Sexual exploitation is no longer the dominant form of exploitation in Northern Macedonia. According to the data of the Ministry of Interior, in the first place now comes the labor exploitation.
As the Deputy National Coordinator of the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Illegal Migration, Svetlana Vlahovi–Dimanovska, informed at today’s debate on combating trafficking in human beings in Northern Macedonia, this year in the country we have a change in the dominant form of exploitation and instead of the sexual exploitation that was most prevalent for years, now the labor exploitation comes first.
– This year in our country there is a trend of increasing the number of identified victims. So far, 46 victims of human trafficking have been identified. Of course we can do much more and we are committed to more energetic activity. Poverty, unemployment and domestic violence are often the main risks that make people vulnerable and at risk of being victims of human trafficking, Vlahovic-Dimanovska said.
– A fact that really worries and alarms the need for much more energetic activity and activity, not only of our country, but a joint international activity, is the fact that the number of child victims of trafficking is increasing. On the other hand, the pandemic caused by Covid-19 and the restrictions we had in the movement, forced the criminals to spread their form of action on the Internet, said Vlahovic-Dimanovska.
The widespread and easy access to the Internet, as well as the massive use of social networks by children on the one hand and their inexperience in recognizing the risks of human trafficking and their insufficient knowledge of personal data protection, on the other hand, according to Vlahovic-Dimaovska, enormously increases the risk of sexual exploitation and recruitment of children as potential victims of human trafficking.
“This is a new reality, but we have to adapt to it and we have to look for new answers, new ways of acting, unlike previous conventional forms of combating human trafficking,” she said.
In April this year, the Government adopted the fourth National Strategy for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, which follows the EU Strategy for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. In addition, a special Action Plan for child protection in the country has been adopted.
The Ambassador for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ana Exsted, on this occasion stressed that the EU and UN data show that not enough is being done and that most of the people exploited for sexual purposes are women, and too many they are children, who are exploited for sexual purposes, but also for work. The Ambassador for Combating Transnational Crime and Threats at the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Claude Brune, shared several of his experiences in the fight against human trafficking via video address and stated that it is one of the most serious threats to human rights, emphasizing that the priority of the French authorities is to combat this abuse and phenomenon. Globally, according to Brune, 2,5 million people are exploited by various criminal networks, which generate profits of 50 billion euros per year.
The Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, Jeff Goldstein, said in his speech that in addition to being a gross violation of human rights, human trafficking is also a threat to our security. The latest statistics from the International Labor Organization, as Goldstein pointed out, showed that in 2016 there were 25 million victims of human trafficking per day. Most of them were forced into sexual or labor exploitation.
Source: MIA
