Country Narratives: Countries N Through Z

Human trafficking in Jamaica. Human trafficking in Japan. Human trafficking in Jordan. Eastern Europe Central Asia. Human trafficking in Kazakhstan. Human trafficking in Kenya. Human trafficking in Kiribati. Human trafficking in South Korea. Human trafficking in Kuwait. Human trafficking in Kyrgyzstan.

Human trafficking in Laos. Human trafficking in Latvia. Human trafficking in Lebanon. Human trafficking in Lesotho. Human trafficking in Liberia. Human trafficking in Libya. Human trafficking in Lithuania. Human trafficking in Luxembourg. Human trafficking in Macau. Human trafficking in Macedonia. Human trafficking in Madagascar. Human trafficking in Malawi. Human trafficking in Malaysia.

Human trafficking in Mali. Human trafficking in Malta. Human trafficking in Mauritania. Human trafficking in Mauritius. Human trafficking in Mexico. Human trafficking in Moldova. East Asia Central Asia. Human trafficking in Mongolia. Human trafficking in Montenegro.

Human trafficking in Morocco. Human trafficking in Mozambique. Human trafficking in Namibia. Human trafficking in Nepal. Human trafficking in the Netherlands. Human trafficking in New Zealand. Human trafficking in Nicaragua. Human trafficking in Niger.

Human trafficking in Nigeria. Human trafficking in Norway. Human trafficking in Oman. Human trafficking in Pakistan. Human trafficking in Palau. Human trafficking in Panama. Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea. Human trafficking in Paraguay. Human trafficking in Peru. Human trafficking in the Philippines. Human trafficking in Poland. Human trafficking in Portugal. Human trafficking in Qatar. Human trafficking in Romania. Human trafficking in Russia. Human trafficking in Rwanda. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Human trafficking in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Human trafficking in Saudi Arabia. Human trafficking in Senegal. Human trafficking in Serbia. Human trafficking in Sierra Leone. Human trafficking in Singapore. Human trafficking in Slovakia. Human trafficking in Slovenia. Human trafficking in South Africa. Human trafficking in Spain. In , authorities carried out preliminary investigations and, as of late , there were ongoing trafficking prosecutions nationwide. In comparison, in , authorities reported achieving 15 convictions of sex trafficking and no labor trafficking offenders. NGOs and officials noted significant efforts by the new Ministry of Security, established in December , to coordinate the efforts of different federal law enforcement entities, create a database system for human trafficking crimes, and establish protocols with other ministries to strengthen federal-level collaboration.

UFASE coordinated its work with the anti-trafficking units in the federal police, coast guard, and the gendarmerie. In addition, at least 10 provinces maintained their own specialized law enforcement units to investigate human trafficking offenses. Some NGOs reported that coordination between law enforcement officials and judicial officials was sometimes weak at the local level.

Although trafficking remained a federal crime, some trafficking cases were investigated or prosecuted at the local level under other statutes — such as those penalizing servitude or the promotion of prostitution — due to lack of knowledge or to a desire to pursue cases at the local level, and were not immediately transferred to the appropriate federal authorities.

Some officials and NGOs noted significant delays caused by confusion over which authorities had jurisdiction, and in some cases testimonies were discarded during this process. The government continued to provide anti-trafficking training to social workers and judicial and law enforcement officials, sometimes in partnership with international organizations.

According to NGOs and international organizations, some provincial, local, and, to a lesser extent, federal officials participated directly and indirectly in human trafficking crimes. Some police officers reportedly turned a blind eye to sex or labor trafficking activity or tipped off brothel owners about impending raids, and some judges reportedly did not adequately investigate signs of official complicity in trafficking cases.

Authorities continued to investigate 75 federal police officers removed from their duties for trafficking-related complicity, and the former head of the anti-trafficking police unit remained under investigation for allegedly running brothels. The government, however, did not prosecute or convict any government officials involved in human trafficking in The government reported identifying and assisting a record number of victims during the year, although services were uneven across the country.

Several NGOs and some officials stated the resources the government devoted to the protection of trafficking victims seemed to be insufficient compared with the large number of victims identified. Some NGOs asserted that some officials errantly categorized cases of labor exploitation as human trafficking. The Ministry of Security reported identifying almost 1, victims; most of these victims were Bolivian and Paraguayan adults exploited in forced labor.

In contrast, in past years authorities identified more sex trafficking victims than forced labor victims. This office reported to the press that it assisted 1, trafficking victims in According to NGOs and some officials, the quality and level of victim care varied widely by province, and most provinces lacked dedicated resources to care for trafficking victims, particularly forced labor victims. After victims provided their initial testimony, the Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence, and Family SENAF of the Ministry of Social Development was responsible for providing follow-up assistance to them, in coordination with provincial authorities.

However, specialized services and reintegration efforts were limited. SENAF reported assisting victims directly and over additional victims in cooperation with other provincial agencies; 63 percent decided to return to their country of origin, while only three percent decided to stay and requested assistance from SENAF. Authorities did not report what specific services victims were offered or received from SENAF, and some officials and NGOs noted that victim assistance mechanisms were often unclear.

It was also unclear to what extent foreign victims were fully informed of their options before their repatriation. Only five percent of the victims assisted were Argentine. The Office for Rescue and Caring of Victims of Trafficking maintained a shelter in the capital to care temporarily for trafficking victims before they give their initial statement, though it was unclear how many of the victims identified during the year stayed at this shelter, or where they were housed immediately following raids.

Federal, provincial, and municipal authorities supported five shelters for women and child victims of sex trafficking across the country, some in partnership with a civil society organization. In areas without these dedicated shelters, trafficking victims could be referred to existing government-operated shelters for victims of domestic violence or for at-risk children, although it was unclear if any victims received services at these institutions during the reporting period.

