Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, including complicit officials, which should involve significant prison terms. * Fully investigate allegations of forced labor in the PRC-owned tire manufacturing plant in Zrenjanin and provide assistance and protection to the workers. * Allocate adequate funding to NGOs providing victim support services and increase cooperation with civil society regarding victim identification, referral, and assistance. * Allocate sufficient resources to enable the CPTV to officially identify victims, implement victim protection efforts, and operate the shelter for trafficking victims. * Provide specialized support services for child victims and male victims. * Further increase efforts to proactively identify victims, including among migrants, individuals in commercial sex, refugees, asylum-seekers, and unaccompanied children engaged in street begging. * Implement victim-witness assistance to increase protection services for victims participating in criminal proceedings, such as protecting victim confidentiality, providing legal representation, and preventing re-traumatization and intimidation. * Train investigators, prosecutors, and judges on victim-centered approaches and establish formalized mechanisms to refer cases to trained prosecutors and judges. * Cease the inappropriate penalization of victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. * Update the NRM by formalizing cooperation with NGOs and delegating specific roles and responsibilities to government agencies. * Establish clear and reasonable standards and procedures for NGOs to obtain licenses for providing support services. * Improve training for government personnel on victim assistance and referral and ensure access to victim assistance for foreign victims. * Develop and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including by eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers and holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable. * Integrate Romani groups into policies and programs on regarding victim protection. * Standardize data collection and create a database to collect statistics for sentencing and victim protection measures.

The government slightly decreased law enforcement efforts. Article 388 of the criminal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties ranging from two to 12 years’ imprisonment for offenses involving an adult victim, and three to 12 years’ imprisonment for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for grave crimes, such as rape. Police, prosecutors, and courts maintained different methods for counting cases, resulting in inconsistent statistics across databases. Police filed criminal complaints against 16 new suspects (eight for sex trafficking, six for labor trafficking, including four for forced criminality, and two for unspecified forms of trafficking), compared with 21 suspects in 2022. The Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) investigated 28 new suspects (17 for sex trafficking and 11 for labor trafficking, including three for forced criminality), compared with 31 suspects in 2022. PPO continued to investigate 58 sex trafficking suspects and 21 labor trafficking suspects, including four for forced criminality, from previous years. PPO prosecuted 33 defendants (21 for sex trafficking and 12 for labor trafficking), compared with 20 prosecutions in 2022. PPO continued to prosecute 43 defendants for sex trafficking and 12 for labor trafficking, including four for forced criminality, from previous years. Courts convicted 18 traffickers (14 for sex trafficking and four for labor trafficking), compared with 14 convictions in 2022. Judges sentenced nine traffickers with imprisonment between one year and five years and six months and sentenced eight traffickers with imprisonment between six years and 13 years. A judge also sentenced a trafficker, who was a child, to a period of six months to four years at a juvenile correctional institution. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. In 2021, observers alleged a police officer provided protection to an organized criminal group and forced one woman into sex trafficking and unlawful acts, but PPO and the police officer’s superiors did not take action against the officer after other officers intimidated and pressured the victim not to participate in the investigation. The government reported the investigation remained ongoing but released the defendant from custody and, in 2022, authorities dismissed or transferred police and prosecutors willing to further investigate the case.

The Criminal Police Directorate (CPD) maintained an Anti-Trafficking Unit with ten specialized officers within the Directorate to Combat Organized Crime. Separately, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) maintained a labor division to investigate forced labor and specialized units in Belgrade, Nis, and Novi Sad and appointed at least two officers to investigate trafficking in each of the 27 regional police administrations. The government continued to use a trafficking task force to coordinate efforts to investigate cases and maintained a separate migrant smuggling task force that also investigated trafficking. PPO maintained specialized prosecutors for trafficking cases, who provided operational guidance and acted as points of contact for investigators and care providers; however, the government did not have a system to consistently refer trafficking cases to these prosecutors or to judges trained or experienced on trafficking issues. Prosecutors did not effectively distinguish between labor violations and forced labor and often charged or offered plea deals in sex trafficking cases for “mediating prostitution,” including cases with child victims, resulting in lesser penalties and weaking deterrence. The government, at times in cooperation with international organizations, provided trainings for police, judges, prosecutors, and labor inspectors on various anti-trafficking issues. The government cooperated with authorities from France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland on international cases and signed bilateral agreements with Hungary and Slovakia on combating transnational crime, including trafficking.

