Press Briefing
4 June 2002, 11.30 hrs
Parliament Palace, 1st Floor, Conference Rooms, Bucharest

Human Trafficking in South Eastern Europe

The 4th meeting of the Stability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings will take place on 4 June 2002 in Bucharest. The meeting is hosted by the Romanian Government and organized on the margins of the Stability Pact annual WT III meeting (5-6 June 2002).

The 4th Task Force meeting will review progress made, shortcomings and next steps in the anti-trafficking measures taken in the Balkan region.

The press is invited to participate in the press briefing scheduled for 4 June, 11.30 hrs, at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest.

For further information, please contact Ms Valérie Nádrai, tel. +43/664/1206862.

For accreditation, please either bring your press identification card or contact the Directorate for Public Relations (Ministry of Interior); tel/fax. +40/1 31 03 072, Ms. Ioana Georgescu.

Press Statement
Trafficking situation in South Eastern Europe.
Report issued by UNICEF in collaboration with UNHCHR and OSCE/ODIHR

The UNICEF report states that 90 percent of foreign migrant sex workers in the Balkan countries are victims of trafficking. However, 65 percent are not identified as such by the police. Assistance reaches hardly 35 percent of trafficked persons in the Balkan region of which just 7 percent are successfully torn out of the trafficking cycle through reintegration programs. A disturbingly high number of trafficked persons are children.

Despite the fact that the Governments in South Eastern Europe have declared the fight against human trafficking a priority issue, the anti-trafficking measures taken have not succeeded yet in halting the criminal business. While trans-national organized traffickers operate practically with impunity generating billions of dollars, victims of trafficking are most often treated as criminals and illegal migrants. They face deportation to their home country from which, as NGO figures indicate, more than 50 percent fall into the hands of traffickers again.

The findings of the updated UNICEF inventory on the trafficking situation in SEE and on anti-trafficking measures taken in the region (first published in 2000), issued under the framework of the Stability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings, provide an extremely important and effective tool in the fight against trafficking in human beings. It states examples of good practice and obstacles that urgently need to be addressed.

The SP Task Force, under the chairmanship of Minister Helga Konrad, will continue to assist the SEE Government in taking the next steps which must focus on better identification of trafficked persons, enhanced victim protection and assistance, better desegregated information and regional information exchange, cooperation between law enforcement and victim protection facilities, and a stronger involvement of NGOs into the implementation of anti-trafficking measures.

In order to strengthen these priority measures and to enhance regional cooperation, the SP Task Force has invited the countries of the Balkan region to discuss their anti-trafficking policy at the 4th Task Force meeting which is scheduled to take place in Bucharest on 4 June 2002.