SERBIA: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 BELGRADE 000272

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EUR/SCE, EUR/PGI
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) REPORT

REF: 06 STATE 202745

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1. OVERVIEW
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A. Serbia is a country of origin, transit, and destination
for internationally trafficked men, women, and children.
The Agency for the Coordination of Protection of Victims of
Trafficking recorded 62 TIP victims. Of these, there were
60 females and 2 males; 33 were minors. In the vast
majority of cases, women and girls were trafficked for
sexual exploitation; in some cases, children were
trafficked into forced labor or street begging. In more
than half of the cases (46 of 62),recruitment of victims
and trafficking operations occurred completely within
Serbia's borders; in most other cases, traffickers promised
victims in Eastern Europe lucrative job opportunities in
Western Europe via the Balkans. Government officials
acknowledge that the actual number of victims is likely
higher than its recorded statistics, as societal norms
discourage many victims from reporting the crime. However,
the Agency figures track generally with those reported by
NGOs and are probably the most accurate tally available.
As in previous years, women and children of poor economic
means, orphans, and displaced persons were most at risk for
trafficking.


B. Following the trend noted in the last TIP report, the
number of Serbian victims identified continued to increase.
This year more than half of identified victims (46 of 62)
were Serbian, and all but two were female. Other victims
came from Macedonia (4),Ukraine (3),Moldova (3),Bosnia
and Herzegovina (2),Bulgaria (2),Albania (1),and Romania
(1). Unlike last year, there were no reports of non-
European victims in Serbia. Serbia's political will to
address trafficking is strong, given its limited resources
to finance victim services, and it aims to become a leader
in its region in implementing best practices.

Victims were often promised jobs as dancers, waitresses, or
sex workers but were not aware that they would be forced to
work in substandard conditions or have their documents
taken from them and be held against their will. In some
cases, friends or family members took part in the
trafficking scheme, facilitating contact between the
traffickers and victims. Traffickers are increasingly
utilizing Internet chat rooms and SMS messaging to recruit
young people, promising modeling opportunities or other
lucrative jobs. In some cases, traffickers use falsified
documents.


C. The government has noticeably increased funding for its
anti-trafficking programs. It has adequate funding for
training of police and other government officials, and this
year it committed further funds for educational prevention
programs. However, the government relies on NGOs to
provide services to victims of trafficking, including
counseling, legal assistance, and reintegration programs.
Even the government's Agency for Coordination of Protection
of Victims in Trafficking has no budget of its own for
anti-trafficking programs; it calls on NGOs and two
affiliated shelters to provide services to victims.
Despite this challenge, the National Coordinator is able to
oversee all aspects of anti-trafficking programs, including
coordination with NGOs, through regular meetings of the
Anti-Trafficking Team and direct communication with NGOs.
Although corruption is widespread in Serbia, the
government's anti-trafficking apparatus is relatively
efficient and committed to rooting out corruption.


D. The Anti-Trafficking Team, made up of government and
non-governmental representatives, meets periodically to

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discuss developments in trafficking in persons. The team
has working groups on: Prevention and Education, Victim
Assistance, Law Enforcement, and Children. The Ministry of
Interior also updates information about anti-trafficking
efforts and makes it available to the public on its
website, and the National Coordinator compiles yearly data
on TIP investigations. Several officials have recently
spoken publicly about the region's trafficking problem and
shared information with their regional counterparts to
coordinate regional anti-trafficking activities.

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2. PREVENTION
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A. The government publicly acknowledges that TIP is a
problem in Serbia. It supports anti-TIP educational
programs in the public schools, funds anti-TIP efforts as
noted, and maintains an informative website. President
Tadic referred to the need to combat TIP in a major speech
in 2006. Ministry of Interior officials have also
frequently spoken out about trafficking issues.


B. The Anti-Trafficking Team (AT Team),headed by National
Coordinator Dusan Zlokas, has the lead in anti-trafficking
efforts. This team includes representatives from many
government ministries (Interior; Justice; Foreign Affairs;
Finance and Economy; Labor, Employment and Social Policy;
and Education and Sports) as well as the government's
Council for the Rights of the Child, NGOs, and
international organizations. The organized crime police
force includes a full-time trafficking unit, and the border
police force has a full-time office to combat trafficking
and alien smuggling. The government coordinates the
protection of victims through the Agency for Coordination
(located within the Ministry of Labor, Employment and
Social Policy),which refers victims to appropriate
governmental and NGO services.


C. The government has shown strong initiative in anti-
trafficking information and education campaigns. It
organizes TIP awareness programs in schools nationwide
(carried out by Beosupport and other NGO partners). The
Ministry of Interior continues to utilize training videos
produced in previous years for police and border officials
and reports that law enforcement officials in other
countries (including the FBI) have also used these videos
for training.

