Are the human beings export goods?

The problem of human trafficking is not new for the region, either. For decades, the little kids from these parts were lulled to sleep with cautions that “shouldn’t they behave properly, the bad people will steal them and sell them to strangers.” Where is smoke, there is fire, the old saying goes. Selling children to the sex industry or prostitution bosses, or for that matter to people who controlled the sale of stolen goods and the earnings from begging in the streets have been present in SEE for years. Especially in the Roma community, where small children were sold by their parents, or simply kidnapped, to be transported illegally to Italy and then to the rest of Western Europe. They were trained in the arts of stealing and begging and were immediately sent to the streets, to do what they specialized, and earn profits for their owners.

After the fall of the Eastern bloc, the situation deteriorated. The overall sense of hopelessness and the prevailing poverty have forced many people to seek their future in the countries of the developed, rich West. The most vulnerable have proved to be the female population. Faced with the patriarchal society they live in, they have been an easy target for the sex traffickers. They come, usually in the form of a mysterious stranger, “a man of the world” who makes promises of a well-paid job, marriage to a well off distinguished gentlemen, or an artistic career in the esoteric art of exotic dancing, the preferred euphemism for strip-tease.

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12.08.2008 The OSCE Mission in Kosovo and non-governmental organization Terre des Hommes launched, on August 7, a public information campaign against child trafficking and begging in Kosovo that will continue through August.

10.06.2008 NAKED FACTS is the fifth anti-trafficking campaign, under the motto Women are Not Meat; Children are not Slaves; People are not a commodity , implemented by ASTRA NGO. The campaign aims to raise public awareness and to warn the state institutions about the problem of trafficking in human beings in Serbia which is often neglected, in a society increasingly tollerant to violence and human rights violations.

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in B&H, under its regular monitoring activities, prepared an analysis of the status of asylum seekers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Foreign nationals, asylum seekers in particular, are among the most vulnerable population categories and their rights are violated far more often than the rights of other citizens.

14.08.2006 The UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) has launched the Reference Guide on Protecting the Rights of Child Victims of Trafficking in Europe, a new tool designed specifically for use by those working to protect children victims of trafficking within the European region.

08.12.2004 Before the new Law on Asylum and Temporary Protection entered into force in August 2003, all persons with refugee or immigrant status in the Republic of Macedonia had the right to Temporary Humanitarian Protection. That status lasted until September 28, 2003, when they got an opportunity to seek asylum in Macedonia, in accordance with the new Law.