Released by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
US Department of State
Trafficking in Persons Interim Assessment
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President in December 2003, requires the Department of State to submit to the Congress an Interim Assessment of the progress made in combating trafficking in persons (TIP) by those countries placed on the Special Watch List in September 2006. The evaluation period covers the six months since the release of the June 2006 annual report.
This year, 39 countries are on the Special Watch List. These countries either (1) had moved up a tier in the 2006 TIP Report over the last year's Report, or (2) were ranked on Tier 2 in the 2006 TIP Report, but (a) had failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat TIP from the previous year, (b) were placed on Tier 2 because of commitments to carry out additional future actions over the coming year, or (c) had a significant or significantly increasing number of trafficking victims. Thirty-four of the 39 countries on the Special Watch List are in the second category--ranked as Tier 2 Watch List--including two countries initially ranked as Tier 3 in the June 2006 TIP Report, but reassessed as Tier 2 Watch List countries by the State Department in September 2006 (Belize and Laos). Attached to this Interim Assessment is an overview of the tier process.
In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti trafficking progress of countries which may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2007 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2006 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May--the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report--and November. Readers are requested to refer back to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country.
Tier Process
The Department placed each of the countries included on the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report into one of the three lists, described here as tiers, mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA). This placement reflects an evaluation of a government's actions to combat trafficking. The Department first evaluates whether the government fully complies with the TVPRA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Countries whose governments do so are placed in Tier 1. For other countries, the Department considers whether their governments made significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance. Countries whose governments are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2. Those countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3. Finally, the Special Watch List criteria are considered and, if applicable, Tier 2 countries are placed on the Tier 2 Special Watch List.
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
Cambodia
The Government of Cambodia made significant progress in combating trafficking in persons problem since the release of the 2006 Report. The National Police reported that as of September 2006, 58 traffickers and pimps had been turned over to the judiciary for prosecution. At least 34 convictions were handed down, with sentences ranging from 3 to 24 years. A comprehensive draft anti-trafficking bill was found to be incompatible with the draft penal code in late 2006 and is being modified. Police statistics indicate that as of October 2006, 32 establishments offering trafficking victims for sale have been closed.
Cambodia has modestly increased efforts to combat trafficking-related corruption, although punishment of offenders with appropriate prison sentences remains uneven. In August 2006, three police officers of the Ministry of Interior's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Department were convicted of trafficking-related corruption. However, only one of the three was imprisoned, one officer remains at large, and the other remains in his position. The National Police reported three additional arrests of low-ranking military officers for trafficking-related crimes during 2006.
China
The Government of China increased efforts to combat trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. Since June, China's law enforcement bodies undertook numerous actions throughout the country that resulted in the reported rescue of at least 234 trafficked women and children, the arrest of five suspected traffickers, and the conviction of six traffickers.
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) reports that trafficking victims returning from abroad are not punished or fined, but acknowledges that border officials are not able to systematically identify trafficking victims from among Chinese citizens who travel abroad illegally. The All China Women's Federation (ACWF), a government-affiliated organization, has on occasion successfully coordinated with Chinese immigration authorities to cancel the "illegal immigration" fines of up to $250 and 15-day detentions imposed on Chinese victims returning from abroad, but can only do so on an ad hoc basis. The ACWF continued a program launched in 2005 to train border officials to identify signs of trafficking; additional training will take place in early 2007.
In September, the government signed an agreement with the International Organization for Migration to set up an office in Beijing to work on migration issues, including labor and other trafficking. Chinese authorities, including border police, the Public Security Bureau's (PSB) Entry/Exit Division, and the Labor Bureau, received training on trafficking issues affecting areas along China's borders with Vietnam and Burma.
The ACWF and several NGOs provide hotline and legal services to victims throughout the country. Additional shelters dedicated to victims of trafficking have been opened since June 2006: in December, the ACWF, in partnership with local and provincial government authorities and the ILO, opened a shelter for trafficked women and children in Mingguang City, the first such shelter in Anhui Province. In November, authorities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu Province opened a shelter for victims of labor trafficking. The project, coordinated with the ILO, not only provides a shelter, but offers education, training, and legal and employment assistance. In Wuxi, another region of Jiangsu, the United Nations provided assistance in the October/November opening of a "Home for Migrant Women," a shelter that provides anti-trafficking training, as well as opportunities for women to learn about local labor law and take classes to improve work skills. In Guangxi, the ACWF worked with UNICEF to improve services provided in a shelter for Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking that opened in February.
