Professor Elena Maksimova, “Criminal And

Criminal and Criminological Aspects of Trafficking in Human Beings and Other Crimes Related to the Foreigner’s Illegal status in the Republic of Macedonia S Elena Maksimova, Assistant professor, University Goce Delcev – Stip [email protected] About the migration crisis and Macedonia

• Different profiles and needs. • Smuggled migrants - subjected to various abuses by organized criminal structures • Danger of irregular migrants to become victims of physical violence, threats, unlawful deprivation of liberty, fraud, robbery and extortion Mixed migration • Do not file criminal charges - to avoid further detentions on the territory of Macedonia flows - affecting the • Migrants - easily become victims - if they face entire region from violent smugglers and are unable / unwilling 2015 onwards, to seek protection from the state institutions Macedonia mainly • Emotional and physical traumas - exposed to transit country human rights abuses ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 2 All rights are reserved Macedonia – part of the Balkan - route

Almost one million refugees/migrants in period 2015 and 2016

EU principle of "open borders“- most refugees and migrants used the country's territory for transit to Western and Northern Europe.

March 2016, change in EU policies - closure of borders along the Balkan route  transit of refugees/migrants continued through illegal routes - increased risk of violation of the freedoms and rights

Crisis situation along the southern border with Greece and the northern border with Serbia -August 2015 for a period of one month, extended five times. The final decision on declaring a crisis situation was valid up to 31 December 2018. Assembly extented the deadline for dealing ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 3 with the crisis situation until 30 June 2019All rights are reserved Trafficking in human beings vis-à-vis smuggling migrants fluid boundary Trafficking in human Trafficking with Smuggling migrants beings minors

Age of the victim Over 18 Under 18 Irrelevant Mental element Intent Intent Intent Material element • Act - recruitment, • Act - recruitment, • Act - providing transport, transfer, transport, transfer, illegal entry buying, selling, buying, selling, • Purpose: finantial or harboring victims or harboring victims or other material reception of person reception of person benefit • Means – threat, use • Means – threat, use of force, abduction, of force, abduction, fraud, abuse of fraud, abuse of position, weakness, position, weakness, physical or mental physical or mental disability disability • exploitative purpose • exploitative purpose – different – different Consent of the victim Irrelevant Irrelevant The smuggled person is consent to the smuggling Transnationality Is not required Is not required Is required involvement in a Not necessaryed. by Elena Maksimova,Not Copyrightnecessary 2020 - Not necessary 4 criminal organization All rights are reserved Legal, illegal or no border crossing Illegal border crossing

Legal or illegal documents Profitable Business Illegal (false or stolen) Documents taken documents involving Repeated exploitation human beings Voluntary Restricted movement, control Criminal Commodity: Commodity : and individual networks? a service, movement

Crime against INDIVIDUAL Crime against the STATE

ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - exploitation 6 All rights are reserved Criminological aspects of human trafficking and smuggling migrants in time of the crisis „Many trafficking cases start with people eager to migrate but with no other option than to rely on someone who they believe will facilitate their irregular migration into a better life“

organized crime groups with local logistical support

includes members of criminal groups from refugee and migrant countries of origin

cooperating with members of the police

Strong logistic is used - changing trucks and passenger vehicles or vans, use of rental vehicles, frequent change of license plates or license plates of others vehicles

use modern communication and surveillance equipment

Most smugglers are adult males, but women involved

ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 8 All rights are reserved main Criminal groups organizer interested in s smuggling migrants transport have a vertical organizer s structure with a clearly defined role for each members members мembers members member of the group:

outlaw perfor /robbe mer r cleane r transp orter,

An organized channel for smuggling of migrants was cut off, which included 21 people, including a police officer from Stip. The organized group for smuggling of migrants was established in May 2018, and committed the crime continuously until February 2019. According to the prosecution, they also cooperated with members of a criminal group from Greece. Migrants were coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, and the perpetrators charged between 150 and 300 euros per person.

ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 10 All rights are reserved Macedonia About the victims (Serbia too): identification and referral of Proper presumed victim trafficking victims identificatio is problematic 2016: RM n is crucial “Indicators for Initial/Preliminary Identification of risk groups: Presumed and Potential  woman and girls who travel Victims of Trafficking in alone, Human Beings in the  pregnant women who travel Context of Mixed alone, Migration Flows  unaccompanied and separated chldren,  adults who travel alone and elderly and  disabled people who travel ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - alone 11 All rights are reserved Profiling victims of smuggling or trafficking

• most common • Afghanistan, • 2016 – 2019 irregular Pakistan, Syria, unaccompanied

migrants Origin Iraq, Iran and children and a Gender transiting Morocco. smaller number through the • Asia and Africa of pregnant territory of women, Macedonia in • almost no

the period 2016- groups Vulnerable elderly people 2019 are adult or persons with males disabilities

Key indicators: - debt (extortion of additional funds, threatening to hurt the other members of the families if they do not pay the amounts they ask for),

- sexual and psychological harassment (specifically of women and uncompanied children) ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 12 All rights are reserved first-level identification immediately upon initial contact. via either an official or informal Outside reception facilities - border crossing, carried out by an authorised officer of a state trained professionals from the institution, a representative of Ministry of Interior, Border Police a civil society or international representatives, Ministry of organisation, or a Macedonian Labour and Social Policy (MLSP) citizen. representatives (social workers) or the responsible personnel of the transit centres or the Centre for Asylum Seekers.

Identification and referral procedures

Formal identification of vulnerable categories of people, is conducted either by the MLSP Centres for Social Work or The protection and trained professionals from the Border Police Directorate at the Ministry of rehabilitation of victims of Interior. trafficking is coordinated by The formal identification of trafficking the Office of the NRM, within cases among these vulnerable groups, is the MLSP, in collaboration conducted by the Unit for Combating Human Trafficking and Smuggling of with Centres for Social Work Migrants within Ministry of Interior or and NGOs. the Office of the NRM/Centre for Social Work.

On the day of closing the borders, on the territory of Macedonia in the reception- transit centers and in their immediate vicinity there were a total of 1,024 refugees.

Almost all of them were at high risk of becoming victims of migrant smuggling, and many of them had multiple risk factors to become victims of human trafficking

• migrants are hiding in vehicles traveling in the legal border traffic. avoiding Migrants have been found hidden marked and in car seats and truck tires. And border also the smugglers are transporting crossings; migrants on foot across the 'green border' belts.

• using false documents (by replacing fraud of the the image in a passport or replacing representati it several pages of the same) - аbuse ves of the of tourist or other legal visas, false border stamps, using stolen passports and control incomplete visas etc

Once they cross the border - escorted to a safe house or other place where wait before ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 15 being taken to the next part of their Alljourney rights are reserved Main routes: Border with Greece: Reception and transit center Vinojug, Gevgelija, next to the border with Greece  headed to the Tabanovce reception and transit center  crossing the border with Serbia near the village Miratovac. In most cases, headed to the village Horgos in northeastern Serbia  crossed the border with Hungary or (sometimes) with Croatia. Travel by bus, train, taxi or walk – muddy sections. "Green border" Routes for smuggling migrants from Greece to Macedonia - village Moin, west of the Vardar River, or villages of Stojakovo and Selemli east of the Vardar River, or trough Mount Belasica  transported to the Dojran area. The Bogorodica border crossing point is used for smuggling of migrants in passenger and freight vehicles, and there have been cases of smuggling of migrants in the passenger and freight trains at the ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 16 Gevgelija railway border crossing. All rights are reserved MOI: most used - Corridor 10: Gevgelija-Veles-Skopje, where for transporting migrants are used roadsin Kumanovo, Strumica and the Stip region, ie the stretch from Gevgelija and Dojran to Kumanovo, to the border with Sbria “Blue border" 2019: Valandovo-Strumica, Strumica-Radovish and Stip-Sveti Nikole as part of the route for transport of migrants to Kumanovo and Skopje risk that irregular flows might be fragmented and might continue through the SouthWestern part of the country (Prespa and Ohrid region)

2020: smuggling – in Valandovo, located close to North Macedonia's border with Greece and ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 17 BulgariaAll rights are reserved Border with Serbia: pass through the region of the municipality of Lipkovo – green border near the village of Lojane  Miratovac in Serbia; as well as the area around the village Tabanovce, municipality of Kumanovo

