The US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report said that the Serbian government does not fully meet the minimum standards to eliminate trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.

The report, which was released on Wednesday, said that the Serbian authorities are investigating more suspects, revising ways of identifying trafficking victims among school-age children and increasing resources to the Center for Protection of Trafficking Victims, setting up working groups and a coordination body to support victims and has designated the Ombusman as the national rapporteur on the issue.

“The government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period… it did not make proactive efforts to identify victims, and the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for identification remained inadequate,” the report said adding that the Belgrade authorities failed to fully protect victims or fully investigate credible allegations that approximately 500 Vietnamese workers were subjected to forced labor at Chinese-owned factory. “Therefore Serbia was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List,” the report said.

The government maintained some law enforcement efforts with the police and prosecutors tackling more cases than in 2020 and the Criminal Police Directorate maintaining an Anti-Trafficking Unit as part of the Organized Crime Department. “Observers reported judges often issued light sentences for traffickers and some judges displayed victim-blaming biases against vulnerable populations, particularly the Romani community,” the report said.

“Despite ongoing and repeated allegations of official complicity, especially in sex trafficking, the government did not report any new prosecutions or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes,” it said.

The report said that the Serbian government reduced its victim protection efforts.

“As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Serbia, and traffickers exploit victims from Serbia abroad for sex trafficking, forced labor, begging and petty crime.