China's anti-trafficking laws do not yet fully conform with international standards. The current definition of trafficking is limited to the abducting, kidnapping, buying, fetching, sending, or transferring of a woman or child for the purpose of selling that victim, and does not cover the broad range of forms, methods, and purposes of trafficking found in the definition of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Protocol). While trafficking of children under the age of 18 is a crime, penalties for trafficking children between the ages of 14 and 18 are not as severe as for trafficking children under the age of 14. Moreover, Chinese law does not automatically consider anyone under 18 years old involved in commercial sexual exploitation to be a victim of trafficking, despite international standards that establish this definition. Victims of labor trafficking also remain unprotected by China's current definition of trafficking, although many victims do have recourse under other legislation, such as the Labor Law and various provisions of the Criminal Code.
To address continuing deficiencies, China has prepared an anti-trafficking National Plan of Action. The Plan will be rolled out as part of China's commitment to the Greater Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking, which China will host next spring. The government, through its state-controlled media, gave wide coverage to training sessions in Beijing, Nanning, and Kunming that were designed to highlight trafficking issues and encourage print and broadcast journalists to cover stories from a victims' perspective. Other public outreach programs include a campaign by the Sichuan PSB targeting major labor markets, with informational posters, public service announcements on large television screens in the markets, and the distribution of pamphlets explaining legal protections, resource information, and hotline numbers.
Indonesia
The Government of Indonesia has made modest progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The National Police trafficking unit reported that as of October 2006, 90 suspects in 24 cases were under investigation for trafficking crimes involving 437 victims; this is an increase from the 82 suspects in 12 cases investigated for trafficking crimes involving 143 victims in all of 2005. Police submitted 23 trafficking cases for prosecution through October 2006. The Attorney General's Office is currently prosecuting 24 cases. As of November 2006 there were 18 convictions handed down by courts in 2006, with an average sentence of 4 years imprisonment.
The Ministry of Manpower has done little to enforce existing labor laws that would protect workers against internal and external trafficking, allowing some employment agencies to traffic workers for debt bondage. There is a lack of awareness about the trafficking problems associated with Indonesian girls and women who migrate abroad and are subjected to domestic servitude or Indonesian children employed as domestic workers within Indonesia. An agreement signed between the Indonesian and Malaysian governments in May 2006 governing the employment of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia contains provisions inconsistent with international anti-trafficking standards, such as lack of protection of the right of a migrant worker to keep custody of his or her passport.
Indonesia increased efforts to combat trafficking-related corruption. In September 2006 the Anti-Corruption Court sentenced a former Indonesian consul general in Malaysia to 20 months in jail for charging illegal fees to process immigration documents. A local government official was arrested by police and remains in custody for issuing false documents used by traffickers. A number of investigations of suspected complicit senior officials were started since May 2006, but precise data is not available.
Laos
The Government of Laos made modest progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The Lao Women's Union (LWU), with the assistance of UNICEF, disseminated information on the law throughout the country among citizens and government officials. The Lao Women's Union in mid-2006 conducted trafficking-related training for governors, vice governors, prosecutors, police commanders, presidents, and vice presidents of provincial courts across the country. In addition, the LWU held separate seminars for police officers on trafficking legislation and victim protection in several provinces. The government in July 2006 provided immigration officers with training intended to end the practice of fining, taxing, or otherwise confiscating money from returning migrants and trafficking victims.
The Lao Anti-People's Trafficking Unit arrested a woman in August 2006 and charged her with trafficking, and in late October authorities arrested a group of three people that were subsequently charged with human trafficking. Laos did not provide any information regarding efforts to combat trafficking-related corruption through increased criminal investigations or prosecution of officials involved in trafficking.
Macau
The authorities in Macau showed slight progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The authorities have yet to recognize the serious problem of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation found within the territory's substantial international sex trade; this is reflected in a lack of significant steps taken to prosecute trafficking crimes and to find and protect victims of trafficking. However, the government recently reported ten cases of trafficking in persons, involving 17 women brought to Macau under false pretenses and four cases of abuse of prostitutes during the first half of 2006.
