The goal of the project, amounting to EUR 884 million, is to facilitate cooperation between police and the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor in investigations and criminal proceedings involving people accused of trafficking in humans, as well as to help the victims.
The project involves the Office for Human Rights, the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor, the ministries of justice, internal affairs, and health and social welfare. Partners in the project are the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights from Austria and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation.
Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic said that criminal proceedings were under way against 31 persons accused of people smuggling.
Since 2002, when Croatia started keeping records on trafficking in humans, 62 victims have been registered, the head of the Office for Human Rights and project leader, Luka Madjeric, said.
One-third of the victims, mostly women, were from Croatia and the rest were from other Southeast European countries, Madjeric said.
Madjeric pointed to the fact that more and more children were falling victim to people smuggling, with the average age of victims in 2006 being 18.5 years.