Croatia Urged to Toughen its Response to Human Trafficking

A new report on human trafficking in Croatia by the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, GRETA, published on Thursday, said that Croatia should strengthen its criminal justice response to human trafficking and enable victims to more effectively exercise their right to compensation.

GRETA's report, which focuses on victims' access to justice and effective remedies, stated that Croatia "is a country of origin, destination and transit of victims of human trafficking".

It said statistics from Croatian Interior Ministry indicate that the total number of identified victims from 2015 to 2019 was 200: 38 in 2015, 30 in 2016, 29 in 2017, 76 in 2018 and 27 in 2019.

Over half the victims were women, and a quarter were children. While trafficking for sexual exploitation of women and girls remains the main form of exploitation in Croatia, the report notes an increase in trafficking for labour exploitation, which concerns mostly men. In 2018, for example, men accounted for about 60 per cent of all victims.

The number of foreign victims has increased over the years, totalling 86 for the period 2015-2019. Foreign victims mainly originated from Taiwan (59) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (14), but three victims originated from Afghanistan, two from Pakistan, two from Thailand and one each from Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Nigeria and the Philippines.

GRETA acknowledged the steps taken by Croatia since its previous country report, published in 2016, to develop the legislative and policy framework relevant to action against trafficking in human beings.

However, it "notes with concern that not all complaints about possible human trafficking offences are taken seriously by the police and urges...