Macau authorities have not yet recognized, nor taken steps to draft legislation to address certain important gaps in the territory's laws related to trafficking. The Macau government, however, has recognized deficiencies in the laws relating to the welfare of women and children and is now reviewing applicable laws and covenants with an aim toward revising them in a coherent way. Moreover, there were no reports of authorities using laws that criminalize activities related to trafficking to prosecute traffickers and their accomplices, despite press, NGO, and foreign government reports of organized crime and human trafficking in Macau.
Macau continued to lack any significant protections for victims of trafficking. There remains no shelter or counseling resources dedicated to trafficking victims and local authorities made no discernable moves to address this deficiency. Macau law enforcement officials, despite some training on trafficking in persons, did not show any significant efforts to identify victims of trafficking among the foreign women in prostitution arrested for immigration violations or other violations.
Efforts to raise public awareness of the threat of trafficking in persons were absent, and the authorities of the Macau Special Administrative Region did not initiate any policy discussions that would lead to a policy and action plan for dealing with trafficking in the territory.
Malaysia
The Government of Malaysia has made minimal progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. A commitment made in 2004 to open a shelter for trafficking victims remains unfulfilled. The government has yet to produce a clear policy or structure for dealing with trafficking; it has not acted on a draft anti-trafficking plan of action developed late in 2004 by Malaysia's Human Rights Commission with USG-funded technical assistance. Individual ministries within the government appear committed to taking steps to address trafficking but they lack the direction or political leadership necessary for a coordinated and effective approach.
The Malaysian government announced in December that it is drafting a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill with plans to submit the bill to parliament in March 2007. There have been few efforts to use Malaysia's existing laws to prosecute trafficking in persons crimes. Police and immigration officials at the working level showed recognition of the trafficking problem and a desire to address it, yet they remained stymied by a lack of high-level Malaysian government political commitment and concomitant devotion of resources towards the problem.
The Malaysian government undertook no significant steps to improve the treatment of foreign trafficking victims in Malaysia. Most of these victims continued to be treated as violators of immigration laws and were incarcerated in jails or immigration detention centers pending removal. Others were allowed to seek refuge in a shelter run by their home government's embassy or consulate in Malaysia while they awaited deportation. The government continued to round up migrant workers who had run away from their Malaysian employers and deported them as violators of Malaysian immigration law without screening them to identify and provide care for victims of trafficking. A commitment by Malaysian government officials to support a shelter with services for trafficking victims remained unfulfilled.
Singapore
Since its upgrade to Tier One in the 2006 Report, the Government of Singapore has made further progress in combating trafficking in persons.
The Ministry of Manpower instituted a number of new measures aimed at addressing working conditions and abuses of foreign domestic workers. In September 2006, employment agencies' accreditation bodies introduced a new standard contract for employers of foreign domestics that guarantees at least one day off per month or additional pay. In October 2006, the Ministry ordered that foreign domestics may demand direct deposit of their salaries into their bank accounts. Also in October, the Ministry started a newsletter that is mailed directly to foreign domestic workers. The newsletter, provided in several languages, includes information on their rights and responsibilities, as well as on the importance of workplace safety. The government continued to prosecute abusive employers of foreign domestics. In October 2006, an employer was sentenced to 9 months in prison for scalding her maid and beating her.
The Government of Singapore continued to work with NGOs and foreign embassies to ensure that victims of sexual exploitation are provided shelter, counseling, health care, and physical security. Responding to the recent news and public outcry over Vietnamese brides being brought to Singapore to find husbands, an inter-agency working group on marriage brokers set up in early 2006 continues to consult with broker agencies, but has yet to issue recommendations to improve the way they conduct business and prevent potential trafficking.
The Ministry of Manpower launched a new program of randomly interviewing foreign domestic workers to evaluate their working conditions, including possible forced labor or involuntary servitude, and to reinforce knowledge of their rights, responsibilities, and safety. The Singapore government, however, has yet to implement a systematic screening of at-risk populations such as migrant workers and foreign women in prostitution in order to identify and care for victims of trafficking.
