Labour, trafficking record hit

The Government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of labour and sex trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, a report from the US Embassy says.
It was the reason PNG’s rating was downgraded to Tier 3, the report said.
The 2018 Traffic in Person Report on PNG was released by the US Embassy on Friday.
The report said despite a lack of significant efforts, the Government took some steps to address trafficking, including initiating the first investigation of a government official under the country’s anti-trafficking law.
The Government did not provide or fund protective services for victims, did not systematically implement its victim identification procedures and did not identify any trafficking victims last year, it said.
It also did not initiate any prosecution and did not achieve a single trafficking conviction for the fifth consecutive year, the report said.
The Criminal Code Amendment of 2013 criminalised sex and labour trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment.
The report indicated that provincial officials’ limited understanding of trafficking hindered effective law enforcement.
It stated that enforcement agencies and most government offices remained weak as a result of underfunding, corruption, lack of accountability and a promotion system based on patronage.
In terms of protection, the report said the government decreased efforts to protect victims.
Authorities and civil society organisations did not identify any new victims, compared with six victims identified in 2016 and 31 in 2015.
Although officials seized three foreign vessels for illegal fishing and trafficking in 2016, they did not apprehend any vessel last year.
The report said logging and mining sites primarily operated in remote regions with negligible government oversight, and authorities did not make efforts to identify sex or labour trafficking victims at these sites.
Civil society organisations provided medical and short-term shelter services to victims without financial or in-kind support from the government, it said.
Male victims could receive ad hoc services and female victims could receive services through NGO-run gender-based violence programmes; there were no services specifically tailored to the needs of trafficking victims.
The report said the victim identification procedures included guidance for protecting foreign victims from punishment for immigration crimes committed as a result of trafficking.
However, authorities punished some victims for such crimes due to challenges in interagency
coordination and a lack of clarity over who had the authority to verify an individual as a victim of trafficking.
Authorities arrested and prosecuted children who were forced to pan for gold in areas where the activity was illegal; the national trafficking committee was working to have these children recognised as trafficking victims at the close of the reporting period.
The law provided legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution, but the government did not report offering this protection to any victim last year.
The Government allowed “ongoing stay” for trafficking victims but lacked provisions for victims to seek compensation through civil suits, the report said.
The Government maintained minimal efforts to prevent trafficking, it said.
The government did not conduct any awareness-raising campaigns or community outreach to educate the public about trafficking indicators.
The Government did not have effective policies to regulate foreign labour recruiters or hold recruiters liable for fraudulent recruiting.