2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

ments continued to fund the majority of private
organizations and NGOs providing services to trafficking
victims. However, neither the government
nor NGOs provided shelters for male victims. The
Netherlands encourages victims to assist in trafficking
investigations and prosecutions. The government
subsidizes the STV and funds NGOs to operate
15 regional and local networks through which
civil society and the police provide care for victims.
In early 2007, the government implemented new
regulations to facilitate legal permanent residence
for trafficking victims who assist with prosecutions.
Trafficking victims who choose not to assist with
a prosecution are eligible for a residence permit
if they believe they will face hardship or retribution
upon return to their country. Victims are not
inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or penalized for
unlawful acts as a direct result of being trafficked.
Prevention
The Netherlands demonstrated strong trafficking
awareness-raising efforts during the year. The
government continued to fund a national awareness
campaign to reduce sex trafficking, launched
in January 2006. Administered by the country’s
anonymous crime reporting hotline, the campaign
is largely responsible for the increase to 152 tips on
sex trafficking cases received by the hotline in 2006
compared with 42 received in 2005. Throughout
2006, the government continued to fund information
and education campaigns at schools to prevent
youth prostitution. In 2007, the government
launched a national campaign that warned female
high school students about “lover boy” practices.
The Ministry of Justice initiated a national assessment
of the prostitution sector, including the extent
of trafficking, as part of a report to Parliament on
the impact of the lifting of the ban on brothels. It is
due in April 2007.
NEW ZEALAND (Tier 1)
New Zealand is a source country for the internal
trafficking of a small number of women within
the country for the purpose of commercial sexual
exploitation. Additionally, New Zealand is a destination
country for a significant number of foreign
women from Malaysia, Hong Kong, People’s
Republic of China, and other countries in Asia, who
are illegally in the commercial sex trade. Some of
these women may be trafficking victims. Estimates
of international trafficking victims are modest; there
have been reports of debt bondage and confiscation
of documents among women in prostitution.
The Government of New Zealand fully complies
with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking. The government actively works to investigate
and prevent illegal migration and trafficking
through the work of its overseas missions, as well as
border screening and police enforcement at home.
It has also initiated a process to develop a National
Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons
and is currently working to finalize the plan and
solicit input from NGOs. That plan will build public
understanding and support for the investigative,
prevention, and enforcement activities undertaken
by the New Zealand government. The government
continued to ensure that short-term shelter, witness
protection, medical services, and repatriation assistance
would be available to victims of trafficking.
The government also demonstrated sustained efforts
to prevent trafficking in persons. The government
should expeditiously adopt and enact the National
Plan of Action. In addition, law enforcement should
seek through the Action Plan increased collaboration
with civil society groups to gather information on
brothels employing foreign women and to conduct
investigations to determine if they include victims of
trafficking. The government should increase efforts
to measure the extent to which foreign women and
children under the age of 18 may fall victim to sex
trafficking, aggressively prosecute cases and ensure
that traffickers receive sentences consistent with the
heinous nature of the offense, and increase efforts
to prosecute and convict those who profit from this
trade or exploit minors.
Prosecution
The Government of New Zealand continued
law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking in
persons. New Zealand prohibits sex trafficking and
labor trafficking through Part 5 of the 1961 Crimes
Act. The 2003 Prostitution Reform Act legalized
prostitution for those over the age of 18 and also
decriminalized solicitation. Other laws criminalize
receiving financial gain from an act involving children
exploited in prostitution and prohibit child
sex tourism. Penalties prescribed for trafficking are
sufficiently stringent, and penalties for trafficking
for commercial sexual exploitation, ranging up to
20 years’ imprisonment, are commensurate with
those for rape. While there have been no prosecutions
under New Zealand’s anti-trafficking law,
which requires movement across an international
border, instances of internal trafficking can be prosecuted
under New Zealand’s laws on forced labor,
slavery, other forms of abuse, and the Prostitution
Reform Act. In 2006, eight people were prosecuted
and convicted on charges under the Prostitution
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