Taiwan
Taiwan authorities have made modest progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. In November, Taiwan authorities issued an Action Plan that opens a dialogue with civil society and created a multi-agency task force to be headed by a specially appointed cabinet-level minister. The Taiwan authorities reported an increased number of cases submitted for prosecution in 2006 that are related to trafficking in persons, though it is not known how many involve actual trafficking crimes. Prosecutions and convictions through October 2006 for child sexual abuse, including trafficking offenses, decreased to 98 from 150 during the same timeframe in 2005, but conviction rates increased by twelve percent. Taiwan authorities, however, failed to prosecute any offenses of trafficking for forced labor or domestic servitude despite evidence of a significant trafficking problem among the 350,000 Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Filipino workers in Taiwan.
Taiwan authorities did not make progress in developing a system to identify and protect foreign workers who have been subjected to conditions of forced labor or involuntary servitude. A few NGOs are the only source of protection and legal aid for foreign victims of trafficking who have fled from abusive Taiwan employers. Taiwan labor brokers reportedly continued to deport involuntarily foreign workers who complained about abusive conditions, preventing any opportunity for the worker to press criminal charges of forced labor. Nevertheless, the Council for Labor Affairs made significant improvements in its policies and regulations governing the terms and conditions of work for foreign laborers in Taiwan, including bilateral agreements reached with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, to allow foreign domestic workers to apply directly to the Taiwan Council for Labor Affairs for work, rather than going through Taiwan labor brokerage agencies that are known for exploitative practices. To encourage foreign workers to cooperate with time-consuming trafficking investigations and prosecutions, Taiwan authorities ceased the practice of deducting the time required to complete a trafficking case from the authorized work period in Taiwan. Punishment for employers who exploit foreign laborers and use forced labor, however, remain administrative (fines), and thus inadequate to deter additional trafficking crimes.
To prevent trafficking of Southeast Asian women through fraudulent marriages -- which has become a significant problem in Taiwan -- the Ministry of Interior banned the registration of new international marriage firms based in Taiwan and strengthened regulations and monitoring of existing firms. Steps taken by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to tighten the screening of Southeast Asian women applying for visas as "brides" of Taiwan men has led to a marked decrease in the number of spousal visas issued.
This year, 39 countries are on the Special Watch List. These countries either (1) had moved up a tier in the 2006 TIP Report over the last year's Report, or (2) were ranked on Tier 2 in the 2006 TIP Report, but (a) had failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat TIP from the previous year, (b) were placed on Tier 2 because of commitments to carry out additional future actions over the coming year, or (c) had a significant or significantly increasing number of trafficking victims. Thirty-four of the 39 countries on the Special Watch List are in the second category--ranked as Tier 2 Watch List--including two countries initially ranked as Tier 3 in the June 2006 TIP Report, but reassessed as Tier 2 Watch List countries by the State Department in September 2006 (Belize and Laos). Attached to this Interim Assessment is an overview of the tier process.
In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti trafficking progress of countries which may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2007 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2006 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May--the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report--and November. Readers are requested to refer back to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country.
Tier Process
The Department placed each of the countries included on the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report into one of the three lists, described here as tiers, mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA). This placement reflects an evaluation of a government's actions to combat trafficking. The Department first evaluates whether the government fully complies with the TVPRA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Countries whose governments do so are placed in Tier 1. For other countries, the Department considers whether their governments made significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance. Countries whose governments are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2. Those countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3. Finally, the Special Watch List criteria are considered and, if applicable, Tier 2 countries are placed on the Tier 2 Special Watch List.
The TiersAs required by the TVPA, in making tier determinations between Tiers 2 and 3, the Department considers the overall extent of human trafficking in the country; the extent of government noncompliance with the minimum standards, particularly the extent to which government officials have participated in, facilitated, condoned, or are otherwise complicit in trafficking; and what reasonable measures the government would have to take to come into compliance with the minimum standards within the government's resources and capabilities.
Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Act's minimum standards.
Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 Special Watch List: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and:
a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is increasing significantly; or
b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.
Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
Cambodia
The Government of Cambodia made significant progress in combating trafficking in persons problem since the release of the 2006 Report. The National Police reported that as of September 2006, 58 traffickers and pimps had been turned over to the judiciary for prosecution. At least 34 convictions were handed down, with sentences ranging from 3 to 24 years. A comprehensive draft anti-trafficking bill was found to be incompatible with the draft penal code in late 2006 and is being modified. Police statistics indicate that as of October 2006, 32 establishments offering trafficking victims for sale have been closed.
