New technologies, including artificial intelligence, are fuelling a global surge in victims of human trafficking. Children are often targeted by on-line predators, who use these technologies to earn money and obtain benefits by on-line sexual exploitation of children. North Macedonia is no exception, where there have already been cases of children recruited and exploited on-line by human traffickers.

Recognising the risks of on-line abuse by human traffickers, the action “Strengthening anti - trafficking action in North MacedoniaStrengthening anti - trafficking action in North Macedonia” delivered training on information-computer technology (ICT) and the crime of trafficking in human beings. More than twenty police inspectors, prosecutors, social workers, lawyers and representatives of civil society organisations learnt about on-line investigations, digital evidence and abuse of the artificial intelligence linked to the crime of human trafficking. The anti-trafficking professionals were introduced to different techniques of digital forensics, effective handling of digital evidence and the need for enhanced inter-agency cooperation in order to strengthen institutional response to human trafficking.

“Identifying early signs of abuse, understanding on-line grooming and sexual extortion, especially how they work when the victim is a child is key to effective prevention and fight against trafficking in children”, underlined Kire BABANOSKI, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Security. “Perpetrators use games, social media, dark web to recruit victims and fulfil their goal of exploitation for personal material gain”, he explained. 

The participants explored the challenges and responsibilities of dealing with human trafficking victims abused on-line. Moreover, they learnt about ICT tools that could be used to detect the crime and catch the perpetrators. Through effective adult learning techniques the anti-trafficking professionals gained practical skills for probing into on-line human trafficking cases. They also exchanged about expanding inter-agency co-operation, a process facilitated by the Ministry for digital transformation in the efforts to combat on-line abuses in North Macedonia.

This capacity building event was organised by the action “Strengthening anti - trafficking action in North MacedoniaStrengthening anti - trafficking action in North Macedonia” part of the EU and Council of Europe joint programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”.