Conference „The Regional Expert Group Meeting on Countering Labor Exploitation in Trafficking“

5th and 6th March 2024 | Chisinau, Moldova

On March 5th and 6th, more than 60 experts from 15 countries attended the Regional Expert Group Meeting on Countering Labour Exploitation in Trafficking in Chisinau Moldova and discussed the issue of labor exploitation in South-Eastern Europe, with a focus on cases of trafficking caused by migratory flows following armed conflicts. The meeting was organized by UNODC in collaboration with the State Chancellery of the Republic of Moldova and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France.

The OSCE presented its comprehensive roadmap and tools for strengthening sustainable supply chains and procurement practices, highlighted the criticality of collaboration with diverse stakeholders, many of whom were present at the event, and explained their organization's risk-based approach to combating labor exploitation within supply chains.

This event was an opportunity to recall that this type of exploitation has been on the rise in recent years, even if the number of proceedings and convictions on this charge remain low and the event has been a chance for lovely exchanges and the possibility to discuss good practices and avenues for reflection to better understand this phenomenon:

• the need to promote a victim-centered approach
• the importance of developing multisectoral cooperation
• the special attention that must be paid to large companies, whose complex structures make it difficult to identify the "real" economic beneficiary of operating situations.

Serbian team consisting of RBH, Labor inspectorate, Public Defender representative, and INTERPOL representative,  presented great efforts that we do in different institutions to prevent human trafficking.