The national coordinator for the fight against human trafficking at Bosnia-Herzegovina's Council of Ministers, Samir Rizvo, has confirmed for Hina that this serious problem appeared immediately after the war, when Bosnia was mostly a transit country which gradually turned into the final destination for some victims. Rizvo warns that the problem is not only prostitution, but also the smuggling of illegal emigrants. In both cases, the organisers earn millions of euros per year in Bosnia alone, which is why the fight against this problem is very difficult, he says.
Women from Bosnia-Herzegovina have recently started becoming victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution, Rizvo says, adding that criminal groups are well connected while police forces in the region are still not, especially with regard to the exchange of information.
The national coordinator of the non-governmental organisation "La Strada", Fadila Hadzic, whose Netherlands-based association fights trade in women, claims that criminal groups involved in trade in women also smuggle weapons and drugs. There are two transit centres - Belgrade and Zupanja in eastern Croatia - where passports are forged, women's identity is changed and where women are resold, Hadzic says. There are restaurants in Bosnia whose owners earn around 12,500 euros per night from prostitution. Many women in the country are forced by their pimps to prostitute themselves in flats, private houses or holiday cottages, Hadzic says.
Until 2001 night clubs offering striptease programmes and accompanying services operated in all bigger towns in the Bosnian Serb entity, with most profitable clients being members of international organisations, police and the military. In an operation launched in 2001 by the then special envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Jacques Paul Klein, 40 night clubs and secret brothels were shut down. During 2001 and 2002 night clubs drastically reduced their business, which is believed to have included 500-800 girls from Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Albania, and Serbia and Montenegro. Strict police control resulted in the transfer of prostitution from cities to small towns, from glamorous restaurants to private houses and flats, which still operate, especially in the border areas of Republika Srpska. According to sources close to the Bosnian Serb police, the number of women involved in white slavery has been halved since 2001.
In 2002 Croatia set up a committee for the fight against human trafficking and a national plan of prevention which also includes international organisations, such as the International Migrations Organisation, and some NGOs. The head of the Office for Human Rights and national coordinator for the prevention of human trafficking, Luka Madjeric, says that 17 victims of human trafficking were identified in Croatia in 2004 and that they were from South-East Europe. The Penal Code has been changed to include provisions on human trafficking and all forms of slavery. According to Family Affairs, Veterans and Inter-generational Solidarity Minister Jadranka Kosor, although human trafficking has been on the rise globally, such trends have not been reported in Croatia.
There are no official data on the scale of human trafficking in Serbia and Montenegro, but according to available estimates, between 10,000 and 100,000 women and children, victims of human trafficking, have passed through Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo. According to organisations fighting human trafficking, Belgrade has become a crossroads for trade in humans and the main supplier of countries in the region. Victims come from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Belorussia and Albania, they are resold not only in neighbouring countries but also in The Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Cyprus. A number of Serbian towns are functioning as regional centres of trade in humans and since the arrival of NATO forces in Kosovo in 1999 the business has boomed in areas around all major military bases. According to the IMO office in Belgrade, in the period between August 2001 and May 2002 the IMO helped 65 victims of human trafficking in Serbia. Apart from international organisations, the NGO "Astra" is the most active in fighting trade in humans, and the government has started paying more attention to the problem.
According to the Macedonian police, there are some 3,000 women from eastern Europe, mostly Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia as well as Serbia and Montenegro and Albania, who are involved in prostitution in Macedonia. Several Croatian and Hungarian women have been reported as well.
According to the Slovene NGO for the victims of human trafficking called Kljuc, in 2003 police reported five cases of trade in humans, but their number is believed to be much higher. Responding to accusations about the existence of white slavery, including those from the State Department, the Slovene authorities have usually stated that Slovenia is a transit country and that victims from eastern Europe end up in Italy, the Netherlands and other western countries. Data on the number of prostitutes are no longer followed since prostitution has been decriminalised, and as regards pimping, which is still illegal, some 20 cases of pimping and around 10 cases of slavery were investigated in 2002.
Slovenia has hosted several regional conferences on illegal migrations, cross-border crime and trade in humans, with the participation of Italy, Austria, Germany and representatives of the European Union. At the fourth such conference held in September, ministers from 13 countries warned that the fight against human trafficking required EU assistance. The establishment of a regional centre for the exchange of information and cooperation in severing the so-called Balkan route of people, arms and drug trafficking was announced at the conference.