Argentine authorities encouraged victims to assist with the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers, and some victims did so during the year. There were no specific reports of identified victims being jailed or penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Authorities reported providing temporary residency to some foreign victims during the reporting period. Long-term residency was available through Argentine immigration policy, though it was not trafficking-specific, and it was unclear how many foreign victims received this status during the year.

The government did not report identifying or assisting any repatriated Argentine victims of trafficking. The Government of Argentina maintained prevention efforts during the year. The federal human rights secretariat chaired informal interagency meetings on a biweekly basis.

Trafficking in Persons Report

However, NGOs and some officials asserted that poor coordination among the federal and provincial governments continued to hinder the effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts, as did limited or nonexistent funding for provincial and local efforts to combat trafficking. Authorities reported funding public awareness-raising efforts, including public service announcements about trafficking shown on long distance buses and aired on television. UFASE published a review of its anti-trafficking efforts in In July , the president issued a decree to ban classified advertisements for sexual services in newspapers and magazines, and created a monitoring office to enforce this prohibition.

Some NGOs and media outlets claimed this decree was unconstitutional, as prostitution remained legal in Argentina. In an effort to prevent the use of forced labor, the province of Mendoza passed a law barring any business found to employ child labor or slave labor from benefiting from provincial tax, economic, financial or any other benefits provided by the province for a period of two years. NGOs continued to report some isolated cases of child sex tourism, although there were no reported investigations or prosecutions for this crime.

The government did not report providing anti-trafficking training to Argentine troops prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping operations.

Secretary Clinton Delivers Remarks at the Release of the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report

Armenia is a source country for women and girls subjected to sex trafficking, as well as a source country for women and men subjected to forced labor. To a lesser extent it has been a destination country for women subjected to forced labor. Women and girls from Armenia are subjected to sex trafficking in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, and within the country. Armenian men and women are subjected to forced labor in Russia. Armenian boys have been subjected to forced labor within the country. An NGO reported a new trend of labor migrants withdrawing their children from school and taking them abroad as helpers; these children are vulnerable to conditions of forced labor.

The Government of Armenia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. In , the government convicted more trafficking offenders than during the previous year, continued to train hundreds of officials in partnership with NGOs and international organizations, and strengthened anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns. The number of victims identified by the government during the year continued to drop. The Armenian government demonstrated progress in its law enforcement efforts against human trafficking during the reporting period.

The government investigated 16 sex trafficking cases and one labor trafficking case in , compared with 15 sex trafficking and no labor trafficking cases in During , the Armenian government prosecuted eight new cases against 15 individuals for sex trafficking offenses and no individuals for labor trafficking offenses, compared with prosecutions against six alleged sex traffickers and no alleged labor traffickers newly prosecuted in During the year, the government continued to prosecute an additional 11 defendants whose cases had begun in previous years; nine were charged with sex trafficking and two with labor trafficking.

The government convicted 13 trafficking offenders in — including 11 individuals for sex trafficking and two for labor trafficking — up from a total of five convictions in Based on a request made by Armenian law enforcement agencies in , in September Turkey extradited an alleged Armenian trafficker to Armenia; the alleged trafficker was escorted by Armenian law enforcement officers from Istanbul to Yerevan. The Armenian government sustained partnerships with anti-trafficking NGOs, international organizations, and foreign governments to provide anti-trafficking training to hundreds of government officials including prosecutors, police, border guards, members of the judicial system, and labor inspectors.

Human trafficking continued to be included in the curriculum of all education facilities of law enforcement bodies. The Government of Armenia demonstrated some progress in its efforts to identify and provide protection to victims of trafficking during the reporting period. The government officially identified 13 new trafficking victims in — two of whom were labor trafficking victims, and all of whom were female — and offered assistance, including referrals to NGO shelters, to all of them.

This contrasts with 19 victims identified in Victims were not detained at the shelter. Although extra employment assistance was made available to trafficking victims, no trafficking victims requested it during the reporting period. Law enforcement officials encouraged trafficking victims to cooperate in investigations and prosecutions. In , all victims voluntarily assisted police with trafficking investigations.

The absence of appropriate protections for victims who provide testimony continued to be of concern. The government did not penalize victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of their being trafficked. The government permitted foreign victims to stay in the country through temporary residency permits and to obtain temporary employment; however, no foreign victims were identified in the reporting period.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs created two new staff positions in the Family and Children Department dedicated to further improving assistance to trafficking victims. The Armenian government undertook strong trafficking prevention efforts during the reporting period. Many of these public awareness activities involved broadcasting anti-trafficking public service announcements and other programs on national and regional stations during peak viewing periods. Various government agencies undertook prevention activities. The Ministerial Council to Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Inter-Agency Working Group against Trafficking in Persons continued to meet regularly and coordinate the implementation of the National Plan of Action addressing human trafficking, in collaboration with NGOs and international organizations, and began to work on the National Plan of Action.

The government regularly published reports on its anti-trafficking activities during the reporting period. During the year, the government took measures to identify and record the unregistered births of children. In an effort to reduce the demand for commercial sex, the government publicized its efforts to combat prostitution. The government provided anti-trafficking training to Armenian troops before their deployment overseas on international peacekeeping missions.

Aruba is primarily a destination country for women and men subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Also at risk are Chinese men and women working in supermarkets, Indian men in the jewelry sector, and Caribbean and South American women in domestic service. There are indications of Aruban children under 18 exploited in prostitution in Aruba. The Government of Aruba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.

The government identified new labor trafficking victims, formalized a victim identification checklist for officials, and expanded extensive public awareness efforts during the reporting period. However, it has not yet successfully prosecuted a trafficking offender. Increase efforts to prosecute, convict, and punish perpetrators of forced labor and sex trafficking; boost efforts to identify victims of sex trafficking; consider providing the anti-trafficking committee with an independent budget as a means to ensure its effectiveness; continue multilingual public awareness efforts; and develop ways to educate clients of the sex trade about the causes and consequences of trafficking.

