TIRANA, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Altin Hazizaj, director of the Center for the Protection of Children's Rights, Monday called on the Albanian government to raise the measures against child trafficking, while commenting on a Europol report, which mentioned the Albanian-speaking child trafficking networks.
According to Europol report on child trafficking for the period 2015-2017, several criminal groups composed of Albanian-speaking suspects had trafficked minors into the EU for their labour and sexual exploitation. And in most of the cases, the victims' families were involved in the trafficking process to different extents, sometimes knowingly or sometimes being unaware of the risks of exploitation hidden behind a smuggling service.
Hazizaj underlined that children in Albania are being used both for sexual and economic exploitation purposes.
Hazizaj called on the government to tackle the problem from the root cause and take it seriously.
"Let's take a serious look at why Albania continues to be a source of trafficking. Police and the Interior Ministry need to look at child trafficking as part of the war against international drug trafficking and so on. The government has a duty to allocate sufficient financial resources for victim services," stated Harizaj.