The government did not fully investigate continued allegations that a PRC-owned factory subjected 500 Vietnamese workers to forced labor at its construction site in 2021, including inhumane working and living conditions, and passport confiscation. Observers alleged police officers intimidated whistleblowers trying to collect additional information on the living and working conditions of the Vietnamese workers and other credible sources alleged the government prioritized PRC investments and, as a result, dismissed the allegations and delayed government responses. In 2022, the PRC-owned factory replaced the majority of the original 500 Vietnamese workers with new foreign workers and published plans to increase the size of the factory and number of workers. In February 2024, media and civil society reported the PRC-owned factory exploited an additional 14 Indian workers in forced labor conditions from 2022 to 2024, including wage withholding, passport confiscation, debt bondage, and dangerous working conditions. International organizations and civil society urged the government to take immediate action, including the European Parliament through the adoption of a joint resolution calling for an investigation in 2021, a letter from three UN Special Rapporteurs requesting government action in 2022, and public statements from the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery urging the government to investigate allegations in 2023 and 2024. However, the government did not fully investigate these credible allegations of forced labor and instead continued to state the Vietnamese and Indian workers were not trafficking victims.

The government maintained inadequate victim protection efforts. CPTV assessed and officially identified adult victims and developed a protection and assistance plan for each victim, while Center for Social Welfare (CSW) assessed and officially recognized child victims. First responders referred 168 potential victims to CPTV, compared with 138 in 2022; law enforcement referred 66 potential victims, social welfare organizations referred 55, NGOs and international organizations referred 19, institutions in the education system referred 9, and private citizens and other institutions referred 19 potential victims. CPTV officially identified 58 victims from the 168 potential victims, compared with 56 victims from the 138 potential victims in 2022. Of the 58 victims, traffickers exploited 13 in sex trafficking, 35 in labor trafficking, including 17 in forced begging and seven in forced criminality, and 10 in multiple forms of exploitation; 12 were women, seven were men, 12 were boys, and 24 were girls; and four were foreign national victims. The government utilized SOPs for the identification of victims and a NRM for the referral of victims to support services, including through standardized indicators and guidelines to identify victims in irregular migration flows and high-risk sectors. However, the SOPs did not provide clear roles and responsibilities for all relevant institutions, lacked adequate screening procedures for victims among high-risk populations, and implementation remained “recommended” rather than required. Some officials continued to justify cases of potential forced child begging and forced labor involving Roma as traditional cultural practices and customs. CPTV developed a mobile application to assist staff at social welfare centers and the Commissariat for Refugees to identify victims, which included trafficking indicators, an ability to directly submit cases to CPTV, and access to additional information. GRETA and other experts reported CPTV lacked both the staff to review cases in a timely manner and resources, including vehicles, to travel to the location of potential victims to interview them in person. CPTV maintained a panel with a psychologist, a pedagogist, and a social worker, all trained to work with victims, to conduct the official victim assessment within 24 hours of a referral. CPTV reported updating identification and referral procedures to increase response time and coordination. However, CPTV lacked consistency regarding the official victim assessment and identification procedures were sometimes lengthy and lacked transparency. CPTV’s indicators for identification were not widely available; experts reported CPTV did not allow potential victims who did not receive official victim status to appeal the decision, which limited their access to support to mostly NGO-provided services. CPTV modified the structure of the report documenting the official victim assessment, which allowed courts and prosecutors to use it as evidence of trafficking in criminal cases.