The Government of Aruba maintained its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and are commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape. The government initiated six new labor trafficking investigations during the reporting period, compared with seven investigations in the previous reporting period. There were no new prosecutions, and the three prosecutions from the previous reporting period remained ongoing.

One defendant remained in detention in There were no investigations or prosecutions of officials complicit in human trafficking. The government reported that adequate funding and staffing for police remained a problem. The seminar was funded by a foreign donor, as were most other anti-trafficking efforts. Aruba incorporated human trafficking awareness into the police academy curriculum during the reporting period. The Government of Aruba continued to make progress in its victim protection efforts during the reporting period.

The government identified three new adult victims of labor trafficking. During the reporting period, the government earmarked funds to assist trafficking victims and to fund projects of the interagency trafficking committee. The government had agreements with local NGOs or private sector accommodation for sheltering adult victims.

The government provided legal assistance, medical assistance, and social and psychological assistance for identified trafficking victims during the reporting period, and arranged for one victim to move with her family to an undisclosed location due to possible threats from a suspected trafficker. The government encouraged trafficking victims to participate in investigations and prosecutions of trafficking offenders and did not charge victims for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked. According to Aruban officials, the government offered identified trafficking victims relief from immediate deportation and work permits for a maximum of six months; the three labor trafficking victims received immigration relief during the reporting period.

The government made progress in its efforts to prevent human trafficking during the reporting period, particularly through awareness raising. It continued to promote its human trafficking awareness campaign in four languages targeted to both victims and the general public and linked to a hotline with operators trained to assist trafficking victims. The national coordinator gave several interviews on local radio and television to raise awareness about human trafficking and the hotline during the reporting period. Further demonstrating its commitment to address trafficking, the government forged a public-private partnership that resulted in a hotel chain training its employees in trafficking awareness.

The government sustained the functions of its anti-trafficking committee and during the reporting period added a health ministry participant. The government did not have any awareness campaigns targeting potential clients of the sex trade in Aruba in an effort to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. There were no known reports of child sex tourism occurring in Aruba, or of Arubans participating in international sex tourism.

Australia is primarily a destination country for women subjected to forced prostitution and to a lesser extent, women and men subjected to forced labor. Child sex trafficking also occurs with a small number of Australian citizens, primarily teenage girls, exploited within the country, as well as some foreign victims.

Some women from Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, China, and, to a lesser extent, India, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and Africa migrate to Australia voluntarily intending to work legally or illegally in a number of sectors, including the sex trade.

Trafficking in Persons Report - Wikipedia

Subsequent to their arrival, however, some of these women are coerced into prostitution in both legal and illegal brothels. There were news reports that some Asian organized crime groups recruit Asian women to migrate to Australia, sometimes on student visas, and then subsequently coerce them into the sex trade. The women and girls are sometimes held in captivity, subjected to physical and sexual violence and intimidation, manipulated through illegal drugs, and obliged to pay off unexpected or inflated debts to their traffickers.

Some victims of sex trafficking have also been exploited in domestic servitude. After their arrival, some are subjected by unscrupulous employers and labor agencies to forced labor in agriculture, horticulture, construction, cleaning, hospitality, manufacturing, and other sectors, such as domestic service. They face confiscation of their travel documents, confinement on the employment site, threats of physical harm, and debt bondage through inflated debts imposed by employers or labor agencies.

Most often, traffickers are part of small but highly sophisticated organized crime networks that frequently involve family and business connections between Australians and overseas contacts. During the year, one such syndicate relied on the established informal remittance system hawala as a means to launder its profits offshore. Some traffickers attempted to hide their foreign victims from official notice or prevented victims from receiving assistance by abusing the legal system in order to create difficulties for victims who contact authorities for help.

Foreign workers in the nursing, meat processing, manufacturing, agricultural, domestic and seafaring industries, as well as international students, may be vulnerable to trafficking. During the year, NGOs and other informed observers reported that some individuals on student visas, typically from Asia, became victims of forced labor and forced prostitution in Australia. There are over , foreign students in Australia, many of whom spend up to the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in placement and academic fees, as completion of courses often leads to permanent residency in the country.

Some of these foreign students work in the housekeeping and restaurant industries and are subject to a restriction of working a maximum of 20 hours per week under their visas. When some were pushed by employers to exceed the terms of their visas, they faced the risk of deportation, making them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers; during the year there were reports of such exploitation in restaurants and grocery stores near Melbourne.

The Government of Australia fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. During the year, the government continued to prosecute trafficking cases and obtained a conviction in one case of labor trafficking. The government increased funding for its victim support program, and continued to provide services to victims identified in previous years; however, it identified 11 victims — six of whom had been subjected to forced labor — during the year, a decrease from 31 victims identified in the previous reporting period.

The government granted 48 Permanent Witness Protection Visas to victims and their family members, which allowed them to remain in Australia permanently, and it continued to undertake robust efforts to prevent trafficking in Australia and throughout the region. The Government of Australia continued anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the last year.

These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious offenses, such as rape. Existing criminal laws do not adequately prohibit deceptive recruitment for labor services and offenses related to receiving and harboring trafficking victims.

Current law focuses on the movement of individuals with the use of physical force or threats of physical force, and does not cover non-physical forms of coercion or the use of fraud or deceit to exploit others. In some cases, it was difficult for prosecutors to prove that the defendant who allegedly engaged in exploitation had the necessary intent to exploit the victims during their movement. In , the government drafted an amendment to its criminal code to address this deficiency.