Serbia was among the first in the region to implement the
recommendations of the Council of Europe by airing four
anti-trafficking public service announcements on Serbian
National Television (RTS) throughout the soccer
championship finals last summer. Serbian police announced
they would be paying particular attention to soccer fans
attempting to solicit prostitutes and to potential victims
of human traffickers. Finally, the government earmarked 6
million dinars (roughly $100,000) for a 13-episode
television series entitled "Modern Slavery," devoted to
generating awareness of TIP -- the government claims this
is the first television series of this magnitude dedicated
to TIP awareness in the world.


D. The government promoted U.S.-sponsored training on
domestic violence awareness and supported other NGO-
sponsored programs. The Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sponsored programs and
training on gender equality. The Anti-Trafficking Center
(ATC) organized a nationwide event in April 2006, "Until
Violence Stops," bringing in about 50 celebrities to speak
on violence issues. The UNHCR coordinates with NGOs to
provide trafficking awareness training to refugees and
IDPs. Through its hotline, ASTRA fields calls on

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employment opportunities, counseling potential victims on
the danger of trafficking schemes.


E. The government, NGOs, and international organizations
generally have good and cooperative relationships, freely
exchanging information and participating in each other's
training, meetings, and public events. The police, the
Agency for Coordination, and the shelters work daily with
one another to identify trafficking victims and refer them
to the appropriate services. All work together on the
national AT Team and in its four working groups. Unlike
last year, the working groups met regularly during the
year.


F. Police and border guard training on TIP issues is
extensive and has shown significant positive results.
Serbian consular officers also monitor patterns for
evidence of trafficking and screen for potential
trafficking victims. This year, law enforcement officials
recognized an increase in smuggling cases from Turkey,
Dubai, and China and monitored them for any indication of
trafficking; however, to date they have not discovered any
such signs of trafficking.


G. The AT Team, under the leadership of National
Coordinator Dusan Zlokas, provides coordination among
agencies on trafficking-related matters, through regular
meetings and email communications. The team has four
working groups (prevention and education, victim
assistance, law enforcement, and children). The national
coordinator serves as the single point of contact for all
anti-trafficking efforts.


H. The government adopted the National Strategy to Combat
Trafficking in Persons on December 7, 2006. The government
worked closely with the AT Team, including NGOs and
relevant ministries, as well as with OSCE, throughout the
year on multiple drafts of the strategy. However, it did
not consult with NGOs on the final draft before it was
submitted to parliament, and NGOs reported that they did
not have copies of the final draft for several weeks after
it passed. The strategy is now available on the
government's website.

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3. INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION
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A. The criminal code for Serbia, which went into effect in
January 2006, differentiates between trafficking in persons
and smuggling. The article on trafficking in persons
prohibits trafficking for both sexual and non-sexual
exploitation, and covers both internal and external forms
of trafficking. There is a separate article of the code
prohibiting trafficking in children for the purposes of
adoption, and yet another article prohibiting slavery. The
new Constitution, adopted in October 2006, also includes
two provisions that cite trafficking in persons and slavery
as crimes.


B. Under article 388 of the criminal code, the penalties
are the same for sexual and non-sexual exploitation. The
penalty for trafficking in persons is 2 to 10 years in
prison; for trafficking minors, the penalty is a minimum of
3 years; if the act of trafficking resulted in death, the
penalty is a minimum of 10 years; if it involved serious
physical injury, the penalty is 3 to 15 years; if there
were multiple acts of trafficking or if perpetrated by an
organized group, the penalty is a minimum of 5 years. In
cases of trafficking for adoption, if the victim is under
14 years old, the penalty is 1 to 15 years.


C. Trafficking for the purposes of labor exploitation is

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covered under article 388, and penalties are the same as
trafficking for sexual exploitation. However, there is a
separate article (390) of the criminal code, which
stipulates that whoever " puts someone in slavery relation
or a relation similar to the slavery and keeps him/her in
that position, whoever buys, sells or transfers such a
person to somebody else, or whoever helps in purchase, sale
or transfer of such a person, and whoever encourages
someone to sell his freedom or freedom of the person he/she
supports, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten
years." The punishment for transporting someone held as a
slave from one country to another is 6 months to 5 years,
and for any of the above offenses committed against a
minor, the punishment is 5 to 15 years.


D. The penalties for rape are the same as those for
trafficking in persons (2 to 10 years). The penalties for
sexual abuse are 1 to 10 years.


E. The prostitute's activities constitute a misdemeanor;
facilitation of prostitution (i.e., the activities of
brothel owners, operators, and pimps) is a criminal act.
However, being a client of a prostitute is not an offense.
The laws are generally enforced.


