According to Kosovo Police, 34 operational plans were conducted from January through September 2019, with the investigation of 114 premises, which resulted in shutting down 43.
Until now, the authorities have officially identified 15 victims of human trafficking in Kosovo. Based on the victims’ profiles, the vast majority were local victims: 13 from Kosovo, 1 from Albania, and 1 from Serbia. In terms of gender, 14 of the victims are female and 1 is male.
In terms of forms of exploitation, 11 were prostituted, 1 used for pornography and other forms of sexual abuse, 1 for various services or forced labor, and 2 for slavery or conditions similar to slavery.
In compliance with these statistics, during this period of time other operational plans were conducted to identify cases of forced child begging, in which the children were seen as potential victims of trafficking. However, there is still not enough proof to treat these as human trafficking cases, and thus, in accordance with the Penal Code of Kosovo, identified cases of forced child begging were treated as cases of abuse or child abandonment.