This draft amendment is available for public comment and the Australian government is currently reviewing stakeholder submissions. The AFP initiated 45 investigations during the year. As in past years, the majority of police investigations, 69 percent, were for suspected transnational sex trafficking. Labor trafficking cases were usually addressed through civil mechanisms. During the year, however, the government criminally prosecuted one case and obtained its first conviction under Division of the criminal code for a forced labor offense.

The convicted offender received a minimal sentence of community service and a fine. The government did not initiate any additional prosecutions during the year, a notable decrease from 13 prosecutions and five convictions during the previous year. Six cases initiated in a previous year remained pending at the close of the reporting period.

AFP investigators in the HTTs specialized in investigating trafficking offenses and the online sexual exploitation of children. The government provided two weeks of human trafficking investigations training to 20 police officers from across the country in May and June No government officials were investigated, prosecuted, or convicted for trafficking or trafficking-related criminal activities during the reporting period.

The Government of Australia sustained efforts to provide protection and care to victims of trafficking over the last year, though the number of victims identified decreased from the previous reporting period. Most of the 77 victims in government care during the year were identified in a previous year. The government and NGOs identified 11 trafficking victims in All victims who received services during the year were foreigners; most were from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. For the first time, more victims of labor trafficking were identified than victims of sex trafficking.

The government encouraged victims to participate in trafficking investigations; 89 percent of identified victims participated in an investigation or prosecution during the reporting period. Victims identified by authorities were not incarcerated, fined, or penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Officials followed formal procedures for proactively identifying victims involved in the legal sex trade, and referred them for services, though efforts to identify and assist victims of forced labor could be improved. To date, there have been few claims for compensation made on behalf of trafficking victims, and there are reports that victims are not always informed about visa options available to individuals who wish to remain in Australia to pursue compensation or civil remedies.

The Government of Australia continued to demonstrate notable efforts to prevent trafficking in persons during the year. In September , the government appointed a Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, whose formal duties include efforts to end the trafficking of women and girls. The government hosted a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons in November ; the Special Rapporteur stated that Australia has demonstrated strong leadership in combating trafficking in persons, but needs to increase victim support as well as efforts to combat labor trafficking.

Human trafficking units within the Australian Federal Police hosted a training seminar in April for 50 governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, which resulted in the formation of local human trafficking community groups that held stakeholder meetings in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. The Fair Work Ombudsman continued to conduct awareness campaigns and pursue efforts through the courts for workplace violations such as underpayment of wages; however, none of the cases it investigated were referred to the AFP or the Department of Immigration and Citizenship for criminal investigation of potential forced labor.

Australia is a regional leader in combating trafficking in persons. Australian diplomats and consular personnel received training on their obligations to report extraterritorial offenses of serious crimes, including child sex crimes and trafficking in persons. The government provided substantial funding for law enforcement training, victim assistance programs, and prevention activities throughout Southeast Asia.

The Australian Agency for International Development continued to fund anti-trafficking activities in the Asia-Pacific region, including efforts to improve criminal justice systems to address trafficking, enhance efforts to identify and protect child soldiers, and implement anti-trafficking public awareness programs. In , the government provided assistance to Cambodian authorities to prosecute and convict an Australian child sex offender; officials in Australia prosecuted two cases of alleged child sex tourism offenses, but did not obtain any convictions of such cases during the year.

The government did not take significant steps to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor during the reporting period. The Australian government educated troops and police officers on human trafficking prior to their deployments on international peacekeeping missions. Austria is a destination and transit country for women, men, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

Victims originate from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Some domestic servitude occurs at the hands of foreign diplomats from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa working in Austria. According to a March study funded by the European Commission, forced labor also occurs in the agricultural, construction, and catering sectors. The forced begging of Roma children and other children from Eastern Europe continues to be a problem. An NGO that works with Nigerian trafficking victims in Austria reports traffickers abuse the legal prostitution and asylum processes to control their victims.

The Government of Austria fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. During the reporting period the government prosecuted its first forced labor case and significantly increased the number of trafficking victims it identified and referred for care. The government continued its proactive efforts to prevent domestic servitude in diplomatic households, and it identified victims subjected to domestic servitude by diplomats during the year.

However, many convicted trafficking offenders continued to receive inadequate sentences of one year or less in prison. There were also reports that the government treated some trafficked children as offenders, particularly in areas outside of Vienna. In , the Austrian government demonstrated important progress in its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, including the first conviction for forced labor.

The government prohibits both sex trafficking and labor trafficking under article a of the Austrian criminal code, but continued to use primarily article , which prohibits the transnational movement of persons for prostitution, to prosecute suspected traffickers. Paragraph 2 of article prohibits the movement of people into Austria for prostitution.

In September , the government took an important step towards improving the handling of trafficking cases and increasing the penalties for traffickers when it established a human trafficking division within the Vienna criminal court staffed by a judge dedicated to trafficking cases. The government reportedly prosecuted 65 offenders using articles and a in — the most recent year for which comprehensive data were available — which is the same number of offenders prosecuted under these statutes in Austrian courts convicted 14 offenders in , the majority under article , a decrease from the 32 convicted trafficking offenders reported in Two offenders convicted under Article a received suspended sentences and no jail time.

According to a media report, a trafficker received a month sentence for the commercial sexual exploitation of a child. A case-based analysis of trafficking cases prosecuted under in and early demonstrates that the government used article to convict at least nine human trafficking offenders.

In March , a court convicted six Bulgarian nationals under article for subjecting 31 Bulgarian women to forced prostitution or forced begging. On April 3, , a court convicted three Serbian nationals under article for subjecting a Serbian woman to forced prostitution in the escort sector. In , the government reported it secured one conviction under its slavery law, article , which prescribes a minimum ten-year sentence; however, sentencing data was not available for this case.

