Child trafficking in the countries in the western Balkan, besides the numerous legal and practical measures taken throughout the years is still on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic made the children even more vulnerable to child trafficking due to the increasing economic uncertainty, unemployment and limiting of movement. This was emphasized today on the first day of the two-day regional conference "Joint Action in the Western Balkans to Protect Children from Trafficking and Exploitation", organized within the joint program of the European Union and the Council of Europe "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey" 2019-2022”, which was attended by more than 130 participants from the region and beyond.
The children from the Western Balkan countries are a subject to trafficking from different reasons of exploitation: sexual exploitation, including production and distribution of content which contains sexual abuse of children, forced marriages, labor exploitation, forced begging and forced criminal activities.
