Kosovo is a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls trafficked transnationally and internally for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.
From 2017 to 2021, the government identified a number of victims of human trafficking; most were females from within Kosovo, but 60% of victims were children, a large number of whom came from neighbouring countries (mainly Albania).[1] In 2017, officials noted that most victims they met were girls aged under 18.[2] A later study suggested that most victims were young adults from Moldova or Romania.[3]
According to the U.S. State Department's 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, Kosovo was a Tier 2 country, which is reserved for "Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards."[4] The country kept its Tier 2 status in 2023.[5]
:1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).