The authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina reiterated their commitment to improve the domestic response to human trafficking and the protection of and assistance to the victims, in line with the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, at the sixth meeting of the Steering Committee of the joint European Union/Council of Europe action “Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings in Bosnia and Herzegovina” which was held on 12 July 2022 in a hybrid form in Sarajevo.

The Steering Committee took note of the achievements of the action in the last 6 months and namely the increase of the knowledge of education and health care professionals on trafficking in human beings, the dissemination of the study “Assessing the age of children at risk of trafficking in human beings in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the implementation of the new online training module on trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation (part of the HELP course), and the campaign on preventing trafficking in children implemented by NGO Buducnost Modrica. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised the valuable contribution of action to the domestic fight against human trafficking in the last three years.

The Steering Committee was informed of the activities planned until the end of 2022 (closing of the action), and the proposal for a new anti-trafficking project in the framework of the new Council of Europe Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022-2025.

The action „Preventing and combating trafficking in human beings in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ is implemented under the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme „Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022“.