Cambodia has modestly increased efforts to combat trafficking-related corruption, although punishment of offenders with appropriate prison sentences remains uneven. In August 2006, three police officers of the Ministry of Interior's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Department were convicted of trafficking-related corruption. However, only one of the three was imprisoned, one officer remains at large, and the other remains in his position. The National Police reported three additional arrests of low-ranking military officers for trafficking-related crimes during 2006.
China
The Government of China increased efforts to combat trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. Since June, China's law enforcement bodies undertook numerous actions throughout the country that resulted in the reported rescue of at least 234 trafficked women and children, the arrest of five suspected traffickers, and the conviction of six traffickers.
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) reports that trafficking victims returning from abroad are not punished or fined, but acknowledges that border officials are not able to systematically identify trafficking victims from among Chinese citizens who travel abroad illegally. The All China Women's Federation (ACWF), a government-affiliated organization, has on occasion successfully coordinated with Chinese immigration authorities to cancel the "illegal immigration" fines of up to $250 and 15-day detentions imposed on Chinese victims returning from abroad, but can only do so on an ad hoc basis. The ACWF continued a program launched in 2005 to train border officials to identify signs of trafficking; additional training will take place in early 2007.
In September, the government signed an agreement with the International Organization for Migration to set up an office in Beijing to work on migration issues, including labor and other trafficking. Chinese authorities, including border police, the Public Security Bureau's (PSB) Entry/Exit Division, and the Labor Bureau, received training on trafficking issues affecting areas along China's borders with Vietnam and Burma.
The ACWF and several NGOs provide hotline and legal services to victims throughout the country. Additional shelters dedicated to victims of trafficking have been opened since June 2006: in December, the ACWF, in partnership with local and provincial government authorities and the ILO, opened a shelter for trafficked women and children in Mingguang City, the first such shelter in Anhui Province. In November, authorities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu Province opened a shelter for victims of labor trafficking. The project, coordinated with the ILO, not only provides a shelter, but offers education, training, and legal and employment assistance. In Wuxi, another region of Jiangsu, the United Nations provided assistance in the October/November opening of a "Home for Migrant Women," a shelter that provides anti-trafficking training, as well as opportunities for women to learn about local labor law and take classes to improve work skills. In Guangxi, the ACWF worked with UNICEF to improve services provided in a shelter for Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking that opened in February.
China's anti-trafficking laws do not yet fully conform with international standards. The current definition of trafficking is limited to the abducting, kidnapping, buying, fetching, sending, or transferring of a woman or child for the purpose of selling that victim, and does not cover the broad range of forms, methods, and purposes of trafficking found in the definition of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Protocol). While trafficking of children under the age of 18 is a crime, penalties for trafficking children between the ages of 14 and 18 are not as severe as for trafficking children under the age of 14. Moreover, Chinese law does not automatically consider anyone under 18 years old involved in commercial sexual exploitation to be a victim of trafficking, despite international standards that establish this definition. Victims of labor trafficking also remain unprotected by China's current definition of trafficking, although many victims do have recourse under other legislation, such as the Labor Law and various provisions of the Criminal Code.
To address continuing deficiencies, China has prepared an anti-trafficking National Plan of Action. The Plan will be rolled out as part of China's commitment to the Greater Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking, which China will host next spring. The government, through its state-controlled media, gave wide coverage to training sessions in Beijing, Nanning, and Kunming that were designed to highlight trafficking issues and encourage print and broadcast journalists to cover stories from a victims' perspective. Other public outreach programs include a campaign by the Sichuan PSB targeting major labor markets, with informational posters, public service announcements on large television screens in the markets, and the distribution of pamphlets explaining legal protections, resource information, and hotline numbers.
Indonesia
The Government of Indonesia has made modest progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The National Police trafficking unit reported that as of October 2006, 90 suspects in 24 cases were under investigation for trafficking crimes involving 437 victims; this is an increase from the 82 suspects in 12 cases investigated for trafficking crimes involving 143 victims in all of 2005. Police submitted 23 trafficking cases for prosecution through October 2006. The Attorney General's Office is currently prosecuting 24 cases. As of November 2006 there were 18 convictions handed down by courts in 2006, with an average sentence of 4 years imprisonment.
