Human trafficking is a challenging and alarming phenomenon and in the recent years Montenegro has been recognized as a country of origin, transit and destination for victims of trafficking. The need to take measures to prevent this phenomenon lead the Montenegro government to develop a five-year national strategy policy to combat human trafficking.
The strategy focuses on four key strategic areas: Prevention of trafficking in human beings; Protection of victims of human trafficking; Criminal justice/ prosecution response; Partnership, coordination and international cooperation. The strategy takes into consideration important international documents dealing with this area, as well as reports by relevant international partners. Regarding the national level, the strategy puts special dynamism on achieving the objectives and indicators from the Sustainable Development Strategy 2030 (2.1 and 2.3).
The strategy aims to improve the efficiency and functionality of the identification, prevention, protection, assistance and monitoring of trafficking victims with a special attention toward children. Also, a major importance it was given to the improvement of investigations, prosecutions and adequate punishment of perpetrators of this crimes in accordance with national legislation and accepted international standards.
Regarding the strategic era of protection of the victims, a crucial improvement of the strategy has been the redirection of the identification method focus from a criminal justice approach to a victim-oriented approach.