U.S. says Albania not doing enough to fight human trafficking

TIRANA, June 4 – The U.S. Department of State again considered Albania as a country assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, but making significant efforts to meet those minimum standards in person trafficking report for 2007.
The report said that Albania was a source country for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; it is no longer considered a major country of transit.
Albanian victims are trafficked to Greece, Italy, Macedonia, and Kosovo with many trafficked onward to West European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. Children were also trafficked to Greece for begging and other forms of child labor. Approximately half of all Albanian trafficking victims are under age 18. Internal sex trafficking of women and children is on the rise.
The government did not appropriately identify trafficking victims during 2007. It has also not demonstrated it is vigorously investigating or prosecuting complicit officials.
Washington recommended to Albania to vigorously investigate and prosecute human trafficking offenses as well as law enforcement officials’ complicity in trafficking, and convict and sentence persons responsible for such acts; enhance training of law enforcement officials within the anti-trafficking sector; ensure full implementation of the national mechanism for referring victims to service providers; increase funding for victim assistance and protection services; draft and implement a new national action plan with participation from local anti-trafficking NGOs; provide anti-trafficking training for peacekeeping troops.
The report said that in 2007, Albania prosecuted 49 alleged traffickers and convicted seven human trafficking offenders. Seven of the prosecutions were for child labor trafficking. Regional anti-trafficking police units remained poorly trained and ill-equipped to effectively address human trafficking due to inadequate resources, the influence of corruption, and high turnover of police recruits. The government discontinued anti-trafficking training for new and continuing police officers, although training for judges and magistrates continued. The Government of Albania failed to consistently sustain efforts to identify, refer, protect and reintegrate victims of trafficking during 2007, said the report.
The Special Watch List consists of Tier Two countries, whewre Albania is included, determined: (1) not to have made “increasing efforts” over the past year; (2) to have avoided Tier 3 status based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim population.