Samir Rizvo told a news conference in Sarajevo that last year, 60 persons were
registered as victims of trafficking in human beings, and half of them were
Bosnian women forced into prostitution.
In 2005, there were 66 registered victims of human trafficking, and a third of
them were local women and girls.
The fact that scopes of human trafficking in Bosnia have recently been smaller
can be ascribed to comprehensive measures taken since the end of the war to
combat growing prostitution involving women from east European countries.
The co-ordinator Rizvo believes that this phenomenon has been almost uprooted,
but a new problem cropped up with criminals forcing local girls, often
under-age girls into prostitution.
In 2006, the youngest victim of this kind of crime in Bosnia-Herzegovina was a
13-year-old girl.
Mara Radovanovic, the chairwoman of the Lara nongovernmental organisation,
commended the police for their active struggle against human trafficking and
forced prostitution. She added that the police were well trained for this job.
She, however, criticised the conduct of courts, claiming that decisions of
Bosnian judicial authorities only stimulated criminals.
Sentences for those found guilty of human trafficking in Bosnia vary in length
from prison terms of one year to 15 years.
According to Radovanovic, judges more frequently resort to milder sentences. So
far only once the sentence of 14 years has been delivered for this crime.
