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News & Updates

Combating Trafficking in Kosovo¹

September 2005

Three UN police officers and four foreigners have been arrested for involvement in human trafficking in the UN administered province of Kosovo. UN police (CIVPOL) together with the local Kosovo Police Service (KPS) on Wednesday arrested an international policeman suspected of human trafficking, the UN said in a statement. Two other local police officers were also arrested on human trafficking charges on Sunday in northern Kosovo.

In the interest of the ongoing investigation, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has declined to disclose the identities of the officers arrested. Some 3,753 international police officers from 49 countries are serving in Kosovo, which has been under the administration of UMMIK since the end of 1999 war. The local post-war police force has some 6,000 officers.

CIVPOL is a closely-integrated structure of both international civilian police and local KPS officers who work side-by-side to maintain law and order in Kosovo. Specialized units within UNMIK are responsible for providing protection for vulnerable witnesses and fighting human trafficking and other forms of organized crime. Kosovo, as other Western Balkans countries, has a serious human trafficking problem.

This week's arrests came only days after UNMIK launched a toll-free "HelpLine" for victims of gender-based violence in Kosovo, including victims of human and sex trafficking. The HelpLine, set up by UNMIK's "Victims' Advocacy and Assistance Unit" (VAAU), is intended to ensure access to justice for victims of crime by offering them the opportunity to anonymously receive help from law enforcement authorities.

It also intends to facilitate victims' access to medical, legal, and psychological services as well as other forms of support. Since its creation in 2002, the VAAU has assisted over 1,430 victims of crime, mainly victims of domestic violence, sexual offences, and human trafficking. In 2003, UNMIK's Trafficking and Prostitution Investigation Unit (TPIU) conducted 2,047 operations and assisted 70 victims. Of the 60 trials for trafficking in 2003, 26 were ongoing at year's end, 18 ended in acquittal, and 17 ended with convictions. The province houses two shelters fro human trafficking victims, one for foreigners and one for Kosovars.

In the meantime, Amnesty International (AI) says the presence of international peacekeepers in Kosovo has been fuelling the sexual exploitation of women and encouraging trafficking. The rights group claims that UN and NATO troops in the region are using the trafficked women and girls for sex and that some have been involved in trafficking itself.

Girls as young as 11 from Eastern European countries are being sold into sex slavery, according to Amnesty International. The group's 2004 yearly report - based on interviews with women and girls who have been trafficked from countries such as Moldova, Bulgaria, and Ukraine to service Kosovo's sex industry - says that sex victims are moved illegally across borders and sold in "trading houses" where they are sometimes drugged and "broken in" before being sold from one trafficker to another for prices ranging from 50 euros to 3,500 euros. The report includes harrowing testimonies of abduction, deprivation, and torture, including beatings and rape.

The report also condemns the role of the international peacekeepers in furthering the problem, saying since the arrival of the peacekeepers in 1999, the number of places in Kosovo where trafficked women and girls may be exploited, such as nightclubs, bars, restaurants, hotels, and cafes, increased from 18 to more than 200 in 2003.

According to the report, international personnel make up about 20 per cent of sex trafficking customers, though its members comprise only 2 per cent of Kosovo's population. Other countries in Southeastern Europe have been criticized by international organizations for failing to take effective measures against people trafficking.

A 2004 US State Department report identified Western Balkans countries (Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia) as source or transit countries for trafficking to Western Europe and destination countries for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labor.

A UNICEF report says the main targets are young women and girls between the ages of 15 and 17 who are often sold into sexual slavery, or children under the age of 13, who are trafficked for forced labor or begging.

Many Southeastern European countries have strict laws against human trafficking, but they largely focus on preventing illegal migration or cracking down on prostitution and organized crime and ignore the root causes, says the UNICEF report. What is missing, the organization says, is a strategy focused educating children about the dangers of human trafficking and raising their awareness.

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¹ Ekrem Krasniqi. ISN SECURITY WATCH. 1 September 2005.