2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

worked with Spanish authorities to break up two
trafficking rings, one of which was transporting Cape
Verdeans through Senegal and The Gambia to Spain.
Although at least four sex tourists were prosecuted
for pedophilia during the year, the special commissariat
set up by the Interior Ministry in 2005 to fight
sex tourism has taken no definitive actions.
Protection
The Senegalese government demonstrated sustained
efforts to provide care for trafficking victims during
the year. The government’s Ginddi Center for atrisk-children,
including trafficking victims, received
373 children during the year, but failed to provide
specific data on the number of trafficking victims
aided. The Center’s child protection hotline received
21,533 calls during the year, and the government
provided training to Center personnel to help them
address the needs of trafficking victims and street
children. In October 2006, a Presidential Council
on Street Children recommended the creation of
a partnership between the government, NGOs,
religious leaders, and donors to provide care for
street children, many of whom may be escaped trafficking
victims or vulnerable to being trafficked. The
government does not encourage all victims to assist
in trafficking investigations or prosecutions, though
officials encourage boys trafficked by religious
teachers to help identify and prosecute their teachers.
The government does not provide traffickingspecific
legal alternatives to the removal of victims
to countries where they face hardship or retribution.
Victims may file refugee asylum claims for temporary
or permanent residency. Although the anti-trafficking
law prohibits victims from being penalized for acts
related to being trafficked, child victims of trafficking
are arrested and prosecuted.
Prevention
The Government of Senegal made modest efforts
to raise awareness about trafficking during the
reporting period. The President and the World Bank
co-hosted a Presidential Council on street children
in October 2006, with the President proposing
that every Senegalese family take responsibility for
one street child. The President and the Minister
of Family also discussed trafficking with religious
officials. In December 2006, the Family Ministry
organized donor-funded workshops and roundtables
in Mbour, Kolda, and Fatick to raise awareness
among government officials and the general
population about the dangers of child labor.
SERBIA (Tier 2)
Serbia is a source, transit, and destination country
for women and girls trafficked transnationally and
internally for the purpose of commercial sexual
exploitation. Foreign victims originated primarily
from Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Albania and some transited
Serbia en route to Western Europe. Internal
sex trafficking of Serbian women and girls increased
over the past year with traffickers increasingly utilizing
Internet chat rooms and SMS (short messaging
service) to recruit young people. In some cases
children were trafficked into forced labor or forced
street begging.
The Government of Serbia does not fully comply
with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts
to do so. The government passed a comprehensive
national strategy, augmented prevention efforts, and
continued training efforts at the national and local
levels. The government should aggressively prosecute
cases and ensure that traffickers receive jail sentences
consistent with the heinous nature of the offense.
Prosecution
The Government of Serbia demonstrated continued
efforts to actively investigate trafficking cases in the
last year, though punishment for trafficking crimes
remained weak. The criminal code for Serbia, which
went into effect in January 2006, criminally prohibits
sex and labor trafficking in article 388. Penalties
for commercial sexual exploitation are commensurate
with those for rape. The law prescribes penalties
for trafficking that are sufficiently stringent;
however, traffickers may receive imposed sentences
that are light or suspended. Even after the Supreme
Court confirms a verdict, inefficient administrative
procedures cause delay, and it is not uncommon
for convicted traffickers to remain free and able to
continue trafficking for years. Of the three highprofile
prosecutions from previous years, one trafficker
originally sentenced in March 2004 still has
not begun serving his sentence. In 2006, the government
filed 37 criminal cases against 84 people
for trafficking in persons, up from 34 individuals
indicted last year. Eleven people were convicted for
trafficking in persons; sentences ranged from three
to eight years’ imprisonment. The organized crime
police force includes a full-time trafficking unit
and the border police force has a full-time office to
combat trafficking and smuggling. There were no
reports of trafficking-related corruption; however,
authorities did not respond to requests for information
on alleged local police complicity in previous
years in a prostitution ring in Novi Pazar.
S E R B I A
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