In October , the government, in partnership with NGOs, conducted an anti-trafficking seminar for judges, prosecutors, and other officials. The government also addressed trafficking perpetrated by diplomats posted in Austria, despite challenges that diplomatic immunity posed to the prosecution of these offenders. The government reported that several diplomats left the country in due to pressure from the Austrian government, which included requiring diplomats suspected of trafficking to renew their diplomatic identification cards every three months.

The government did not prosecute any acts of trafficking-related complicity. The Government of Austria sustained effective partnerships with civil society to assist female victims of trafficking; these partnerships resulted in the identification of a significant number of trafficking victims in The government, in coordination with NGOs, identified trafficking victims in , compared to 63 identified in The report noted potential victims of child trafficking are sometimes treated as offenders and arrested for theft, drug trafficking, or prostitution-related offenses.

In , the police began screening women in prostitution for trafficking indicators. Police had at their disposal various manuals on trafficking and victim identification — including a pocket card developed in coordination with NGOs — that listed the main indicators for identifying victims of trafficking. In , the government, in cooperation with an NGO, launched a pilot project in a reception center for asylum seekers to facilitate the identification of trafficking victims. During the reporting period, the government identified 12 victims of domestic servitude in the residences of Asian, Middle Eastern, and African diplomats working in Austria.

Any victim of trafficking, regardless of potential retribution or hardship at home, who made a formal complaint to the police, could remain in Norway for the duration of trial; victims who testified in court were entitled to permanent residency.

2012 Trafficking in Persons Report - Austria

NGOs reported some difficulties in obtaining permanent residency for Nigerian trafficking victims who had testified in court, due to Norwegian government skepticism about the validity of the Nigerian identity documents. At least eight trafficking victims supported by the government-funded NGO testified in three separate trafficking trials in Only 17 out of the 44 victims cared for by the government-funded NGO project chose to report their situations to the police.

According to the NGO, some of the victims chose to use the six-month reflection period, some feared reprisals of traffickers during trial, and others were advised by their attorneys not to report their trafficking case, either because of absence of information or because the victim was struggling with mental illness. NGOs did not report the detention or punishment of any identified trafficking victims.

The Norwegian government sustained its trafficking prevention efforts during the reporting period. It framed many of its anti-trafficking prevention efforts in terms of preventing trafficking from the source countries. The Norwegian government continued to be a leading international anti-trafficking donor, significantly supporting victim care throughout the world, including in Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique. Norway named human trafficking as its priority during its chairmanship of the Council of Baltic Sea States, leading other countries in high-level policy discussions on coordinated trafficking responses.

The Norwegian government funded an anti-trafficking hotline that offered information to potential trafficking victims, government officials, and other NGOs. The government undertook steps to address the demand for commercial sex acts, including through investigating cases involving the purchase of sexual services of an adult.


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Norwegian law enforcement authorities collaborated with United States and Italian investigators on potential child sex tourism cases in Europe. The Norwegian national criminal investigation service mapped the situation of Norwegian nationals travelling to child sex tourism destinations. The government did not, however, fund any broad-based national trafficking awareness campaigns targeting labor or sex trafficking. The head of the Norwegian National Advisory Group Against Organized, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing took efforts to raise awareness about potential for forced labor on fishing vessels.

The government provided anti-trafficking training to Norwegian troops prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping missions. Oman is a destination and transit country for men and women, primarily from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Indonesia, who are subjected to conditions indicative of forced labor and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution.

Some subsequently face conditions indicative of forced labor, such as the withholding of passports and other restrictions on movement, nonpayment of wages, long working hours without food or rest, threats, and physical or sexual abuse. Government sources note that runaway domestic workers are also susceptible to coercion into forced prostitution. Oman is also a destination and transit country for women from China, India, Morocco, Eastern Europe, and parts of South Asia who may be forced into commercial sexual exploitation, generally by nationals of their own countries.

The majority of women identified as sex trafficking victims are from countries in East Africa, namely Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi. Male Pakistani laborers and others from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and East Asia transit Oman en route to the UAE; some of these migrant workers are exploited in situations of forced labor upon reaching their destination.

The Government of Oman does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government continued to prosecute suspected sex trafficking offenders and sentence convicted sex traffickers to imprisonment; however, it failed to ensure that some trafficking victims were not punished for prostitution they that may have engaged in at the outset of their victimization by sex traffickers.

The government failed to report any criminal prosecutions or punishment of labor trafficking offenders. The government continued to refer and assist victims of trafficking to a government-run shelter for trafficking victims. Nonetheless, Omani authorities continued to lack formal procedures to proactively identify trafficking victims among those detained for immigration violations. As a result, the government may not have adequately identified victims of forced labor or punished their traffickers. The government continued to provide anti-trafficking training to its law enforcement.

The Government of Oman sustained modest anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period. Through its Royal Decree No. These punishments are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Although the circular does not specify penalties for noncompliance, courts frequently enforced this prohibition by requiring employers to return passports to their employees; the government did not report the number of such cases during the reporting period.

The government failed to report on investigations and prosecutions of trafficking offenses in this reporting period that did not lead to convictions or acquittals. During the reporting period, the Government of Oman prosecuted and convicted twelve individuals for sex trafficking offenses, an increase over the number of convictions for sex trafficking reported last year.

Despite these convictions, the victims in these cases received six-month prison sentences for prostitution and were then deported. The government did not report any prosecutions or convictions of labor trafficking offenders. All Royal Oman Police officers receive training as cadets on human rights issues, including how to recognize trafficking in persons. The Royal Oman Police continued to operate and fund a permanent shelter, which opened in January , that can accommodate up to 50 men, women, and children who are victims of forced labor or sex trafficking.

Victims in this shelter may not leave the premises unchaperoned, but they can readily access shelter employees to accompany them offsite. The shelter remains underutilized due to strict government entry requirements; most victims are cared for by shelters run by the embassies of their home countries. The Public Prosecution only refers trafficking victims to the government shelter if it determines the case against the alleged offender s will go to trial; it remains unclear where the victims are housed prior to this decision.

