Prishtina, October 18th 2018 – President of the Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, attended today the conference organised for the EU Anti-Trafficking Day against trafficking in human beings.
President Thaçi said that trafficking of human beings is one of the most flagrant violations of human rights.
He also said that trafficking of human beings hurts the victims themselves, but also the borders of our states, our societies, our economies, and on the other side it touches upon the values and principles upon which the liberal and democratic societies are built.
“Trafficking of human beings shakes the foundations of the EU and continues to be one of the most fundamental problems with which EU is faced with today. Therefore, opportunities like this one today are welcome, so that we can together talk about illegal migration, dangers it presents to the societies and measures which we can undertake in order to combat it”, said President Thaçi.
The head of state said that Kosovo has created an all-encompassing legal framework and policies geared towards fighting of the trafficking of human beings, harmonised with laws of European Union.
President said that owing to the steps undertaken by the institutions, progress has been made.
“The first step was the correct information of the citizens on them not having a future as illegal emigrants in EU or anywhere else in the world. Second, law enforcement bodies have acted against those who have incited or organised the illegal transporting of emigrants, bringing them to face the justice. We have cooperated with the countries of the region and the European Union in order to prevent and fight this phenomenon and bringing the perpetrators to face the law”, said President Thaçi.
At this conference, attended by many representatives of the institutions of Kosovo as well as of the international ones, President Thaçi said this was important not only in fighting of the phenomenon but also for Kosovo’s visa liberalisation aspirations.
“I am happy that our engagements have received positive evaluations from EU and our partners. This has paved the way to visa liberalisation for Kosovo and we are now rightly awaiting the just and deserved decision for the citizens of Kosovo. And this is another commitment from our side that we will continue to fight with the same determination the trafficking of human beings”, said the President.
He also called upon all the citizens of Kosovo, the security institutions, civil society and media to become part of this fight and of the victory against this phenomenon.