Tier Two Watch List for Human Trafficking for the fourth consecutive year.

The Maldives has been placed on the US State Department’s Tier Two Watch List for Human Trafficking for the fourth consecutive year.

he Maldives’ entry in the State Department’s report concluded with a long list of specific recommendations for the Maldives to combat human trafficking, and avoid the now otherwise inevitable downgrade to Tier 3 in June 2014.

1-These recommendations included:

2-Pass and enact legislation prohibiting and punishing all forms of trafficking in persons;

3-clearly distinguish between human trafficking, human smuggling and the presence of undocumented migrants in legislation, policies, and programs;
develop and implement systematic procedures for government officials to proactively identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as undocumented migrants and females in prostitution;

4-ensure that trafficking victims are not penalized for acts committed as a result of being trafficked;

5-increase efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected trafficking offenses respecting due process;

6-work to ensure that identified victims of trafficking are provided access to victim services;

7-enforce prohibitions of passport retention by employers;

8-raise public awareness of human trafficking through media campaigns;
provide translators to police and other law enforcement authorities to ensure foreign workers are able to participate in investigations and prosecutions against their alleged traffickers;

9-improve inter-ministerial coordination on human trafficking issues;

10-ensure that changes to labor migration policies for the purpose of reducing human trafficking do not restrict legal migration;

11-take steps to ensure that employers and labor brokers do not abuse labor recruitment or sponsorship processes in order to subject migrant workers to forced labor;

12-accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.