site.btaUS State Department Trafficking in Persons Report Says Bulgarian Government Is Making Significant Efforts to Eliminate Trafficking in Persons

US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report Says Bulgarian Government Is Making Significant Efforts to Eliminate Trafficking in Persons

Washington, D.C., July 28 (BTA) - Bulgaria is a source and, to a
 lesser extent, a transit and destination country for men,
women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced
labor, this year's US Department of State Trafficking in Persons
 Report says in the part devoted to Bulgaria. The report was
published on the Department of State website Monday.

Bulgaria remains one of the primary source countries of human
trafficking in the EU. Bulgarian women and children are
subjected to sex trafficking within the country, as well as in
Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and the United States. Several
NGOs assert internal trafficking is increasing. Bulgarian men,
women, and children are subjected to forced labor in Belgium,
Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy,
Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and
Zambia, predominantly in agriculture, construction, and the
service sector. Bulgarian children and adults with disabilities
are forced into street begging and petty theft within Bulgaria
and also in Austria, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and the UK. Romanian
 girls are subjected to sex trafficking in Bulgaria. Government
corruption creates an environment enabling some trafficking
crimes, the report says further.
   
The Government of Bulgaria does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however,
it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these
measures, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing
anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting
period; therefore, Bulgaria is placed on Tier 2 Watch List.

During the reporting period, governmental anti-trafficking
efforts in prosecution, protection, prevention, and coordination
 all declined. Bulgaria remained one of the largest source
countries of trafficking victims in the EU, yet the government
did not fund specialized trafficking victim services. Two
state-owned trafficking shelters for women ceased to operate.
Specialized services for child and adult male victims of
trafficking were nonexistent. National coordination was marked
by inactivity due to the absence of a key leader, staff
turnover, structural changes, and overall political instability.
 Authorities prosecuted and convicted considerably fewer
traffickers and issued suspended sentences for the majority of
those convicted.
   
Authorities launched 81 sex trafficking and six labor
trafficking investigations in 2014, compared with 82 sex
trafficking and 12 labor trafficking investigations in 2013.
Authorities charged 43 defendants with sex trafficking and four
with labor trafficking in 2014, compared with 114 and five,
respectively, in 2013. The government convicted 53 sex
traffickers and one labor trafficker in 2014, compared with 85
sex traffickers and five labor traffickers convicted in 2013.
Consistent with previous years, only 18 of the 53 convicted sex
traffickers - 34 per cent - received a prison sentence. In
contrast with previous years, the government was unable to
report the range of sentences imposed on convicted traffickers
that resulted in imprisonment; observers noted the need for
improved police and judicial statistics. The specialized court
for organized crime, established only in 2012, became more
active on human trafficking cases. In June 2014, the court
sentenced the leader of a trafficking ring and his two
accomplices to prison. An almost yearlong period of inactivity
at the directorate for combating organized crime resulted in
fewer trafficking cases reaching prosecution. in February 2015,
Parliament reversed the reorganization and reinstated the
directorate to the Ministry of Interior. Bulgarian authorities
cooperated with nine foreign governments on transnational
investigations. The government provided some specialized
training for police officers, investigators, prosecutors, and
judges.
   
The government demonstrated efforts to combat
trafficking-related complicity of public officials. In August
2014, authorities began investigating seven police officers
accused of bribery and blackmail, due in part to soliciting
bribes from pimps.

Comparatively, authorities did not launch investigations of
police officers in 2013, following five investigations in 2012.
Investigations of other police officers in recent years included
 allegations of recruiting victims, forcing a woman into
prostitution, and warning traffickers of planned police raids.
   
In respect to prevention, the report notes that in March 2015,
UNHCR called for Bulgarian authorities to investigate
allegations of Bulgarian border authorities routinely pushing
back asylum seekers, often with violence, including members of
the Yezidi minority who were particularly vulnerable to human
trafficking in Syria and Iraq. The government provided
anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel, aimed at
 preventing their engagement or facilitation of trafficking
crimes. The government demonstrated efforts to reduce the demand
 for commercial sex.
   
The recommendations for Bulgaria suggest that it has to enhance
efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers,
particularly for labor trafficking, and hold convicted
traffickers accountable with prison sentences; provide for
specialized assistance, including shelter care, to men, women,
and children subjected to trafficking; enhance national
coordination through an active national commission and
secretariat and development of a current national action plan;
proactively target, investigate, prosecute, and convict
government officials complicit in trafficking, and hold
convicted officials accountable with prison sentences; provide
all male victims with services, including reintegration
assistance and legal services; provide sensitivity training to
prosecutors and judges working with sex trafficking victims;
implement a comprehensive database of trafficking crimes and
victims identified, referred, and assisted; and allocate
government funding for awareness campaigns, including outreach
activities to Roma communities.