Bosnia: Investigation indicates 31 Roma children under 12 were being trafficked when rescued

The discovery of the “house of horrors” happened on the evening of 25 February 2025 after a passer-by was spoken to on the street by a disoriented 12-year-old girl with two younger children in tow. She asked for help and said she did not want to return to the nearby building.

Police and social workers immediately intervened, breaking into the building and discovering children who ranged in age from several months old to 12 years. The initial information indicates that six of them had Croatian passports.

The first three suspects arrested in the case, a police officer, his mother, and a male citizen of Italy, were charged on the basis of “reasonable suspicion that they committed the criminal acts of human trafficking, child trafficking, and child neglect and abuse”, according to the police statement. By 27 February, the number of those arrested had grown to eight and Europol had also joined the investigation.

The case is now part of an extensive investigation of international scope. “In light of the laws governing criminal proceedings against perpetrators of crimes against children and minors, as well as the universal rights of the child, we stress the need to proceed with the utmost caution to prevent further harm and to best protect the interests of the children,” the Brčko local police said in a statement.

Local residents: We believed it was an illegal nursery school

The question of how this case could have been ignored by the local authorities for so long remains unanswered. Local residents told the media that they had believed an “illegal nursery school” was being run in the building.

“That was easier for us to ‘swallow’ than the notion that some terrible crime was in fact being committed here and none of us even suspected it,” one neighbor told the media. The ERRC reports that “the number of arrests, the gravity of the charges, and the extension of the criminal investigation beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina hint at the probability that ‘some terrible crimes’ have been committed.” 

ERRC: Suspicions of systemic failures and the possible criminal involvement of the authorities themselves

In a letter to the Bosnian authorities, the ERRC expressed appreciation for the quick intervention by local police, but also expressed serious concerns over the information that an unknown number of children had passed through the building over the course of several years. The ERRC noted that a report related to this case had allegedly been filed with the competent institutions in 2018.

“The direct involvement of a local police officer and the fact that these activities went unchecked for years while the alleged perpetrators remained at liberty and unhindered raises the alarming possibility of wider official collusion,” the ERRC warned in its letter. The organization has therefore called for an independent, thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the alleged child trafficking, neglect and abuse of these Romani children, including the possible involvement of any other law enforcement officers or state officials in aiding, abetting or perpetrating the exploitation and abuse of these and other children over the past seven years. 

The ERRC also exhorted the authorities to provide comprehensive, immediate protection to the victims, emphasizing that the best interest of each child must be the main criterion for deciding their fate. The organization warned against placing the children in institutional care, where they would be at risk of further abuse, discrimination, or trauma.

Instead, the priority should be an effort at family tracing, the safe reunification of the children with their own families and, where appropriate and in the best interests of the child, alternative, community-based care to prevent their institutionalization. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina as a transit country for human trafficking

The ERRC, referring to this case, has appealed to the Bosnian authorities to introduce measures of a systemic nature to protect those who are most vulnerable, reminding them that the country has long been one from which human trafficking originates, one through which trafficked persons travel to their final destinations, as well as a destination country itself. The ERRC echoed the call of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) for all authorities to take measures to strengthen the criminal justice response to human trafficking.

The ERRC also emphasized that human trafficking charges must never be reduced to charges for less serious crimes and that the perpetrators must face deterrent punishment that is proportionate.