During the reporting period, the Public Prosecution — the only entity who can refer victims to the shelter — referred 14 identified victims of sex trafficking to the government care facility for assistance, a decrease from the 24 victims the government referred to its shelter last year. There were no reports of child victims or victims of labor trafficking referred to the shelter during this reporting period.

The government continued to lack formal procedures to proactively identify victims of trafficking among all vulnerable groups, including migrants detained for immigration violations and women in prostitution. Due to a lack of comprehensive victim identification procedures, the Government of Oman failed to ensure that migrant workers subjected to forced labor or sex trafficking were not inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The government encouraged suspected trafficking victims to assist in trafficking investigations and prosecutions, but it did not provide them with a standard legal alternative to removal to countries in which they may face retribution or hardship.

Some victims, however, were permitted to stay in Oman on a case-by-case basis. Victims were not permitted to work while awaiting court proceedings. The government sustained modest efforts to prevent human trafficking during the reporting period. It continued to distribute brochures in numerous languages, highlighting the rights and services to which workers are legally entitled, to source country embassies and to new migrant laborers upon arrival in the country at airports, recruitment agencies, and in their places of work.

The government continued to operate an anti-trafficking hotline, but the government did not report how many calls the hotline received during the reporting period. The government also requires that all employers post labor law regulations in the languages of their workers in prominent locations at worksites. In addition, the government continued its public awareness campaign, which included the placement of at least one article or editorial about the labor law and trafficking issues in the press each month. There were no reported efforts by the government to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts in Oman.

Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Bonded labor is concentrated in the Sindh and Punjab provinces in agriculture and brick-making, and to a lesser extent in the mining, carpet-making, glass bangle, and fishing industries.

Bonded labor also exists in the fisheries, mining, and agricultural sectors of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Estimates of bonded labor victims, including men, women, and children, vary widely. The Asian Development Bank estimates that 1. In extreme scenarios, such as when bonded laborers attempt to seek legal redress, landowners have kidnapped them and their family members, holding laborers and their families in private jails.

Boys and girls are also bought, sold, rented, or kidnapped to work in organized forced begging rings, domestic servitude, and prostitution. NGOs report increased public visibility and awareness of the issue of violence in child domestic servitude, including sexual abuse, torture, and death. Illegal labor agents charge high fees to parents with false promises of decent work for their children, who are later exploited and subjected to forced labor in domestic servitude, unskilled labor, small shops, and other sectors. Children and adults with disabilities are forced to beg in Iran.

Non-state militant groups kidnap children or coerce parents with fraudulent promises or threats into giving away children as young as nine to spy, fight, or die as suicide bombers in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The militants often sexually and physically abuse the children and use psychological coercion to convince the children that the acts the children commit are justified.

Many Pakistani women and men migrate voluntarily to the Gulf states, Iran, Turkey, South Africa, Uganda, Greece, and other European countries for low-skilled employment such as domestic work, driving, or construction work; once abroad, some become victims of labor trafficking. Employers abroad use practices including restrictions on movement, nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse.

Moreover, traffickers use violence, psychological coercion, and isolation, often seizing travel and identification documents as a means to coerce Pakistani women and girls into prostitution. There are reports of child sex trafficking between Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan is a destination for men, women, and children from Afghanistan, Iran, and, to a lesser extent, Bangladesh, who are subjected to forced labor and prostitution.

Religious minorities, often in the lowest socio-economic stratum, and Afghan refugees are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. The Government of Pakistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so despite the severe floods the country experienced in and The government incorporated information about the differences between trafficking and smuggling in its routine anti-trafficking training, but did not criminally convict any bonded labor offenders or officials who facilitated trafficking in persons.

The lack of adequate governmental protection for trafficking victims continued. The Government of Pakistan made limited progress in responding to human trafficking offenses through law enforcement means over the last year. Several sections in the Pakistan Penal Code criminalize some forms of human trafficking, such as slavery, selling a child for prostitution, and unlawful compulsory labor, prescribing punishments for these offenses that range from fines to life imprisonment.

Pakistani officials have yet to secure a conviction under this law. Under the devolution process that started in , federal laws apply to provinces until corresponding provincial laws are enacted. In , the government passed the Anti-Women Practices Act, which, among other things, prohibits forced marriages in which women are used to settle debts.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2012

Prescribed penalties for the penal code and PACHTO offenses are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape. The government did not report any trafficking convictions under the penal code. The government prosecuted at least 55 traffickers in compared with at least 68 traffickers in under the penal code: However, since PACHTO also prohibits non-trafficking offenses, and since some government officials conflate trafficking and smuggling, the actual number of convicted trafficking offenders is unknown.

A regional anti-bonded labor unit in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, established in , continued to operate, but did not result in prosecutions or convictions for bonded labor offenses. Some feudal landlords are affiliated with political parties or are officials themselves and use their social, economic, and political influence to protect their involvement in bonded labor; a recent ILO report asserted that those who use bonded labor have been able to do so with impunity. Additionally, media and NGOs reported that some police received bribes from brothel owners, landowners, and factory owners who subjected Pakistanis to forced labor or forced prostitution, to ignore these human trafficking activities.

There were media and NGO reports that some low-level officials in the FIA anti-trafficking unit, including police, did not register trafficking cases in exchange for bribes or out of concern for their personal safety. The government did not report prosecutions or convictions for officials complicit in human trafficking. In these trainings, the FIA incorporated teachings of the differences between smuggling and trafficking.

The Government of Pakistan made little progress in the protection of victims of human trafficking during the reporting period. Pakistani authorities continued to lack adequate procedures and resources for proactively identifying victims of trafficking among vulnerable persons with whom they come in contact, especially child laborers, women in prostitution, and agricultural and brick kiln workers.