F. During the year, the government filed 37 criminal
charges against 84 people based on the criminal code's
article 388 on trafficking in persons. Of the 37 total, 33
were cases of sexual exploitation, and 4 were labor
exploitation. These charges include all aspects of
trafficking, from recruiting, assisting in the transfer of
victims, holding victims in servitude, using coercion or
abuse, and withholding documents. Sentences tended to
range from 2 to 5 years. In April 2006, traffickers in the
Pancevo case were ordered to pay 320,000 dinars to
compensate the victim for damages and 65,000 dinars for the
victim's legal fees.

However, Serbia's problem of traffickers not serving their
time persists. In the country's judiciary system across
the board, defendants are given multiple opportunities to
appeal the verdicts. Even after a verdict is confirmed by
the Supreme Court, inefficient administrative procedures
hold up the justice system, and it is not uncommon to see
indicted criminals free to walk the streets even years
afterwards. Of the three high-profile prosecutions from
previous years, one trafficker (Zarubica, originally
sentenced in March 2004) has still not begun serving his
sentence.


G. Traffickers tend to be part of small crime groups with
international links. They operate amid the thriving black
and gray markets in Serbia, where it is not uncommon to
deal with employers or recruiters making under-the-table
deals promising travel and work opportunities. Some
trafficking cases from previous years showed ties to large
organized crime groups ("Zarubica" case, "Pancevo" case,
and "Dalmacija" case); however, there were no such cases
this year. There is no evidence of government officials'
involvement. There are no reliable reports of where
trafficking profits are channeled.


H. The government actively investigates cases of
trafficking. Since 2005, Serbian law allows for techniques
such as electronic surveillance, undercover operations, and
mitigated punishment or immunity for cooperating suspects.
Intercepted phone calls and wire taps provided evidence for
high-profile cases in previous years. In addition, as of
January 1, 2006, the Serbian government implemented a
victim/witness protection program, providing victims and
witnesses undercover protection and allowing immunity for
witnesses who testify in court.


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I. The government, mainly through NGO- and IO-sponsored
programs, provides extensive training to police,
prosecutors, judges, and other officials in how to
recognize, investigate, and prosecute trafficking. In
addition to the national Anti-Trafficking Team, every
municipality is now required to have a two-person AT team
(one police, one social welfare worker) to provide rapid
response and assistance to possible victims of trafficking.
NGOs reported improved cooperation with the local teams,
especially in the northern province of Vojvodina.


J. The government continues to cooperate with all of its
neighbors, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Ukraine.
The Serbian Embassy in Ukraine alerted officials to a
trafficking scheme to recruit young women to marry Serbian
men. Serbian authorities also worked with Croatian
authorities to apprehend a German citizen in Dubrovnik on
charges of trafficking, including the trafficking of a
Serbian girl in Vranje.


K. The Constitution prohibits the extradition of Serbian
nationals (even those with dual citizenship) except to the
Hague Tribunal for war crimes. The Serbian government has
no plan to modify its laws to permit extradition of its own
nationals.


L. There is no evidence of government involvement in or
tolerance of trafficking at any level. However,
authorities still have not responded to more than 200
freedom of information requests filed in previous years in
Novi Pazar where there are allegations of police complicity
in a prostitution ring.


M. The Inspectorate General within the Ministry of Interior
investigates cases against employees suspected of abusing
their positions. In 2006, there were no complaints filed
against any police officers or other Ministry of Interior
employees for charges related to trafficking in persons.


N. We are not aware of any child sex tourism problems in
Serbia.


O. The government signed, ratified, and implemented all
five conventions as noted below:

--ILO Convention 182 concerning the Prohibition and
Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labor: Ratified July 2003.

--ILO Convention 29 and 105 on Forced or Compulsory Labor:
Ratified November 2000 and July 2003, respectively.

--The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) on the Sale of Children, Child
Prostitution, and Child Pornography: Ratified July 2002.

--The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing
the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime:
Ratified September 2001.

-- Serbia also ratified the Trafficking Protocol, known as
the Palermo Protocol, in June 2001.

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4. PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE
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A. The government provides temporary residence permits for
victims of trafficking free of charge. Since July 2005,
the government gives free access to medical care to
trafficking victims (both foreign and domestic). The

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government works closely with NGOs to ensure that victims
receive adequate shelter, access to legal, and medical and
psychological services. Unlike last year, there were no
reports of facilities denying services to TIP victims.
Serbia has two shelters for TIP victims; during the year,
33 TIP victims were accommodated there. Atina accommodated
16 victims in its transition house and provided
reintegration activities to 44 women.


B. The government pays the salaries of the two workers at
the Agency for Coordination, but it has no funding for NGOs
for services. The government relies on NGO and IO programs
to provide services to trafficking victims.


