A two-day training course on trafficking in human beings (THB) and migration for judges and prosecutors from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) started on 18th April 2019, in Teslic.
The training is organized by the OSCE Mission to BiH, in co-operation with entity judicial and prosecutorial training centres and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The aim of the training course is to increase participants’ knowledge of the processing of trafficking- and migration-related cases. Particular focus will be placed on identifying victims of THB among the migrant and refugee population and psychological aspects of working with them in order to ensure that the victims are provided with the assistance and protection they need.
Boris Topic, Anti-trafficking Officer in the OSCE Mission to BiH, emphasized that mixed migration poses a particular challenge for the criminal justice system, as the distinction between the crime of smuggling of persons and the crime of trafficking in human beings becomes increasingly blurred. “To effectively respond to this challenge, the country needs better trained and qualified staff in the criminal justice system. Prosecutors need to demonstrate a more proactive approach in addressing these types of crimes related to migration.”
The OSCE Mission to BiH, in its Assessment of the Migrant and Refugee Situation in BiH, published in September 2018, made specific recommendations for managing the migrant crisis. These included calling upon the relevant institutions to ensure a sufficient number of trained and qualified staff and appealing to the judicial and prosecutorial training centres to sensitize judicial actors about migration-related crimes.
The training is implemented as a part of the OSCE Mission to BiH’s wider efforts to support the fight against trafficking in human beings in BiH by strengthening the capacity of the relevant institutions to detect, investigate and process this crime.
