24.4.2007

Bulgaria Works "Day and Night" for Preventing Human Trafficking

Bulgaria's Interior Ministry is working day and night to reduce the human trafficking of Bulgarian citizens and seal its borders for such criminal activities, country's IM Rumen Petkov said on Tuesday.

The Ministry must continue its efforts for fighting the as Bulgaria tops the list of people traffickers, Interior Minister Petkov added. He opened Tuesday the first regional seminar on human trafficking in Southeastern Europe.

More than two million and a half people all over the world are victims of human trafficking and Bulgaria tops the list, the Director General of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development Gottfiried Zurcher said.

The annual revenues of the traffickers amount USD 32 B, the figures from a report presented at the seminar revealed.

Joint efforts are needed inside every country and among the governments of the countries because human traffickers usually are a step forward in their activities. In addition the crime circles have always cooperated with one another, Zurcher said.

Such kind of activities occur in 137 around the world. They divide into three major groups: country from which the traffic starts, country of transit and the country, which is the final destination.

More than 100 government officials and NGO representatives from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania and Kosovo attended the event.

Experts say that police in Bulgaria almost never imposed the BGN 300 to BGN 500 fines on parents whose children break curfew and are caught on the streets or in clubs after ten in the evening.

Nearly thirty Bulgarian children were sent back from EU countries in 2006 for stealing and another 196 were saved from becoming trafficking victims, official data shows.

A total of 17 criminal gang and 11 channels for trafficking people were busted throughout the year.

Bulgaria's Interior Minister Rumen Petkov (L) opened Tuesday morning the first regional seminar on the issues of human trafficking in Southeastern Europe. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)

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