Washington, 21 July 2022 (MIA) – The United States recommends the authorities in North Macedonia to vigorously investigate, prosecute and convict human traffickers, including complicit officials. The Government of North Macedonia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so, putting it in Tier 2, says the U.S. State Department in its latest Trafficking in Persons report. It notes that the government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, including prosecuting more defendants and implementing victim-centered approaches to reduce retraumatization for child victims, while adding that minimum standards are not met in several key areas. “The government convicted fewer traffickers, and police continued to lack adequate funding and equipment to conduct proactive investigations. Similarly, the Organized Crime and Corruption Prosecution Office (OCCPO) did not have sufficient resources, including staff and a digital case management system, to handle all cases under its jurisdiction,” reads the report. The Macedonian authorities are recommended to vigorously investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers, including complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties with significant prison terms. Recommendations also include the need for allocation of sufficient resources to the police and prosecutors to proactively investigate trafficking, allocation of sufficient resources for victim protection, including to the mobile identification teams, to the shelter for trafficking victims, and in support of specialized services for adult male victims, to increase proactive identification efforts for trafficking victims and consistently screen for trafficking among individuals in commercial sex, irregular migrants, refugees, and other at-risk populations etc. In 2021, the government identified 48 victims, compared with seven victims in 2020, of whom 40 were victims of forced labor, two of sex trafficking, two were victims of sex trafficking and forced labor, and four were victims of forced labor through forced marriage. Of these, 36 were men, six were women, five were girls, and one was a boy; 39 were victims from Taiwan and one from Russia.