THE NUMBER OF VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING INCREASES IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 12,2007) – 71 victims of human trafficking have been registered in Bosnia last year. This is the data of the Office of State Coordinator for fight against Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration presented on Monday at a project conference entitled “Fight against Human Trafficking”, in Sarajevo.

31 of the victims are Bosnian citizens, 22 are from Serbia and Montenegro, 6 are from Moldova, 4 from Ukraine, 3 from Croatia, 2 from Bulgaria and one victim from Switzerland, Russia and Romania each.

The one day conference dedicated to the growing problem of human trafficking was organized by the Bosnian Bishop Conference’s Caritas, in cooperation with the Bosnian state coordinator for fignt against human trafficking and illegal migration and the Bosnian Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

The organizers presented the new media campaign that has already been initiated. It is entitled “Are You Looking for a Job? Why not, but be Careful”. The initiative is implemented by the Caritas network, Bosnian State Border Service, Bosnian diplomatic offices and several malls.

The campaign is aimed to raise consciousness of young people in particular on all the dangers of the process of employment in foreign countries.

The victims of human trafficking are foreign women who are deported to the origin countries, unless under the circumstances that they need to testify. In such cases, the Bosnian state provides protection. Domestic victims stay in Bosnia and attend various programs. However, the problem is that many of the victims are members of the Roma people and often times lack money to attend courses.

The participants of the conference also emphasized that there are laws that need to be changed and amended. The Bosnian State Coordinator’s Office has already prepared new proposals to change and amend the laws concerned.

It has been emphasized that human trafficking is a growing problem which mostly arises in poorer countries and transitional countries. Bosnia became a transitional country in the mid-90s.