Balkan Human Trafficking At 120,000 A Year
Serbia plans a media campaign to increase awareness of the trafficking of some 120,000 women and children each year through the Balkans and into Western Europe.
Slobodan Lalovic, Serbian Labor and Social Welfare minister, said Friday the government will financially support the campaign, including making a movie based on true stories, aimed at drawing attention to the human trafficking problem.
Lalovic told Belgrade's B92 radio smuggling of women and children for sex and work exploitation from Serbia has been on the rise for years. U.N. reports say about 700,000 women and children every year fall victims to human trafficking. Some 120,000 of those are transported through the Balkans.
He said women and children from Romania, Moldavia and Ukraine in previous years were the most numerous victims in human trafficking across Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia to Western European countries. But it's a growing problem among Serbians, also. |
