Croatian Diplomacy Fights Human Trafficking

The diplomatic academy gained seventeen new diplomats who finished training in the area of suppressing international human trafficking.

On Friday, seventeen people from the diplomatic academy who have finished their training in the area of suppressing international human trafficking. This is how a Croatian diplomacy has taken a more active role in the fight against one of the most profitable illegal activities in the world.

At the international conference on the role of diplomacy in suppressing human trafficking, diplomas were handed out to future educators that will spread the knowledge acquired during the one and a half year project to diplomatic-consular personnel in Croatian embassies around the world.

As the organizers have stressed, the aim is to recognize the victims of human trafficking on time, whether they are foreign or Croatian citizens.

The Croatian Minister of Justice Ivan Simonovic stated that the Cabinet has the firm stance that through practical work, this “disgraceful practice” can be suppressed.

“That evil needs to be attacked on three battlefronts: supply, transit and demand” said Simonovic. He stressed the importance of consular services that is the “guardian of the door” into Croatia, and has all of the information about those who come into or pass through it.

The representative of the co-organizer of the project, the Norwegian ambassador Terje Hauge, stressed that human trafficking, after weapons trading, is the most profitable criminal act. “That is a great challenge to the development and security of society, as well as a serious crime that violates the basic rights and freedoms of a person” he warned.

According to the data from the Cabinet’s Office for Human Rights, 74 people have been identified as being victims of human trafficking in Croatia since 2000.

Because of the synchronisation of the legal framework and Cabinet measures with the highest international standards in the field, the State Department included Croatia amongst the 15 leading countries in the world in the fight against international human trafficking. This information was heard at the meeting that was organized by the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integrations, International Organization for Migration, and the Norwegian Cabinet, which supported the project with 370,000 euros.