CHIEF PROSECUTOR MEETS WITH US EMBASSY REPRESENTATIVES

Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadić, together with prosecutors and members of the Task Force for Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings and Organized Illegal Migration Sena Uzunović and Merisa Nurkić, met with representatives of the US Embassy in BiH, Ms Natalija Šušak, Human Rights Adviser, and Mr Frank Bradsher, Resident Legal Adviser of the US DoJ - OPDAT and associates.

The meeting discussed the contribution of the Task Force and the informal network of prosecutors and investigators in advancing the fight against human trafficking. The US Department of State has released the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, in which Bosnia and Herzegovina has progressed from the third to the second level.

The report especially emphasised the strengthening of the Task Force, its expansion and the creation of a network of prosecutors and investigators for easier coordination.

The Task Force will continue to hold regular meetings, which have so far been held online due to the difficult conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the coming period will be held in the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the Una-Sana Canton and other cantons with migrant centres and in other parts of BiH.

Trainings of members of the Task Force, prosecutors and police agencies will continue, especially in the field of early recognition of human trafficking in the migrant population.

The cooperation with coordination teams, NGOs and local communities will also continue with a view to providing assistance and protection to victims of human trafficking.

The significance of the Task Force is that it operates throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, and cases of human trafficking remain a priority in the work in the coming period.

The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Task Force will continue to implement the recommendations given in this report.