Traffickers continued to operate in more hidden, private sectors in an attempt to conceal their exploitation of victims from law enforcement.
[6] The Government of Macedonia made limited progress in its law enforcement response to human trafficking during the reporting period.
The government investigated and prosecuted corruption in certain sectors of law enforcement, which posed challenges to anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling efforts during the reporting period.
With IOM assistance, the government organized a series of trainings reaching 280 front-line responders on proactive victim identification.
Macedonian law exempts victims from criminal prosecution for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
While the government's standard operating procedures mandate a multi-disciplinary approach to identifying victims, NGOs and international organizations should be more systematically included in this process.
At any time during the reflection period, if they decide to cooperate with authorities in the investigation of the crime, an additional six-month residency permit can be granted.
In 2009, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy succeeded in obtaining funding from the national budget for operation of a domestic shelter.
Macedonian law provides legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face retribution or hardship through both a two-month reflection period and a six-month residency permit.
In January 2010, the government's newly appointed National Rapporteur published Macedonia's first annual report on trafficking, which also covered migrant smuggling.
The report was presented to the stakeholders, the international community, and NGOs for comment, but the final product lacked a comprehensive assessment of anti-trafficking efforts in Macedonia and contained cursory recommendations for improvement.
The government continued seminars in the University of Skopje and collaborated with another NGO on a series of workshops that addressed client demand for victims of sex trafficking.