 15 to 20 per cent of the total number of all detected victims, including adults, whereas boys comprise about 10 per cent.

Within this picture, there are significant regional variations.  While the share of detected child victims is 68 per cent in Africa and the Middle East, and 39 per cent in South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, that proportion diminishes to 27 per cent in the Americas and 16 per cent in Europe and Central Asia.

The vast majority of trafficked persons are women, accounting for 55 to 60 per cent of victims detected globally.  However, the total proportion of women and girls together soars to about 75 per cent, with men constituting about 14 per cent of the total of detected victims. Nonetheless, this is not a uniform picture as one in four detected victims is a male.

Between 2007 and 2010, 460 different trafficking flows were identified.  Around half of all trafficking took place within the same region with 27 per cent occurring within ational borders. One exception is the Middle East, where most detected victims are East and South Asians.

There are significant regional differences in the detected forms of exploitation. Countries in Africa and in Asia generally intercept more cases of trafficking for forced labor, while sexual exploitation is somewhat more frequently found in Europe and in the Americas. Additionally, trafficking for organ removal was detected in 16 countries around the world.

The Report raises concerns about low conviction rates – 16 per cent of reporting countries did not record a single conviction for trafficking in persons between 2007 and 2010.

REPORT

Full report (PDF, 5.1 MB)

COUNTRY PROFILES

Africa and Middle East
Americas
Europe and Central Asia
South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY English Français Русский

Seminar „The Role of Prosecutors in Criminal Proceedings related to Trafficking in Human Beings“, organized by the Serbian Public Prosecutor’s Office and NGO ASTRA – Anti Trafficking Action, was held on 1st and 2nd of November 2012 in Belgrade. Realization of the seminar was supported by the French Embassy in Belgrade and the Judicial Academy.

The seminar was one of the activities planned within the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and ASTRA in September 2012. Appointed as contacts for THB cases by the Prosecutor Office, representatives from 23 Higher Prosecutor Offices from all over the country attended the seminar.

Through lectures and practical tasks, Serbian prosecutors and deputy prosecutors were provided with an opportunity to learn more about the issue of trafficking in human beings, the process of trafficking and characteristics of the criminal act. Further, topics covered on the seminar include psychological consequences of THB and victims’ psychology, communication between the prosecutor and the victim, prosecutorial investigation in human trafficking cases in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and court practice in France.

The goal was to improve victims’ treatment in court and spread the knowledge about the criminal act of human trafficking and aspects of the act meaningful for prosecutorial work on the case. Further, expectations are that influencing prosecutors, who have very important role in investigation process, will lead to greater efficiency of proceedings related to human trafficking.

The Seminar „The Role of Prosecutors in Criminal Proceedings related to Trafficking in Human Beings“ has been implemented as part of ASTRA’s effort to enhance the capacities of local anti-trafficking actors of various profiles though interactive learning and exchange of experience with colleagues from Serbia and abroad.

The training sought to help border police officers who work in the field. i.e. at border check-points, acquire and/or improve their knowledge and skills so that they could recognize possible victim in a short period of time they have at disposal and adequately respond in order to facilitate victim’s later identification.

The training was delivered by Henk Werson, chief police inspector of the Dutch national police for combating human trafficking, and his team. They insisted on practical exercises of interviewing techniques with special emphasis on communicating and collecting information in case of language barrier.

The training was held on October 15-18, 2012 in Belgrade, bringing together 22 border police officers who work at the border check points in all seven Border Police Regional Center.

This training has been implemented as part of ASTRA’s effort to enhance the capacities of local anti-trafficking actors of various profiles though peer learning and exchange of experiences with their peers from foreign countries.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Republic Prosecutor, Ms Zagorka Dolovac and President of ASTRA, Ms Marija Andjelkovic as parties and French Ambassador, H.E. Mr François-Xavier Deniau as a partner to the Memorandum. The ceremony was attended by Ms. Vincent Degert, Head of the Delegation of EU to Serbia, guests from diplomatic corps, state institutions representatives, members of relevant civil society and international organizations. “I am very happy that the Republic Prosecutor’s Office and NGO ASTRA decided to make their cooperation official and thus improve the efficiency of work and the quality of protection of trafficked persons in judicial proceedings”, said Mr Ambassador Deniau occasion.

