Human trafficking

Romanian and Spanish police have busted a criminal gang that recruited young girls in Romania for sex work in nightclubs in Spain, Europol said on Thursday.

Six suspects have been arrested in Romania and seven in Spain during the operation, which also led to the identification of 25 victims in the two countries. Some 24 of the trafficked women were Romanians and one is a Bulgarian.

Serbia's police led by Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin have recently conducted several high-profile actions, hotly followed by the media, tackling refugee and migrant smuggling.

On Sunday, police said they discovered an illegal migrant camp near the borders with Hungary and Romania and detained suspected people smugglers.

Turkey strongly criticized on July 2 "unfounded" assumptions in the US State Department's recently published 2021 Trafficking in Persons report. 

Prime Minister Florin Citu points out that Romania is still on the human trafficking watch list, in a report released by the US State Department, adding that "an integrated effort" of all institutions is needed to combat this problem. "The US State Department launched yesterday the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report.

The Minister of Interior, Lucian Bode, had, on Tuesday, at the Interior Ministry (MAI) headquarters, a meeting with David Muniz, US ad interim chargé d'affaires in Bucharest, with the two officials addressing several topics, among which police cooperation with the FBI, the fight against corruption and human trafficking, but also Romania's efforts to be included in the Visa Waiver Program.

Romanian police on Thursday arrested the mayor of the Stefanestii de Jos municipality, Robert Stefan, on charges of having sex with a minor.

Judicial sources quoted by the media said the events happened in early 2018, after two individuals allegedly handed the 12-year-old victim to the mayor while he was attending a party.

A total of 293 of the 332 MPs in Romania's Chamber of Deputies voted on Thursday in favour of removing the statute of limitations for crimes ranging from human trafficking, forced labour and slavery to rape and the sexual abuse of minors, Romanian news website G4Media reported.

Illustration. Photo: EPA/MLADEN ANTONOV

"The victims of trafficking are not given compensation, they should receive compensation for the damage done to them," Petya Nestorova, Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe's Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, told BIRN.

The Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) with the Council of Europe on Thursday published a report in which it urges Bulgaria to improve access to justice and compensation for victims of human trafficking.

Seven traffickers were detained and over 80 foreign nationals illegally brought into the country were held in eastern Turkey, authorities said on March 6.

Local police teams carried out an operation against migrant smuggling in the Tatvan district of the eastern Bitlis province, the provincial governorate said in a statement.