However, the FIA identified and referred some transnational victims to protective services. There were no credible data on the number of victims identified by the government. NGOs reported that trafficking victims were sometimes detained, fined, or jailed as a result of crimes committed in the course of their trafficking. Some victims were also detained in jails due to a shortage of appropriate shelters.

Various government-run shelters are available to female trafficking victims, but there is no information as to how many such trafficking victims were assisted in shelters in ; furthermore, there were reports of abuse and lack of freedom of movement in the shelters. In partnership with NGOs, the government continued to provide some services to rehabilitate child laborers, some of whom may be victims of forced labor.

The FIA reported that in partnership with NGOs, it provided some medical support, transportation, shelter, and limited legal services to victims of trafficking. There was no information as to how many trafficking victims received this support. The government did not provide information on whether it made progress in implementing its National Plan of Action for Abolition of Bonded Labour and Rehabilitation of Freed Bonded Labourers. There was no information on whether the Sindh provincial government continued to implement its project providing protection for freed bonded laborers, as noted in the TIP Report.

There was no information on whether the government encouraged victims of trafficking to participate in investigations against their traffickers. The government did not report providing foreign victims with legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face hardship or retribution. The Pakistani government made limited progress in its efforts to prevent human trafficking. FIA officials also gave speeches at universities and did radio and television interviews.

Many of the district vigilance committees to curb bonded labor, mandated by law, are either inactive or ineffectual. As a measure to establish the identity of local populations, the National Database and Registration Authority continued to register women in rural areas and internally-displaced people. In , various governmental academies reportedly provided training for all Pakistani UN Peacekeeping Mission forces, including in combating human trafficking, prior to their deployment abroad for international peacekeeping missions. The government took measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by prosecuting some clients of prostitution.

Palau is a destination country for women subjected to sex trafficking and for women and men subjected to forced labor. Some men and women reportedly are recruited for legitimate work from their home countries through fraudulent representation of contracts and conditions of employment. Excessive hours without pay, threats of physical or financial harm, confiscation of travel documents, and the withholding of salary payments are used as tools of coercion to obtain and maintain their compelled service.

Some men and women from the Philippines, China, and Bangladesh pay thousands of dollars in recruitment fees and willingly migrate to Palau for jobs in domestic service, agriculture, restaurants, or construction, although upon arrival are forced to work in conditions substantially different than what was presented in contracts or recruitment offers.

Women from China and the Philippines migrate to Palau expecting to work as waitresses or clerks, but subsequently are forced into prostitution in karaoke bars and massage parlors. Recent reports indicate that some Indonesian men who voluntarily migrate to Palau for work on fishing boats face fraudulent recruitment, altered working conditions, and the withholding of salaries.

Noncitizens are officially excluded from the minimum wage law, and regulations make it extremely difficult for foreign workers to change employers once they arrive in Palau, consequently increasing their vulnerability to involuntary servitude and debt bondage. The Government of Palau does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the year, the government investigated several cases of forced labor and assisted victims in obtaining new employment and housing.

However, it failed to provide any training for law enforcement officials on how to recognize, investigate, and prosecute instances of trafficking. Continue efforts to proactively investigate, prosecute, and punish trafficking offenders; continue publicly to highlight the issue and to recognize and condemn incidences of trafficking; increase resources devoted to address anti-trafficking efforts; prohibit the confiscation of identity documents of foreign workers; develop a national plan of action to combat human trafficking; continue to make vigorous efforts to combat corruption by officials involved in regulating the immigration and employment of foreign workers; monitor employment agents recruiting foreign men and women for work in Palau for compliance with existing labor laws to prevent their facilitation of trafficking; establish formal procedures for front-line officers to identify and refer trafficking victims to protective services; continue to develop and implement anti-trafficking information and education campaigns; and accede to the UN TIP Protocol.

The Government of Palau demonstrated increased law enforcement efforts to address human trafficking during the year. The government reported investigating four suspected trafficking cases, one of which remains ongoing and involves the forced labor of a Filipina domestic worker.

Two other investigations were completed and determined not to be human trafficking. Investigation of the fourth case was not completed because the victims — three Indonesian fishermen subjected to exploitation on a fishing boat — returned to Indonesia before they could be further interviewed. The government did not train law enforcement officers to proactively identify and assist victims or to identify victims among vulnerable populations, such as foreign workers or foreign women in prostitution.

During the reporting period, the former director of the Bureau of Immigration was charged with participating in a scheme to assist irregular migrants in avoiding standard immigration procedures, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence. The Government of Palau made modest efforts to identify and protect victims of trafficking during the reporting period. With the help of the Department of Labor, victims in ongoing trafficking investigations — specifically the three Indonesian fishermen involved in one of the four reported investigations of suspected human trafficking — obtained new employment.

The government sustained partnerships with local churches to offer shelter, food, and housing to potential trafficking victims; however, no victims were assisted through these partnerships during the year. The Government of Palau sustained its efforts to prevent human trafficking during the reporting period. During the reporting period, the government appointed an ombudsman dedicated to labor issues and trafficking in persons.

The Philippines Embassy regularly and formally notified the Palau government by diplomatic note when it added an employer to the blacklist. In addition, administrative as well as legal action is taken against employers suspected of labor abuses, including sanctions by the Bureau of Labor and Human Resources against the recruitment of new workers. The government did not provide any training for law enforcement officials on how to recognize, investigate, and prosecute instances of trafficking.

The government made no discernible effort to address the demand for commercial sex acts or the demand for forced labor during the reporting period. Panama is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Although Panamanian women and girls reportedly have been subjected to sex trafficking in other countries in the Western Hemisphere, most Panamanian trafficking victims are exploited within the country. Most foreign trafficking victims found in Panama are adult women from Colombia and, to a lesser extent, from neighboring Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.