2018: visa-free regime that Serbia has introduced for people from Iran and India - migrants arrived in Belgrade by plane from Istanbul or Iran, and then smugglers are transported to Presevo, Bujanovac and Miratovica, from where smugglers from Macedonia take them. The smugglers take away their personal documents and organized to transport them to the village Lojane. From there they get directions for further travel to Gevgelija ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - and then to Greece. 18 All rights are reserved 2020 cases:

53 migrants who are suspected to be victims of human trafficking. The police identified the driver as a 43-year- old man from Macedonia, who will now be facing human trafficking charges. 37 of the migrants found inside the vehicle came from Afghanistan, 12 were Pakistanis, two were Indians, one was Iraq, and one Egyptian.

36 migrants who entered illegally from neighboring Greece were foundin a truck during a routine check. Police officers reportedly stopped the truck near the southern town of Strumitsa the previous day. They said the three dozen people in the vehicle included 21 Syrians, nine Afghans, three Pakistanis, two Iraqis, and one person from Cameroon.

ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 19 All rights are reserved Statistics: 2016 2017 2018 2019 persons 127.358 4129 16895 No formal data prevented from attempt of illegal crossing cases of 108 19 58 81 smuggling of migrants Measures 80 36 62 96 against perpetrators number of 1.961 212 891 1529 smuggled migrants detected

2020: In the first three weeks of January 2020, illegal crossing of 1,365 migrants. March, April and May (Covid 19, closure of borders), 3047 migrants were detected and caught, 01.06 - 09.06 - 878 illegal migrants were detected and caught, During the first ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - ten days of June, 4 crimes for smuggling of migrants - 186 illegal migrants were 20 detected All rights are reserved Legal framework

National Strategy and National Action Plan Crimin Law on to Combat Trafficking al Code Criminal Law on in Human Beings Procedure and illegal migration for the period 2017- Foreigners 2020

Law on International „Article 120 and 121 of Law on Foreigners - status and of the victims of human trafficking, article 121 garanties Temporary the reflection and recovery period that can last up to two Protection months (access to protection, assistance and recovery). In this period the victim has to decide - to co-operate, or Action return to their country of origin or legal residence. Plan This period can postpone when victims are minors. 3-6-9 For victims od human trafficking and also for uncompanied minors can be desiced for a temprorary reidence of up to year, and this period can last longer if ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - is necessery.“ 21 All rights are reserved Institutional framework Prosecution of 2001 - National perpetrators of -the Commission for Basic Prosecutor’s Combating The key Office for Trafficking in operational role in Prosecuting Human Beings detecting and combating Organized Crime and and illegal smuggling of migrants Corruption migration and trafficking - Ministry of Interior - the Border Affairs and Since 2005 - the Migration Department National Mechanism for Referral of 2013 - six local 2018- memorandum on Victims of Human commissions to cooperation -Ministry of Trafficking combat human Interior and the Basic trafficking and illegal Public Prosecutor's Office migration, Tetovo, -the National Unit for Five mobile Bitola, Stip, Prilep, Suppression of smuggling teams operate Veles and Gevgelija. of migrants and in Skopje, trafficking in human Kumanovo, beings Gevgelija, Bitola and Tetovo ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 22 All rights are reserved increased resources for victim protection amended Criminal code -non-punishment clause for trafficking • victims • increasing efforts compared to the previous period Government signed a cooperation agreement with Kosovo, Pros • Montenegro, and Serbia on trafficking issues, conducted JITs • with neighbors Victims can claim compensation through civil proceedings

• Conclusion and recommendations

Macedonia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so • Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes -significant concerns Maintained an anti-trafficking task force, but task force focused mainly on • smuggling. • no victims had ever successfully completed a compensation claim due to the Cons complexity of the process. • Judges - issue weak sentences, below the trafficking statute’s minimum penalty • The government did not award grants to anti-trafficking NGOs 4 consecutive years, despite relying heavily on their support, and some first • responders were inconsistent in referring victims to care. ed. by Elena Maksimova, Copyright 2020 - 23 All rights are reserved Thank you for the attention!