Montenegro Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Montenegro-Bosnia and Herzegovina: the two countries signed a border agreement in August 2015; sovereignty of the disputed Sutorina territory was given to Montenegro

Montenegro-Croatia: the two countries in 2002 reached a temporary agreement designating the Prevlaka Peninsula as part of Croatia, in October 2020, a Montenegrin official resurrected the dormant dispute over the Prevlaka Peninsula by stating that Montenegro had a good chance of winning it through international arbitration

Montenegro-Kosovo: a 2015 border agreement was ratified by Montenegro in 2015 and by Kosovo in 2018, but the actual demarcation has not been completed

Montenegro-Serbia: the former republic boundary – when the two countries were one and called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – serves as the boundary until a line is formally delimited and demarcated; nearly one-third of Montenegro's people identify as Serbs, and divisions in the country remain deep over relations with Serbia

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 65,105 (Ukraine) (as of 29 January 2024)

stateless persons: 468 (2022)

note: 34,178 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-February 2024)

Trafficking in persons

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Montenegro does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government prosecuted more defendants and identified more trafficking victims, adopted the National Action Plan for 2022, and coordinating bodies met consistently; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not convict any traffickers and reorganized the police office dedicated to investigating trafficking, reducing its ability to conduct proactive investigations; the government did not act quickly to protect victims after experts published credible allegations of abuse by an employee with management duties for the government-funded NGO-run anti-trafficking shelter, including physical violence, intimidation, and blackmail; although civil society and international organizations ceased victim referrals to the shelter, the government did not suspend its license and funding, continued to refer two child victims, and funded the shelter until the grant ended in December 2022; afterwards, Montenegro did not renew the shelter’s grant and decided to start renovating a government-run shelter for child trafficking victims; the government attempted to organize accommodations for child victims in foster families, but it did not develop a plan to provide protection for adult victims; therefore, Montenegro was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Montenegro, and Montenegrins abroad; traffickers are predominantly men between the ages of 25 and 49 and members of organized criminal groups that operate in the Western Balkans; victims in Montenegro are primarily women and girls from Montenegro, neighboring Balkan countries, and, to a lesser extent, other countries in Eastern Europe; traffickers exploit victims in the hospitality industry, including bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and cafes; children, particularly Romani, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian children, are forced to beg; Romani girls from Montenegro reportedly have been sold into marriages and forced into domestic servitude in Romani communities in Montenegro and, to a lesser extent, in Albania, Germany, and Kosovo; migrants from neighboring countries are vulnerable to forced labor, particularly during the summer tourism season; transnational organized criminal groups exploit some Montenegrin women and girls in sex trafficking in other Balkan countries (2023)

Illicit drugs

drug trafficking groups are major players in the procurement and transportation of of large quantities of cocaine destined for European markets