‘Dangerous Trend’: Serbia Ignoring Alleged Trafficking Cases, UN Rapporteur Says

Serbia’s government is not investigating cases of alleged trafficking of foreign workers, which is worrying, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery tells BIRN.

Serbia has in recent years increasingly imported foreign labour due to negative demographic trends under which more and more people are leaving the country seeking better lives.

While Serbs are heading for Western Europe to find a brighter future, people mostly from Asia are heading to Serbia to earn money to support their families. But this picture of global labour migration can have an ugly face.

For years there have been reports of exploitation and potential trafficking of people from Turkey, India, China and Vietnam.

Recently, BIRN published a story on the Chinese construction company China Energy Engineering Group Tianjin Electric Power Construction, CEEG TEPC, which has been accused of trafficking and exploiting Vietnamese and Indian workers.

They were brought in to work for CEEG TEPC at the Zrenjanin site of a tyre factory operated by China’s Shandong Linglong, a major supplier to the European car industry, whose presence in Serbia is heavily subsidised by the Serbian state.

Tomoya Obokata, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, has been following these cases closely. He and three other UN special rapporteurs sent a letter in January 2022 about the previous case of the Vietnamese workers.

However, neither CEEG TEPC nor the Serbian government have answered it, Obokata told BIRN.

“There were clear indicators of forced labour in relation to the Vietnamese workers [in 2021]. But unfortunately, I was just double-checking the database and none of them have actually replied – neither the companies nor the Serbian government,” Obokata told BIRN.

He says the body he leads is worried because Serbia’s government is “primarily responsible for investigating these allegations, prosecuting and punishing … and protecting the victims”.

“Sending the victims away [from Serbia] is a clear breach of international human rights obligations. I am certainly concerned about it,” Obokata said in an interview to BIRN.

Tomoya Obokata, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. Photo: Private archive

The UN rapporteur said they had “absolutely” identified human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation in the case of the Vietnamese workers.

“Absolutely. Human trafficking happens when people back home are coerced or deceived as to the nature of the work. They may have been promised a good job, high salary and excellent working conditions, but once they arrive, none of that is true,” he explained.

“They see low or no wages, harsh working conditions, threats or use of violence and appalling living conditions. That is a classic example of human trafficking and there are also middlemen involved such as recruitment agencies which charge a high amount of fees, and that makes these migrant particularly vulnerable to debt bondage,” Obokata said.

Workers arrived loaded in debt

Both the Vietnamese workers in 2021 and the Indian workers in 2022 were previously recruited by agencies that link them up with Chinese employers in Serbia.

The agencies often charge workers high provision fees that puts them in the vulnerable position – up to $3,500 US per person.

“That makes these migrants particularly vulnerable to debt bondage. When they arrive in a country like Serbia, they do not actually make money, they are repaying debts. That is why we call it debt bondage, because they are bonded with debts,” Obokata explains.

He says the intermediary agencies are “profiting from this” and “also need to be held accountable”.

“It is not up to the Serbian government to disclose what happens in India and Vietnam, but at least it can work with these governments and ensure that workers migrate safely,” he said.

He emphasizes that governments whose countries are involved should cooperate on the matter, advising bilateral agreements on the matter, and adding that workers should not be paying fees in the first place, but the companies that want to bring them in.

“They should not be paying this; it should be employers who should be paying for all of this, and it’s for governments to monitor these practices,” he told BIRN.

The reports on Vietnamese and Indian workers showed they were also offered contracts which are against Serbian laws, as well as international standards, violating various rules, from working hours to vacation days, salaries and financial penalties.

In some cases, workers did not even have work permits.

Labour inspectors are not doing their job

Obokata said that from what he can tell Serbia’s Labour Inspectorate is not doing its job properly.

“Labour inspection seem to be weak in Serbia. How often do labour inspectors go into these places and investigate labour conditions and living conditions at all? That needs to be strengthened. It has to be a robust inspection regime to ensure that workplaces are safe and secure and workers are treated humanely,” he said.

The trend of foreign workers coming to Serbia is far from stopping. In 2023, Serbia issued 52,000 work permits for foreigners, which is an increase of almost 70 per cent.

But Obokata fears the trend towards exploitation and potential trafficking will also continue.

“If this happens to the Indian workers, it raises questions of who is next? I think similar patterns are emerging and that is concerning. It is up to the Serbian authorities to make sure that all this is in order,” the rapporteur said.

“If the Serbian authorities are not doing that, they should be held liable as a country and as a government for facilitating labour exploitation and human trafficking,” he concluded.