Republic Prosecutor, Ms Dolovac thanked the French Embassy for support and promised that Serbian Prosecutor’s Office would continue to be the partner of all institutions and organizations which fight human trafficking. President of NGO ASTRA Ms Andjelkovic stressed that this is the first such agreement concluded between an NGO and an institution of the criminal justice system in Serbia. “Closing this agreement is an important step forward for the Republic of Serbia – not only as a sign of readiness to cooperate with civil society, but also an advance in establishing intersectoral collaboration of all actors taking part in fight against trafficking and victims assistance”, Ms Andjelkovic further accentuated. The two parties expressed hope that other actors involved in anti-trafficking will follow their example, for it is only through joint efforts that improvement of victims’ protection and treatment in the court can be secured. In addition, multilateral cooperation could contribute to more effective identification, consistent prosecution and appropriate castigation of perpetrators.

Head of the Delegation of European Union to Serbia Mr Vincent Degert also stressed the importance of the memorandum. Aware of the problem of human trafficking in our country, he said: “It is very important that Serbia as a candidate for membership in EU is committed to fight against human trafficking, but also to show such commitment in practice – through the number of judgments and severity of penalties against the offenders”.

The Republic Prosecutor’s Office and NGO ASTRA committed to mutual cooperation in the field of improvement and protection of victims’ rights, exchange of information on cases involving human trafficking and preventive activities. The main objectives of this cooperation are increasing the quality of services for victims, protection of their rights, together with upgrading operational procedures and mechanisms within the system that are concerned with suppression of human trafficking.

The cooperation will help the generation of data on indictments for trafficking offences and on consequent judgments, thus enabling public insight into the adequacy of prosecution and giving a clearer picture of the dimensions of this problem in our country.

The MoU signatories are convinced that mutual cooperation could help resolving numerous issues that had burdened the work of judicial and prosecutorial authorities so far with regard to human trafficking cases. In addition to advancing the position and protection of trafficking victims before court, it is important to work on better efficiency of court proceedings, persistent prosecution and appropriate punishing of offenders, as well as on raising public prosecutors’ awareness of the specific characteristics of human trafficking. For this reason, one of the activities that ASTRA is going to carry out in accordance with the signed MoU is a training on the problem of human trafficking for the prosecutors from the whole Serbia scheduled for November this year.

This campaign is a response to increase in the number of identified victims of human trafficking that have been subjected to labor exploitation, registered both by ASTRA SOS Hotline and relevant state authorities in Serbia. Data presented by the International Labor Organization (ILO) stress the gravity of the problem – according to this organization there are 2.5 million victims of labor exploitation as a form of human trafficking. Annual income traffickers make is around 32 million USD. GDP of Serbia does not differ much. So, money traffickers obtain through exploitation of other people’s work matches GDP of a whole country, said Jovan Protic, national coordinator of ILO in Serbia.

Unfortunately, this increase has not been followed by an appropriate state reaction – alongside the evident lack of understanding of this phenomenon, procedures for handling and prosecuting labor exploitation cases are not clearly defined, either. Even though public awareness of this problem is still rather low, ASTRA first came across a labor exploitation case back in 2005. Since then, every 6^th victim in ASTRA Direct Victim Assistance Program survived labor exploitation. Therefore, the inability of authorities to tackle this problem cannot be justified by a relatively short presence of this form of human trafficking in Serbia.

Trafficking in human beings with the purpose of labor exploitation is present in numerous work fields; however, victims are most commonly recruited for work in labor-intensive sectors, with large share of informal labor and/or long chains of subcontracting, like in construction industry. Sasa Simic, president of the Branch Trade Union of Construction Industry Nezavisnost emphasized the role of trade unions in eradication of this form of human trafficking.

Ivana Radovic from ASTRA pointed out that trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labor exploitation must be recognized as a problem which results from the situation on the labor market and which does not affect only one industry. In that respect, it is necessary to build and promote such labor market in which labor legislation will be persistently enforced with irrelevant share of unregistered labor.

For successful and efficient recognition and prosecution of cases of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation, it is necessary to ensure high level of political will as a sign of real determination and commitment of society to put an end to this form of crime, said Ms. Radovic.

Upon their return to their home country, victims of labor exploitation are to face the same problems that pushed them into the trafficking ring. This often leads them to accept suspicious job offers, which puts them under a greater risk of getting back into the trafficking ring. Additionally, the existing victim assistance programs available in Serbia are not adjusted to the new user category, and society has proven reluctant to understand, accept and support victims of labor exploitation in the recovery process.

 The campaign “Labor Exploitation, Human Trafficking. Serious and Organized Crime” is supported by the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia within the “Civil Society Support” program.

The hotline number is dedicated to providing assistance to parents/guardians and the missing children themselves through receiving missing children reports, passing the repots to the police and assistance to the police in the investigation process. In completing these tasks NGOs that run #116000 – the European Hotline Number for Missing Children are cooperating with one another, the police and other organizations committed to aiding and solving cases of missing children. International cooperation in this area is of particular utility, since the absence of the former forms of border control between the EU countries facilitates the transport of missing children from one member state to another. Consequently, children are less likely to be found. After visa liberalization with EU the problem has become topical in Serbia as well.

