OSCE workshop in Montenegro boosts efforts to trace financial flows behind human trafficking

(l-r) Jean-Benoit Manhes, OSCE Deputy Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Giovanni Gabassi, OSCE Mission to Montenegro's Officer-in-Charge, Dragana Kažanegra-Stanišić, State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, and Velimir Furtula, Acting Assistant Director of the Police Directorate's Department for the Fight against Crime, opening the workshop on "Strengthening Efforts to Follow Financial Flows to Address Human Trafficking in Montenegro", Podgorica, 6 November 2025. (OSCE/Miloš Uljarević) Photo details

Financial investigations are a cornerstone in the fight against human trafficking. Tracking money flows helps uncover the financial networks and key actors sustaining these crimes.

On 6 and 7 November, the Office of the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings, together with the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, and the Ministry of the Interior of Montenegro, organized a two-day workshop to strengthen co-operation among law enforcement, prosecutors, the judiciary, and the private sector. The goal: to make financial flow tracing and financial investigations central pillars of Montenegro's anti-trafficking efforts.

The event gathered around 50 participants from across Montenegro, as well as financial investigation experts from Canada, Cyprus, Latvia, and the Netherlands, as well as representatives from the National Bureau of Investigation of Hungary, and private sector partners from, Romania, Spain, and Sweden. Notably, companies such as Santander Bank, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime, and Western Union also attended and contributed their expertise.

Opening the event, Giovanni Gabassi, OSCE Mission to Montenegro's Officer-in-Charge, said the initiative reflected a shared commitment "to tackle human trafficking by targeting the profits that sustain it." He added that stronger financial investigations not only expose trafficking networks, but also enable the identification of victims and support successful prosecution of cases.

Dragana Kažanegra-Stanišić, State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, emphasized the importance of partnerships in addressing human exploitation. "Financial institutions play a key role in identifying suspicious transactions and activities that may indicate this crime. Together with law enforcement, they provide invaluable data to help break down networks." Moreover, she also stressed that "the use of cryptocurrencies and new financial technologies further complicates supervision and regulation, which requires an agile, co-ordinated and adaptive approach."

Velimir Furtula, Acting Assistant Director of the Police Directorate's Department for the Fight against Crime, noted that human trafficking represented one of the most complex and serious violations of human rights and one of the most profitable forms of organized crime. "At its core, there is always the same motive - illegal earnings through the exploitation of people. That is why monitoring of financial flows becomes a key tool in its detection and suppression," said Furtula.

Jean-Benoit Manhes, OSCE Deputy Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings pointed out that human trafficking and migrant smuggling have been identified in both the National Risk Assessment and the recent MONEYVAL Mutual Evaluation as a major source of illicit funds. "Montenegro's geographical position, as a transit and destination country within the Western Balkans, makes it especially vulnerable to such crimes. The adoption of a whole-of-society approach, including the financial sector, can be instrumental in helping detect, track and recover financial benefits from trafficking, including via complex schemes involving cryptocurrencies. No-trafficker is invisible, no-trafficker shall escape," he concluded.

Marina Živaljević Montenegro