The government hired four additional social workers for CPTV and allocated 34 million dinars ($313,500) to CPTV for victim assistance, compared with 30.7 million dinars ($283,100) in 2022. The government did not provide funding to NGOs despite relying heavily, and at times solely, on them to provide victim support and reintegration services. The government and NGOs provided psycho-social, legal, educational, medical, financial, and reintegration support; all victims in 2023 and 2022 received some form of government assistance. Although the government only allowed licensed service providers to provide victim services, licenses were difficult to obtain due to the lack of an efficient licensing process and sometimes unrealistic criteria to approve licenses. CPTV maintained an urgent care shelter for trafficking victims with the capacity to accommodate six victims. However, the urgent care shelter lacked resources and staff and often suspended operations due to not maintaining its own licensing and sanitary standards. For example, the urgent care shelter closed from September 2020 to February 2022 after failing to obtain a license and suspended operations from July 2023 to September 2023 because of sanitary issues. CPTV reported difficulties in fulfilling their responsibilities to provide direct assistance at the shelter due to a continued lack of capacity, resources, and staff, including technical staff to provide support to victims. Similarly, civil society reported CPTV relied on scant resources of NGOs to support the shelter with food, toiletries, and access to vehicles. The CPTV-run shelter provided only short-term, emergency assistance, and NGO-run shelters accommodated most victims requiring longer term support. The CPTV-run shelter accommodated 14 victims in 2023 (eight in 2022). The government did not provide any specialized support for child victims but maintained a drop-in shelter for children experiencing homelessness that accommodated some child victims. CSW also returned child victims to their families, referred them to foster care, or placed them in orphanages or group homes. CPTV reported staff at orphanages and foster families were not trained on working with child victims and observers reported traffickers recruited or continued to exploit child victims staying at these non-specialized institutions or foster families. The government accommodated 28 child victims in non-specialized institutions (18 in 2022) and placed 10 in foster families (six in 2022). The government did not provide any specialized support for male victims. An NGO rented accommodation for male victims as needed but male victims generally had less access to support services. CPTV maintained a protocol with the National Employment Service (NES) to assist victims in finding employment and counseled all victims on the training opportunities available to them through NES (three victims used these services in 2022). The government reported providing equal protection to foreign national and Serbian citizen victims, but foreign victims faced obstacles in accessing support, according to experts, who noted linguistic barriers and that some local communities limit accommodation in specific social welfare institutions to Serbian nationals. The government provided foreign victims temporary residence permits renewable up to one year and allowed potential foreign victims to stay for three months; no victims required a temporary residence permit in 2023. The government, in cooperation with an international organization, repatriated three victims in 2023.

Authorities penalized victims of sex trafficking, forced begging, and forced criminality with imprisonment, probation, and fines. For example, prosecutors charged trafficking victims with “engaging in prostitution” and used it as evidence to prosecute the trafficker under “mediation of prostitution.” GRETA reported a lack of communication between police and prosecutors also resulted in cases where courts treated a victim as an injured party in a trafficking case and simultaneously prosecuted the victim for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. While victims’ ability to access support services and assistance was not contingent on cooperating with law enforcement, some authorities pressured victims to participate in prosecutions due to their reliance on victim testimony. The government did not report the number of victims that chose to participate in prosecutions in 2023. The law allowed prosecutors to designate officially recognized victims as a “particularly vulnerable group” eligible for the status of an “especially vulnerable witness” and/or “protective witness” with special assistance and procedural considerations, such as testifying without the defendant present or via video link and access to witness protection. The government granted the “especially vulnerable witness” status to 37 victims (21 victims in 2022) and did not grant “protective witness status” to any victims in 2023. While the government reported interviewing six victims via video, most courts did not have the technical capacity to offer video testimony or consistently include psychologists and social workers. The government reported no victims appeared in front of the defendant during trial; however, observers reported authorities interviewed a victim multiple times for several hours, causing re-traumatization. Courts held four closed trials for victims with “especially vulnerable witness” status but most trials remained open to the public with an absence of victim confidentiality measures. For example, media often reported details of victims’ exploitation and public records from trials included names of individuals and organizations representing victims. CPTV provided free legal aid to victims but often relied on civil society organizations or lawyers with no experience on trafficking cases due to a lack of resources. Judges rarely issued restitution in criminal cases and encouraged victims to seek compensation by filing civil suits. However, courts ordered restitution in three cases as part of the issued sentences in 2023; 150,000 dinars ($1,420) for one victim, 650,000 dinars ($6,140) for each victim involved in another case, and 1,100,000 dinars ($10,385) for another victim. Civil suits were lengthy, expensive, and in some cases required victims to face the trafficker multiple times. Additionally, experts reported assets of traffickers were difficult to confiscate and disburse to victims for restitution or compensation due to traffickers effectively hiding their assets and a lack of in-depth financial investigations. For example, restitution in only four cases was paid to victims to date, and only one of three successful compensation cases in civil suits out of a total of 587 from 2003 to 2023 was paid out to victims.

The government maintained prevention efforts. The government maintained the ATC composed of six ministerial level officials to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts; the ATC convened for the first time in four years in July 2023. ONAC led and implemented overall anti-trafficking efforts and the government appointed a new national coordinator in September 2023. ONAC led the drafting process of the 2024-2029 NPAP, which the government adopted in March 2023 and allocated €500,000 ($552,490) for its implementation. While the government created four sub-working groups to inform and help draft the NPAP, international organizations and NGOs unanimously criticized the government for not fully considering feedback from international organizations and civil society, superficially addressing critical issues in victim protection, and pressuring a survivor to participate in the drafting process. Similarly, the government lacked overall cooperation and collaboration with civil society in anti-trafficking efforts, particularly the national coordinator and ONAC. The government created a working group to monitor the implementation of the NPAP and re-established joint meetings with ONAC, CPTV, and NGOs providing victim services. Nineteen municipal governments maintained informal multidisciplinary anti-trafficking teams to implement local efforts.

