BELGRADE -- A Serbian court has convicted a Chinese citizen of human trafficking for the first time, sentencing him to prison as authorities report a rise in reported trafficking cases involving Chinese nationals amid deepening economic ties between Belgrade and Beijing.
Court documents obtained by RFE/RL show that a 52-year-old Chinese citizen was sentenced to four years in prison for trafficking two Chinese women. According to the sealed ruling, finalized in late 2025, the women were forced to provide sexual services to Chinese men under threats of death.
"The verdict is only the final step," Zoran Pasalic, Serbia's ombudsman and national rapporteur on human trafficking, told RFE/RL. "The key question is what conditions allowed this to happen, and whether others were involved."
The ruling comes as Serbia has seen a sharp increase in the number of Chinese citizens arriving in the country over the past decade, driven by billions of dollars in Chinese investment and a visa-free travel regime.
Serbian officials and watchdog groups say the growing flow of workers and visitors has coincided with a rise in reported trafficking cases involving Chinese nationals, raising concerns about oversight, enforcement, and criminal exploitation.
While no links to the mining industry were cited in the verdict or the earlier indictment, both women were trafficked to the southern city of Bor, where Serbian and Chinese workers are employed at a large gold and copper mining operation taken over in 2018 by China's Zijin Mining.
Neither the Serbian government nor the Chinese Embassy responded to RFE/RL's requests for comment.
Zijin Mining's Serbia office also did not reply to questions about the case.
What Court Documents Show About the Case
The verdict was welcomed by ASTRA, an NGO that supports victims of human trafficking.
"The fact that both the perpetrator and the victims are foreign nationals, in this case Chinese, further confirms that the court did not allow identity or citizenship to be used as an excuse to relativize the crime," Marija Andelkovic, the organization's director, told RFE/RL.
She added that, based on the organization's analysis of local courts, cases that end with final verdicts without the possibility of appeal remain "relatively rare" in Serbia.
According to the ruling, the women endured nearly two months of abuse.
Under threats of death, deprived of money, and stripped of their passports, the victims were given one meal per day and were sexually exploited on a daily basis. Each was forced to provide services to up to four men per day, all of whom they testified were Chinese nationals.
Although Serbian law allows prison sentences of up to 12 years for human trafficking -- the penalty sought by prosecutors -- the court opted for a shorter term. In its reasoning, it cited "all circumstances," including the defendant's family status.
The women were recruited in China through a fictitious employment agency offering work at a massage salon. Both were experiencing financial hardship, the verdict said.
With assistance from an unidentified intermediary in China, they flew to Belgrade. At the airport, they were met by a man described as "probably a Serbian national," who drove them to Bor.
After nearly two months, according to the verdict, the women managed to contact police.
They were formally recognized as trafficking victims by Center for the Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking, a state-run institution that provides identification and support services.
The organization concluded the case showed signs of "a well-organized criminal group that systematically and continuously exploits women."
The victims also testified that several Serbian women lived in the same house, but prosecutors confirmed to RFE/RL that no broader indictments were filed beyond the single Chinese defendant.
Rise In Reported Trafficking Cases Involving Chinese Nationals
The two women were the first trafficking victims from China in Serbia and were formally identified in 2024.
In 2025, the Center for the Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking recorded 12 reports involving possible trafficking of Chinese nationals. Two of those cases resulted in formal victim identification.
China ranked fourth among countries of origin for suspected foreign trafficking victims in Serbia in 2025, after Egypt, Bangladesh, and Kyrgyzstan.
Pasalic says Serbia has shifted in recent years from being primarily a transit country to becoming a destination for trafficking victims.
"This makes the procedure much more difficult, because -- and I emphasize this -- the victim of human trafficking is usually the last to realize that she or he is a victim," he told RFE/RL.
He added that victims typically arrive expecting legitimate employment, only to find themselves trapped in what he described as "inhumane" conditions.
Trafficking of Chinese women to Serbia has been cited for the second consecutive year in the US State Department's 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The document states that traffickers exploit women from China for sex trafficking, "primarily targeting demand for commercial sex from workers at PRC-funded projects, including copper mines."
