Report DAS to human trafficking: Kosovo government fails to meet minimum standards for elimination of trafficking

According to MPB announcement, this meeting was outside the regular meeting of this Authority and was organised on the case of publication American State Department Report for human trafficking, known internationally as the TIP Report.

This annual report includes assessments of 188 countries in the world, including the US itself, where Kosovo continues to remain at Level 2 in its assessment of the report, being a country that makes great efforts to meet minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The Kosovo government reportedly has demonstrated increased efforts compared to the preliminary period of reporting.

In addition to the mirror of what the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo have done during 2022 in activities against human trafficking, the report has 12 recommendations for the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, among them: to be thoroughly investigated, prosecuted and punished by traffickers, including accomplices; to target adequate punishments for found offenders, which should include considerable prison sentences; to draw written instructions; and to strengthen efforts to identify and assist children forced in search of; to reduce the number of unresolved cases by judicial cases, including other human trafficking cases.

At this meeting, all of the recommendations of the TIP Report were discussed, with what all members of the Authority as well as the National Co-ordinator Against Trafficking in Humans stressed the necessity of the maximum commitment that all these recommendations from the U.S. State Department's Report on Trafficking in Peoples, be seriously treated by the National Authority Against Human Trafficking and all other relevant institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, with the aim of preventing, investigating the most efficient combatation of this phenomenon of traffickers, but also the protection of victims of trafficking.

They've explained what it means to be on Level 2 in this report.

According to them, the Kosovo government does not meet even the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Kosovo's “government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making great efforts to do so. The government demonstrated increased efforts compared to the preliminary period of reporting, given the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; hence, Kosovo remained on level 2. These efforts included prosecuting more defendants and punishing more traffickers. The government developed indicators for health workers to identify potential victims and translated pamphlets into Ukrainian and Russian, with which they would inform victims of their rights and available services. Co-ordinating anti-trafficking bodies met repeatedly and the government drafted and approved the National Anti-Traffication Strategy for the period 2022-2026 and an action plan for implementation between 2022 and 2024. However, the government did not meet minimum standards in some key areas. The judges continued to utter mild penalties for most convicted traffickers, who were under the minimum sentence envisioned with the law on trafficking. The Penal Code classified the forced request of children from their parents as neglect or parental abuse, not as trafficking, and because of inadequate identification procedures for forced begging, authorities likely deported some unidentified victims of trafficking without referring to relevant services, the Government cut off funds for NGO-run housing, and phone operators lacked the capacity to understand and respond to trafficking calls, especially for cases of possible begging by children, the report said.