The Hotline Number for Missing Children will be available 24/7. The calls will be answered by ASTRA’s current consultants who are trained to provide support to the parents of missing children, gather information from citizens about the missing children cases and, given the parental consent, pass the information to the police and other institutions in charge.

Apart from helping the police in investigation, ASTRA will also provide psychological and other forms of assistance to the parents/guardians of the missing child, and refer them and help them in communication with relevant institutions and organizations. This is very important when the child has gone missing on the territory of a foreign country, due to the language barrier and inability of parents to obtain information and communicate with the police in the country where their child might be located. Different forms of assistance will also be available for the children once they are found and returned to their families.

In Serbia about hundred cases of missing children are reported on annual basis. Nonetheless, according to the current official procedure, search order is issued 24 hours after the person is gone missing, despite the fact that research has shown that the first couple of hours are crucial for successful finding of a missing person. For this reason having a hotline service available to parents throughout Europe and reachable on the same number in different countries, which ensures momentary action in the case of child’s disappearance, is of great significance.

In the process of introducing the European Hotline Number for Missing Children, NGO ASTRA was supported by Vip Mobile Company through New Year’s donation of 2 million RSD. Part of this donation money was used for purchase of a modern telephone exchange necessary for the parallel functioning of two hotline numbers – the European Hotline Number for Missing Children and ASTRA SOS Hotline Number specialized in human trafficking.

For over a decade, NGO ASTRA successfully runs ASTRA SOS Hotline Number, as a part of the Direct Victim Assistance Program. Searches for the people who might be missing in the human trafficking ring, in cooperation with the police, are an important segment of our work. Due to a ramified network of associate organizations throughout the world and the possibility of informal and quick communication between non-governmental organizations, uncharacteristic of the police and other state institutions bound by bureaucratic procedures, ASTRA was often in position to identify, find and move victims of human trafficking to a secure place.

By adding #116000 – the European Hotline Number for Missing Children to the list of our activities, NGO ASTRA is actively contributing to strengthening of the capacities for the fight against the phenomenon of missing children on national, regional and international level.

Third expert meeting for lawyers titled “Health and Psychological Consequences of Human Trafficking” was held at Zira Hotel, Belgrade, on May 18, 2012. The expert meeting is part of the project “Protection of Trafficking Victims’ Rights through/and the Provision of Legal Assistance” carried out by ASTRA – Anti Trafficking Action and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee with support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MATRA).

Local and foreign experts – Henk Werson, police inspector and expert of the Dutch Police Centre for Combating Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling, Dutch expert Marjan Wijers, dr Cathy Zimmerman from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, professor Slobodan Savićc from the Institute of Forensic Medicine, professor Aleksandar Jovanović head of the Forensic Psychiatry Department of the Clinical Center of Serbia, dr Vera Litričin, Biljana Slavković from the Psychodrama Institute and Biljana Sinanović, judge of the Supreme Court of Cassation – discussed different aspects of health consequences of human trafficking.

Numerous topics relating to health and psychological consequences of human trafficking were addressed on this occasion, including: psychological strategies of traffickers and the use of physical and sexual violence from the perspective of investigation and prosecution; survival and coping strategies of trafficking victims; the role of expert witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings – expertise on physical and psychological injuries. The results of two surveys were also presented: a survey on the physical, sexual and psychological health consequences of trafficking conducted on the sample of around 450 persons in several European countries by dr Cathy Zimmerman and the analysis of the most common health consequences of  human trafficking according to ASTRA’s ten-year practice.

This meeting and other project activities aim to provide specialized professional development training for lawyers for the sake of timely, correctly and sensitively informing the victim of human trafficking about their rights guaranteed by international conventions and domestic legislation and their appropriate representation in criminal and civil proceedings.

ASTRA – Anti Trafficking Action is a Belgrade, Serbia-based grass root NGO dedicated to fighting human trafficking and providing direct victim assistance. ASTRA is equally active in the areas of prevention, education, public awareness raising, direct victim assistance in the process of recovery and reintegration, research and reporting. ASTRA runs the only SOS hotline in Serbia specialized for human trafficking through which more than 15000 calls were received and 400 persons identified as trafficking victims in the first ten years of work.

The first training, aimed at enabling foster care professionals and parents to work with trafficked children, took place on April 27 and 28 2012. and gathered participants from Belgrade and Kolubara District. Trainings should contribute to solving current problems in supporting and aiding victims of human trafficking, particularly emprovement of social reintegration of minor victims, a process depending on emotional support, adequate accomondation and protection – things current system does not and foster families might provide.