2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

investigations, prosecuted 113 trafficking cases and
convicted 178 traffickers with an average prison
sentence of 5.1 years. Approximately 75 percent of
these sentences were greater than four years.
Protection
The government sustained impressive efforts to
provide care for trafficking victims during the year.
Spanish police continued to refer rescued victims to
NGOs providing temporary shelter and rehabilitation
services. In 2006, Spain increased funding by
approximately five percent to anti-trafficking NGOs
providing care to victims, providing one NGO with
177,432 euros. Victims receive medical assistance,
including emergency care, through the national
health care system. The police identified 1,832 sex
trafficking victims and 456 labor trafficking victims
in 2006. The government encourages victims to
assist in trafficking investigations and prosecutions
by providing work and residence permits to victims
choosing to assist, giving them the option of either
permanent residence status or funding to return to
their own countries after the prosecution. Victims
are not inappropriately incarcerated, fined or penalized
for unlawful acts committed as a direct result
of being trafficked.
Prevention
Spain sustained strong efforts to raise awareness
about trafficking. During the reporting period,
Spain’s inter-agency trafficking working group began
drafting a National Integral Plan Against Trafficking
in Persons expected to be finalized in 2007. A
Congressional report on prostitution released in
February 2007 called for strengthening the fight
against sex trafficking networks and increasing assistance
to victims, and will be included in the finalized
plan. The Madrid city government focused efforts
in the past year to reduce demand for prostitution
— and by extension, trafficking — by targeting
potential male clients with posters reading “Because
you pay, prostitution exists.”
SRI LANKA (Tier 2 Watch List)
Sri Lanka is a source and destination country for
men and women trafficked for the purposes of
commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary
servitude. Sri Lankan men and women migrate
legally to the Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Malaysia, and South Korea to work as construction
workers, domestic servants, or garment factory
workers. However, some have found themselves
in situations of involuntary servitude when faced
with restrictions on movement, threats, physical
or sexual abuse, and debt bondage that is, in some
instances, facilitated by large pre-departure fees
imposed by recruitment agents. In one instance,
Sri Lankan men were trafficked into involuntary
servitude in Iraq. Children are trafficked internally
for commercial sexual exploitation, as well as for
forced labor. The U.S. government-designated
Foreign Terrorist Organization, Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), recruited child soldiers
in areas outside of the Sri Lankan government’s
control. The December 20, 2006 Report of the
Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict
in Sri Lanka to the United Nations Security Council
noted allegations that government security forces
were complicit in letting a paramilitary organization
recruit child soldiers. Reports also indicate that
women from Thailand, the People’s Republic of
China, and Russia and other countries of the Newly
Independent States are trafficked into Sri Lanka for
commercial sexual exploitation.
The Government of Sri Lanka does not fully comply
with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts
to do so. Sri Lanka is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for
its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to
address trafficking over the previous year, especially
in its efforts to punish trafficking for involuntary
servitude. Though the government began prosecuting
two suspects under its April 2006 anti-trafficking statute,
it did not convict anyone for trafficking crimes.
Moreover, Sri Lanka did not demonstrate adequate
efforts to monitor and take law enforcement action
against labor recruiters believed to use deception to
entice workers into involuntary servitude. Sri Lanka
should significantly improve its record of prosecutions
and convictions of sex and labor trafficking
crimes, and should institute a formal procedure
to identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable
groups, such as women arrested for prostitution, to
ensure that they are not punished.
Prosecution
Sri Lanka made minimal progress on its law enforcement
efforts this reporting period. The Sri Lankan
government prohibits all forms of trafficking through
an April 2006 amendment to its penal code. The
government reported initiating two prosecutions
under its anti-trafficking law for trafficking for forced
prostitution. The government, however, did not
undertake any investigations or prosecutions of labor
recruiters using deceptive practices to facilitate the
trafficking of Sri Lankans into commercial sexual
exploitation and involuntary servitude abroad. The
government did not undertake investigations of
immigration officers who may have been complicit
S R I L A N K A
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