The Ministry of Manpower has done little to enforce existing labor laws that would protect workers against internal and external trafficking, allowing some employment agencies to traffic workers for debt bondage. There is a lack of awareness about the trafficking problems associated with Indonesian girls and women who migrate abroad and are subjected to domestic servitude or Indonesian children employed as domestic workers within Indonesia. An agreement signed between the Indonesian and Malaysian governments in May 2006 governing the employment of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia contains provisions inconsistent with international anti-trafficking standards, such as lack of protection of the right of a migrant worker to keep custody of his or her passport.
Indonesia increased efforts to combat trafficking-related corruption. In September 2006 the Anti-Corruption Court sentenced a former Indonesian consul general in Malaysia to 20 months in jail for charging illegal fees to process immigration documents. A local government official was arrested by police and remains in custody for issuing false documents used by traffickers. A number of investigations of suspected complicit senior officials were started since May 2006, but precise data is not available.
Laos
The Government of Laos made modest progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The Lao Women's Union (LWU), with the assistance of UNICEF, disseminated information on the law throughout the country among citizens and government officials. The Lao Women's Union in mid-2006 conducted trafficking-related training for governors, vice governors, prosecutors, police commanders, presidents, and vice presidents of provincial courts across the country. In addition, the LWU held separate seminars for police officers on trafficking legislation and victim protection in several provinces. The government in July 2006 provided immigration officers with training intended to end the practice of fining, taxing, or otherwise confiscating money from returning migrants and trafficking victims.
The Lao Anti-People's Trafficking Unit arrested a woman in August 2006 and charged her with trafficking, and in late October authorities arrested a group of three people that were subsequently charged with human trafficking. Laos did not provide any information regarding efforts to combat trafficking-related corruption through increased criminal investigations or prosecution of officials involved in trafficking.
Macau
The authorities in Macau showed slight progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The authorities have yet to recognize the serious problem of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation found within the territory's substantial international sex trade; this is reflected in a lack of significant steps taken to prosecute trafficking crimes and to find and protect victims of trafficking. However, the government recently reported ten cases of trafficking in persons, involving 17 women brought to Macau under false pretenses and four cases of abuse of prostitutes during the first half of 2006.
Macau authorities have not yet recognized, nor taken steps to draft legislation to address certain important gaps in the territory's laws related to trafficking. The Macau government, however, has recognized deficiencies in the laws relating to the welfare of women and children and is now reviewing applicable laws and covenants with an aim toward revising them in a coherent way. Moreover, there were no reports of authorities using laws that criminalize activities related to trafficking to prosecute traffickers and their accomplices, despite press, NGO, and foreign government reports of organized crime and human trafficking in Macau.
Macau continued to lack any significant protections for victims of trafficking. There remains no shelter or counseling resources dedicated to trafficking victims and local authorities made no discernable moves to address this deficiency. Macau law enforcement officials, despite some training on trafficking in persons, did not show any significant efforts to identify victims of trafficking among the foreign women in prostitution arrested for immigration violations or other violations.
Efforts to raise public awareness of the threat of trafficking in persons were absent, and the authorities of the Macau Special Administrative Region did not initiate any policy discussions that would lead to a policy and action plan for dealing with trafficking in the territory.
Malaysia
The Government of Malaysia has made minimal progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. A commitment made in 2004 to open a shelter for trafficking victims remains unfulfilled. The government has yet to produce a clear policy or structure for dealing with trafficking; it has not acted on a draft anti-trafficking plan of action developed late in 2004 by Malaysia's Human Rights Commission with USG-funded technical assistance. Individual ministries within the government appear committed to taking steps to address trafficking but they lack the direction or political leadership necessary for a coordinated and effective approach.
The Malaysian government announced in December that it is drafting a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill with plans to submit the bill to parliament in March 2007. There have been few efforts to use Malaysia's existing laws to prosecute trafficking in persons crimes. Police and immigration officials at the working level showed recognition of the trafficking problem and a desire to address it, yet they remained stymied by a lack of high-level Malaysian government political commitment and concomitant devotion of resources towards the problem.
