Balkans drug route a threat to regional stability

According to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, the Balkans has become the prime route for Afghan drugs destined for Europe. The effects on regional stability could be substantial.

The Balkans has become a major hub for traffickers of heroin and other types of drug from Afghanistan, and this, along with an increase in known human trafficking, money laundering and corruption cases, threatens the stability of the whole region that includes Central Asia and the Caucasus. According to Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the trade of Afghan-grown drugs alone brings in over two billion euros for those cartels who operate along the so-called Balkan route. 

Speaking in Tirana, Albania, on 22 February, Antonio Maria Costa urged the international community to support the nations of the Balkans region in strengthening the rule of law. 

Afghan heroin is known to enter Europe via three routes across Romania, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The UNODC has recently completed a comprehensive report on ‘Crime and development in Africa,’ and similar work is underway to reveal the relation between crime, poverty and instability in the Balkans and the affected Eastern European countries. 

The Council of the EU adopted an Action Plan on Drugs between the EU and the Balkan states in June 2003. This political framework complements the EU’s three major drug programmes CADAP, SCAD and BUMAD.

Commission President José  Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn toured the Western Balkans region last week in an attempt to bring home the message of the European future for the countries there.

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