The Ombudsman was also the national rapporteur on trafficking tasked to independently monitor and assess anti-trafficking efforts; the national rapporteur reviewed the handling of five cases and published its first report, which covered June 2023 to October 2023. Experts reported the national rapporteur provided only an overview of government efforts rather than an independent evaluation of its effectiveness and implementation. Experts criticized the Ombudsman’s reports for disregarding exploitation of Vietnamese workers at the PRC-owned tire factory, despite explicitly noting several trafficking indicators, such as the seizure of foreign employees’ passports. Experts also criticized the Ombudsman’s office for lacking expertise on trafficking issues to act as the national rapporteur and repeated instances of unprofessionalism by Ombudsman staff. CPTV shared monthly statistical reports on its website, organized two meetings to present information, and maintained a 24-hour hotline for trafficking. The CPTV hotline reported receiving several hundred calls, which led to 35 referrals and 12 identified victims. The Ministry of Information and Technology allocated 1,400,000 dinars ($13,220) to two media organizations and 600,000 dinars ($5,660) to an NGO to organize awareness campaigns targeting the public and vulnerable populations. The government licensed and regulated private employment agencies; however, the government did not prohibit recruitment fees. Additionally, civil society reported recruitment agencies re-formed under different names after authorities revoked their licenses and reported instances of the translations of contracts into English and/or Serbian being substantively different from the original contract in the origin country’s language. The government amended the Law on Employment of Foreigners to allow migrant workers to change employers within 30 days after the termination of employment on the same work permit. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Serbia and traffickers exploit victims from Serbia abroad. Traffickers exploit Serbian women and girls in sex trafficking in Serbia, in neighboring countries, and throughout Europe. Traffickers exploit Serbian nationals, primarily men, in forced labor in labor-intensive sectors, such as the construction industry, in European countries (including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Russia, and Switzerland) and the United Arab Emirates. Traffickers exploit Serbian children, particularly Roma, within the country in sex trafficking and forced labor, including forced begging and forced criminality in petty crimes. In 2023, foreign victims identified in Serbia were from Burundi, India, Iran, Montenegro, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. In previous years, foreign victims identified in Serbia were also from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany, Mali, Nigeria, Philippines, Tunisia, Türkiye, Uganda, Vietnam, and neighboring countries in the Balkans. Traffickers often use fake job advertisements via online means, such as social media platforms, to recruit victims. Thousands of migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia transiting through or left stranded in Serbia are vulnerable to trafficking in Serbia. Traffickers exploit women from PRC in sex trafficking, primarily targeting demand for commercial sex from workers at PRC-funded projects, including copper mines.

In 2021, credible allegations indicate Vietnamese workers faced forced labor at a construction site for a PRC-owned tire manufacturing plant in Zrenjanin. Recruitment agencies in Vietnam organized transportation, visas, accommodation, and charged the Vietnamese workers an exorbitant recruitment fee between $2,000 to $4,000 for their services. Approximately 500 Vietnamese workers came to Serbia with expectations to work in a factory producing aircraft parts for €775 ($860) per month. Local NGOs and media outlets reported indicators of forced labor starting in November 2021, including passport confiscation, restriction of movement and communication, threats and intimidation, denial of repatriation requests, withholding salary, forced overtime, inadequate housing, and insufficient food. In 2022, the PRC-owned factory replaced the majority of the original 500 Vietnamese workers with new foreign workers and published plans to increase the size of the factory and number of workers. The PRC workers at the factory went on strike in July 2022 because the PRC-owned factory failed to pay their wages. In February 2024, media and civil society reported the PRC-owned factory exploited an additional 14 Indian workers in forced labor conditions from 2022 to 2024. Recruitment agencies in New Delhi charged the Indian workers a fee of $3,500 for transportation, visa, and accommodation, which the Indian workers paid with loans and borrowed money. Upon arrival in Serbia, the Indian workers signed a contract with the PRC management company of the tire manufacturing plant for a salary of approximately $700 per month. The PRC management company confiscated passports of the Indian workers, and local NGOs and media outlets reported similar indicators of forced labor experienced by the Vietnamese workers. The government did not report fully investigating these credible allegations of forced labor and instead continued to state the Vietnamese and Indian workers were not trafficking victims.