The pledges of the Republic of Macedonia in the fight against trafficking in human beings are noted in the US Department of State annual report where we are ranked in TIER 1 group, countries which fully meet the criteria in fight against trafficking in human beings, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska said addressing the second meeting of the Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative - MARRI Cooperation Network of National Anti-trafficking Coordinators, which takes place in MARRI Regional Centre in Skopje.

Macedonia this year marks 10th anniversary since the start of anti-trafficking fight, Jankuloska said underlying that in the past years that criminal act trafficking in human beings was introduced in the Criminal Code, the legal system was approximated with UN and the Council of Europe Conventions for fight against trafficking in human beings.

At the meeting which is attended by representatives and experts of Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania, Jankuloska pointed out the significant importance of the activities in the frames of MARRI Network as one of transnational instruments for concrete and operational cooperation in the filed of fight against trafficking in human beings.

The way we are cooperating is the best example how our countries should mutually work on fulfilling the pledges we all share – the EU integration and creating higher standards and criteria in our work, Jankuloska said.

Macedonia introduced serious measures for intensifying the border controls especially last year when false asylum seekers appeared in regard to the visa liberalisation. In this frames, 2.000 citizens were not approved to exit Macedonian borders as well as undertaken measures in the sphere of legislation the progress in the fight against illegal immigrants is evident, Jankuloska said.

She also underlined that the problem of illegal immigration in the region of South East Europe especially the neighbouring countries are facing with serious problems – immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and other distant countries who succeed to enter Europe via Greece.

Trpe Stojanovski, MARRI director, said that reduction of criminal acts in human trafficking is due to intensified cooperation and serious measures which are undertaken against this serious criminal occurrence.
 
Today’s meeting should enable institutionalisation of this network of cooperation, which is one of the priorities of 2011-2013 strategy of MARRI Regional Centre. In regard to the illegal immigration he said that coordinated action of all countries that recognise route of irregular immigration is necessary, Stojanovski said.

Violeta Andonovska, state secretary at the Ministry of Interior, said that the fight against human trafficking in Macedonia is based on very simple philosophy and it is inclusion of all relevant partners involved in discovering human trafficking independently whether they come from institutions, NGOs or international organisations.

Coordinator in fight against human trafficking for Serbia Mitar Gjurashkovic said that lately more domestic citizens are victims of human trafficking. 83 persons in Serbia have been identified as victims of sexual exploitation since the start of the year.