The workshop was held on 26 September 2018 at the Albanian Parliament with the support of Human Trafficking Foundation UK. This was the fourth interparliamentary workshop on the issue, with the previous ones being hosted by the parliaments of Italy, Romania and Serbia.

The workshop was attended by MPs from the UK, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and the Western Balkan countries. They spoke about the positive examples and challenges of the fight against human trafficking, victim protection and busting trafficking operations.

MPs Dusica Stojkovic briefed the attending on the National Assembly’s anti-trafficking activities and the legislation adopted to contribute to the anti-trafficking efforts, among them the Law on Asylum and Temporary Protection, Law on Foreigners and the Law on Migration Management. She said that the Serbian Government had last year adopted a new Prevention and Suppression Strategy for human trafficking, especially trafficking in women and children, and witness protection covering the period 2017 – 2020, as well as the accompanying 2017-2018 Action Plan. She stressed that institutional cooperation is essential, going on to emphasize in that respect the importance of the establishment of the Anti-Trafficking Council and Office for Coordination of Activities in Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, and the appointment of National Anti-Trafficking Coordinator.

The participants of the workshop agreed that it is vital to set up a parliamentary network across Europe so that the MPs could collectively combat human trafficking in view of the fact that this is a trans-national issue and that international cooperation is key. They also said that it would be very useful if the MPs joined efforts within the parliament through the formation of a committee or subcommittee to tackle the problem. The parliamentarians went on to emphasize the importance of the parliament’s control role and the need to cooperate with civil society organizations and the media.

In the course of the stay in Tirana, the National Assembly delegation also met with the Serbian Ambassador to Albania Miroljub Zaric.