The Malaysian government undertook no significant steps to improve the treatment of foreign trafficking victims in Malaysia. Most of these victims continued to be treated as violators of immigration laws and were incarcerated in jails or immigration detention centers pending removal. Others were allowed to seek refuge in a shelter run by their home government's embassy or consulate in Malaysia while they awaited deportation. The government continued to round up migrant workers who had run away from their Malaysian employers and deported them as violators of Malaysian immigration law without screening them to identify and provide care for victims of trafficking. A commitment by Malaysian government officials to support a shelter with services for trafficking victims remained unfulfilled.
Singapore
Since its upgrade to Tier One in the 2006 Report, the Government of Singapore has made further progress in combating trafficking in persons.
The Ministry of Manpower instituted a number of new measures aimed at addressing working conditions and abuses of foreign domestic workers. In September 2006, employment agencies' accreditation bodies introduced a new standard contract for employers of foreign domestics that guarantees at least one day off per month or additional pay. In October 2006, the Ministry ordered that foreign domestics may demand direct deposit of their salaries into their bank accounts. Also in October, the Ministry started a newsletter that is mailed directly to foreign domestic workers. The newsletter, provided in several languages, includes information on their rights and responsibilities, as well as on the importance of workplace safety. The government continued to prosecute abusive employers of foreign domestics. In October 2006, an employer was sentenced to 9 months in prison for scalding her maid and beating her.
The Government of Singapore continued to work with NGOs and foreign embassies to ensure that victims of sexual exploitation are provided shelter, counseling, health care, and physical security. Responding to the recent news and public outcry over Vietnamese brides being brought to Singapore to find husbands, an inter-agency working group on marriage brokers set up in early 2006 continues to consult with broker agencies, but has yet to issue recommendations to improve the way they conduct business and prevent potential trafficking.
The Ministry of Manpower launched a new program of randomly interviewing foreign domestic workers to evaluate their working conditions, including possible forced labor or involuntary servitude, and to reinforce knowledge of their rights, responsibilities, and safety. The Singapore government, however, has yet to implement a systematic screening of at-risk populations such as migrant workers and foreign women in prostitution in order to identify and care for victims of trafficking.
Taiwan
Taiwan authorities have made modest progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. In November, Taiwan authorities issued an Action Plan that opens a dialogue with civil society and created a multi-agency task force to be headed by a specially appointed cabinet-level minister. The Taiwan authorities reported an increased number of cases submitted for prosecution in 2006 that are related to trafficking in persons, though it is not known how many involve actual trafficking crimes. Prosecutions and convictions through October 2006 for child sexual abuse, including trafficking offenses, decreased to 98 from 150 during the same timeframe in 2005, but conviction rates increased by twelve percent. Taiwan authorities, however, failed to prosecute any offenses of trafficking for forced labor or domestic servitude despite evidence of a significant trafficking problem among the 350,000 Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Filipino workers in Taiwan.
Taiwan authorities did not make progress in developing a system to identify and protect foreign workers who have been subjected to conditions of forced labor or involuntary servitude. A few NGOs are the only source of protection and legal aid for foreign victims of trafficking who have fled from abusive Taiwan employers. Taiwan labor brokers reportedly continued to deport involuntarily foreign workers who complained about abusive conditions, preventing any opportunity for the worker to press criminal charges of forced labor. Nevertheless, the Council for Labor Affairs made significant improvements in its policies and regulations governing the terms and conditions of work for foreign laborers in Taiwan, including bilateral agreements reached with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, to allow foreign domestic workers to apply directly to the Taiwan Council for Labor Affairs for work, rather than going through Taiwan labor brokerage agencies that are known for exploitative practices. To encourage foreign workers to cooperate with time-consuming trafficking investigations and prosecutions, Taiwan authorities ceased the practice of deducting the time required to complete a trafficking case from the authorized work period in Taiwan. Punishment for employers who exploit foreign laborers and use forced labor, however, remain administrative (fines), and thus inadequate to deter additional trafficking crimes.
To prevent trafficking of Southeast Asian women through fraudulent marriages -- which has become a significant problem in Taiwan -- the Ministry of Interior banned the registration of new international marriage firms based in Taiwan and strengthened regulations and monitoring of existing firms. Steps taken by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to tighten the screening of Southeast Asian women applying for visas as "brides" of Taiwan men has led to a marked decrease in the number of spousal visas issued.
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