Some victims migrate voluntarily to Panama to work, but are subsequently exploited in sex trafficking through the entertainment industry or in domestic servitude.

Diplomacy in Action

During the year, authorities identified several East European women working in nightclubs as potential sex trafficking victims. NGOs report that some Panamanian children, mostly young girls, are subjected to domestic servitude. Some Chinese men and women have been smuggled into the country to work in grocery stores and laundries, apparently in situations of debt bondage. The Government of Panama does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.

During the year, authorities passed comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, increased the number of sex trafficking investigations, and identified a significant number of potential trafficking victims. However, the government provided no funding for specialized victim services, did not report how many victims were assisted, and, for a second consecutive year, convicted no trafficking offenders.

Increase funding for specialized victim services, particularly for adult victims, possibly through funding a dedicated shelter; intensify law enforcement efforts to investigate and prosecute both labor and sex trafficking crimes and convict and sentence trafficking offenders, including complicit officials; strengthen government-provided training for police officers, immigration officials, social workers, and other government officials in anti-trafficking laws and victim identification and care; develop formal guidelines for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, particularly women in prostitution and migrant workers, in order to standardize victim identification efforts; increase funding and training on how to investigate trafficking cases for anti-trafficking police and prosecutors; and strengthen interagency coordination mechanisms.

The Government of Panama increased investigations of trafficking crimes and strengthened its legal framework during the reporting period, although it achieved no trafficking convictions during the year. These punishments are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. The new law also prohibits moving people for the purposes of prostitution and illegal adoption, offenses that are not considered trafficking under the UN TIP Protocol. Previously, Panamanian law had not criminalized forced labor.

During the reporting period, authorities investigated nine sex-trafficking cases and initiated the prosecution of four accused trafficking offenders. However, authorities reported that no trafficking offenders were convicted during the year. During the previous reporting period, authorities initiated five prosecutions, but convicted no traffickers. Authorities maintained a small law enforcement unit to investigate sex trafficking and related offenses, but the unit remained understaffed.

The organized crime prosecutorial unit continued to be responsible for trafficking cases and increased its staff from two to 12 prosecutors. The lack of systematic data collection for trafficking crimes remained an impediment. Authorities continued to prosecute six former immigration officials for their roles in a possible trafficking case.

In addition, officials opened investigations against two senior immigration officials for complicity in trafficking-related offenses, but charges were subsequently dropped. In , the government trained 80 government tourist officials on how to identify trafficking victims. Other Panamanian officials participated in training on how to investigate trafficking cases provided by international organizations and foreign governments in collaboration with Panamanian authorities.

Despite increased victim identification and the efforts of individual Panamanian officials to assist some victims during the year, specialized services for trafficking victims remained virtually nonexistent in the country. Authorities did not employ formal procedures for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as detained undocumented migrants and people in prostitution. However, authorities investigating drug crimes collaborated with organized crime prosecutors when conducting raids on commercial sex sites in order to assist identification of trafficking victims.

Officials reported identifying 80 potential trafficking victims, but did not report how many of these victims received services. While authorities reported referring some victims to NGOs and other institutions providing care services, it is unclear if they did so in a systematic fashion.

Specialized services for trafficking victims remained inadequate, and authorities did not report funding NGOs to provide services or shelter. NGO and government shelters for child victims of abuse and violence could provide services to child trafficking victims, although there were no reports that they did so in practice in In the absence of shelters for adults, authorities noted that they could house adult victims in hotels on an ad hoc basis, although they did not report doing so in practice during the year, and some victims identified by authorities had to pay for their own lodging after being rescued.

Officials reported that victims identified by law enforcement officials received a psychological evaluation as well as medical, psychological, and legal services, although these services were not continuous. There were no long-term services available to trafficking victims. Panamanian authorities encouraged victims to assist with the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenders, although officials reported difficulties in obtaining victim participation in investigations and did not report how many victims they assisted during the year.

The new anti-trafficking law provided legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims of trafficking to countries where they might face hardship or retribution. However, authorities did not provide information on the number of victims, if any, who received such immigration relief during the reporting period. Law enforcement officials facilitated the voluntary repatriation of some foreign victims, paying out of their own pocket for travel expenses in at least one case.

Trafficking victims were not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Due to the lack of victim identification guidelines, not all foreign victims may have been identified before their deportation. During the reporting period, the Government of Panama, in partnership with an international organization, maintained efforts to prevent human trafficking through a campaign to raise awareness about the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The new law established an anti-trafficking committee, which met twice during the reporting period and began drafting a national anti-trafficking action plan.

Child sex tourism is prohibited by law, and authorities partnered with an NGO and the tourism sector to raise awareness about this problem. However, there were no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of child sex tourists reported during the year. The government did not undertake any other efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or initiatives to reduce the demand for forced labor.

Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Women and children are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude and men are forced to labor in logging and mining camps. Children, especially young girls from tribal areas, are most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation; they are also subjected to forced labor by members of their immediate family or tribe.

Families traditionally sell girls into forced marriages to settle debts, leaving them vulnerable to forced domestic service, and tribal leaders trade the exploitative labor and service of girls and women for guns and political advantage. In more urban areas, some children from poorer families are prostituted by their parents or sold to brothels. Migrant women and teenage girls from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to sex trafficking, and men from China are transported to the country for forced labor. Asian crime rings, foreign logging companies, and foreign businesspeople arrange for some women to voluntarily enter Papua New Guinea with fraudulently issued tourist or business visas.

Subsequent to their arrival, many of the women are turned over to traffickers who transport them to logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites to exploit them in forced prostitution and domestic servitude. Foreign and local men are exploited for labor at commercial mines and logging camps, where some receive almost no pay and are compelled to continue working for the company indefinitely through debt bondage schemes.