Increase in number of male trafficking victims

BELGRADE - Sexual exploitation was the most common form of human trafficking in Serbia last year, and most victims were female, Director of the Center for Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking Sanja Kljajic said Monday, noting that the number of male trafficking victims is on the rise.

The number of victims is increasing and the trafficking in human beings itself is changing over time, she said at the conference on Social Protection and Prevention of Human Trafficking in Belgrade.

The data collected over the first six months of 2014 indicate that work exploitation has become the dominant form of human trafficking and show an increase in the number of male victims, said Kljajic.

Director of the Serbian government's Office for Human and Minority Rights Suzana Paunovic emphasized that the issue of human trafficking should be tackled by focusing not only on the reintegration of victims, but also on meeting social needs of vulnerable groups.

The project 'Social Protection and Prevention of Human Trafficking', carried out in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), is aimed at building capacity on a local level to provide support to persons at risk or victims of human trafficking, she said.

Serbia has taken a number of important steps in the prevention and countering of human trafficking, Paunovic pointed out.

The national legal framework for combating human trafficking has been developed in line with the country's international obligations, Paunovic said, noting that Serbia ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in 2009.

"The fight against human trafficking is complex and demands coordinated...