C. Because most of the trafficking in Serbia is for sexual
exploitation, Serbian authorities have made at-risk
services (night clubs, restaurants, discos, etc.) the focus
of training for law enforcement. Consular and border
officials are also trained to look for signs of trafficking
in immigration cases.

The Agency for Coordination officially identifies victims
and coordinates the provision of services from the
government, NGOs, and IOs. Police, other NGOs, shelters,
and SOS hotline operators work directly with the Agency for
Coordination when they suspect they have a victim of
trafficking in custody. Training of law enforcement
officials on how to recognize trafficking victims has been
extensive, and the NGOs report that in geeral authorities
correctly identify and transfervictims to appropriate
services.


D. Generally,the rights of victims are respected; there is
nolonger a problem of victims being detained, jailedor
deported, as extensive training has enabled plice to
identify potential trafficking victims. Although two NGOs
expressed concern that potentia TIP victims were being
held in Padenska Skela, Belgrade detention center, other
NGOs and the gvernment said that they had visited the
facilityand found no reason to believe any detainees were
TIP victims. Victims have not been prosecuted for
violations of other laws, such as prostitution. Unlike
previous years, there are no longer reports that judges in
municipal courts have treated the victims like criminals or
prostitutes. However, some courts have shown insensitivity
to victims' hardship by scheduling the victims and accused
traffickers to testify on the same day, despite the
victims' objections.


E. The government encourages victims to assist in the
investigation and prosecution of trafficking, and
facilitates this through its victim/witness protection
program. Serbia also allows victims to file civil suits
against their traffickers for compensation. Victims who
are pursuing criminal or civil suits are entitled to
temporary residence permits and may obtain other employment
or leave the country pending trial proceedings. There is
no restitution program.


F. The government provides protection through its
victim/witness protection unit, officially implemented in

2006. Two shelters and many NGOs and IOs provide legal
aid, medical care, psychological counseling, voluntary
return assistance, reintegration programs, and other
services. The government provides for free medical care
for both foreign and domestic victims in Serbia. Child
victims are placed in the same shelters as adult victims
until foster care or other services can be arranged.

In one egregious case during the year, law enforcement
returned a child TIP victim back to the family in Vranje
that had trafficked her to a pedophile.


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G. The government provides specialized training for
government officials (police, consular officers, social
welfare workers) in recognizing trafficking and providing
assistance to victims. Within the Anti-Trafficking Team,
the working group on children is headed by the NGO
Beosupport and meets regularly to plan programs addressing
child victims of trafficking. Funding for these programs,
however, is limited, and child victims are placed in
shelters along with adults. During the year, Serbian
officials participated in regional efforts to share
information and coordinate anti-trafficking programs.


H. By law and in practice, domestic and foreign victims of
trafficking can receive free medical assistance. NGOs
provide victims with shelter, medical treatment,
psychological counseling and reintegration assistance.


I. The Counseling Center Against Family Violence runs a
shelter for foreign TIP victims. Atina runs a
shelter/transition house for domestic TIP victims. ASTRA
runs a TIP hotline that receives calls from victims (it
fielded nearly 2,000 calls in 2006) and provides legal,
medical, psychological and other support. The Victimology
Society of Serbia has a victim support service that offers
all victims of crime emotional support, information on
their rights and on services available in Belgrade where
they can get specialized support, and refers victims to
such organizations/institutions. IOM manages returns and
repatriations, has a reintegration program, provides a
doctor for TIP victim care, and funds legal assistance for
victims. The government works with all of these
organizations to coordinate assistance for TIP victims.

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5. SUMMARY/COMMENT
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Serbia took last year's TIP assessment very seriously and
carried out several changes to improve anti-TIP efforts.
The government passed a comprehensive National Strategy,
earmarked roughly $100,000 for an educational television
series aimed at preventing TIP, and continued training
efforts at the national and local levels. The temporary
residence permits assisted victims in testifying against
their traffickers and reintegrating into Serbia if they
wished. There were no high-profile prosecutions this year;
however, the government progressed steadily in prosecuting
TIP cases (37 charges against 84 people). The government
also continued to improve coordination with NGOs and IOs.
We recommend that the TIP report acknowledge these positive
steps.

In terms of areas for improvement, trials tend to be
lengthy (1-3 years),and the inefficient judiciary system
allows traffickers multiple appeals and in some cases
several years of freedom before serving out their
sentences. In addition, Serbia continues to use outdated
passports and IDs lacking sufficient security measures; its
plans to update both in the near future will help make
trafficking more difficult.

Post's TIP contact is Laura Brown, 381-11-306-4661 (o),
381-63-368-089 (c),381-11-361-3962 (fax). Brown (FS-3)
spent 18 hours on this report.

MOORE