US: Serbia progresses in fighting human trafficking, Bosnia still on watch list (Beta, N1, RFE)
The US State Department report on human trafficking which covered 187 states, commended Serbia for sentencing several human traffickers, creating a working group for dealing with the crime and consolidating the investigative jurisdiction over the cases of human trafficking, the Beta news agency reported on Friday.
The report said Serbia’s Government increased efforts in protecting the victims, identifying a number of them and opening a centre for the urgent admission after a five-year delay.
However, it added that the Government did not have a system of consistently forwarding the cases to the prosecution or judges experienced in the crime.
In the “Human Trafficking in 2019” report, the State Department said the prosecutors tended to lessen the cases of human trafficking for sexual abuse to soliciting prostitution and warned about a sensitive vulnerable migrants’ position in the regional countries, Radio Free Europe reported.