MALDIVES: THE NINTH ANNUAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000155


DEPT FOR G/TIP (MARK TAYLOR)


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG MV
SUBJECT: MALDIVES: THE NINTH ANNUAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
REPORT

REF: STATE 132759


1. (U) Post's submission for the ninth annual Anti-Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) Report for the Maldives follows. Responses are keyed
to questions in reftel. Post point of contact is ConOff Joel T.
Wiegert, telephone +94-11-249-8635, fax +94-11-249-8590. One
officer, FS-04, spent 24 hours in the preparation of this report.


SECTION 23 - MALDIVES TIP SITUATION:


2. (SBU) A -- Sources of information on trafficking in persons in
the Maldives were the Maldivian Government and NGOs. The Human
Rights Commission (HRCM) of the Maldives (a publically funded
agency),in conjunction with the International Organization for
Migration (IOM),will be conducting a survey of trafficking in the
Maldives in preparation for the upcoming 2009 annual South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation summit. The aim of this survey
is to find out the extent of the problem of the trafficking of
migrant workers in the Maldives and then recommend changes to
Maldivian law, as well as the SAARC convention against trafficking.
The review panel will be composed of an HRCM Commissioner and a
senior member of the Human Resources Ministry. All sources were
considered reliable.


3. (SBU) B -- The Maldives was a destination country for a number of
migrant workers, predominantly from Bangladesh and India, who came
to work in the construction and tourism sectors. It was unknown how
many of these workers were actually trafficking victims, but of the
80,000 expatriate workers in the Maldives, an estimated 20,000 were
there illegally. These illegal workers were most at risk of
becoming trafficking victims, although some legal workers could also
be classified as trafficking victims. Most illegal migrant workers
in the Maldives were in the capital, Male.


4. (SBU) B Cont'd -- A small number of foreign women, predominantly
from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and China, were trafficked to the
Maldives for sexual exploitation. They were only known to have been
trafficked into Male. There were two indentified cases of sexual
exploitation in the Maldives, and although there are no precise
figures on the total number of victims, it is believed to be small.


5. (SBU) B Cont'd -- A small number of Maldivian girls, under the
age of 18, were trafficked to Male from other islands in the
Maldives to work as domestics in exchange for room and board so that
they could receive a better education than was available on their
home islands. No one has ever tracked this phenomenon, so other
than knowing that it has occurred there was no information on how
many people were affected.


6. (SBU) B Cont'd -- A new trend that was observed by the Department
of Immigration and Emigration was the use of the Maldives as a
transit country for smuggling/trafficking. Officials in the
Department have not sought to differentiate how many of the people
smuggled may actually have been trafficking victims, but each week
10-15 people (primarily from China and Iran) were intercepted at the
country's only international airport. Most were bound for Europe.


7. (SBU) B Cont'd -- The Maldives was not a source country for the
international trafficking of persons.


8. (SBU) C --International trafficking victims were predominately
trafficked to Male. For male trafficking victims, they were
trafficked into what has been described by local NGOs as "slave like
conditions." Workers had to sleep in shifts in extremely crowded
rooms, received little food, and were forced to work long hours.
Employers and the employment agencies that brought them into the
country commonly held their passports. Frequently, these workers
were paid significantly less salary than they were promised. In
addition, some workers thought they were going to the U.A.E., but
ended up in Male. Some workers did not actually have jobs after they
arrived in the country. Women trafficked for sexual exploitation
were usually held in rooms in apartment buildings or guest houses in
equally poor conditions. Domestic trafficking victims were kept in
private households on Male. No other information was available on
their living conditions.


9. (SBU) D -- As indicated in the preceding paragraphs, young
Maldivian girls from the outlying islands were most at risk of being
internal trafficking victims. For international trafficking, it was
predominantly men, especially from Bangladesh and India, who were at
risk.


10. (SBU) E -- Traffickers in the Maldives fell into at least two
different categories depending on their victims. For internal
trafficking, Maldivian girls were generally sent by their parents
from the outer islands to Male, so that they could receive a better
education. The traffickers in these cases were affluent families in
Male. The girls were identified and brought to Male based on
personal relationships. If the two families did not know each
other, a third party who was known to both families would act as an
intermediary. There was no formal process or agents used in this.

Once the girls were in Male, there was the chance that they might
become trafficking victims. There were allegations that some ended
up working full time as domestics and never attended school. There
were allegations that girls were also sexually abused by the
families with whom they stayed. No source had information on the
possible number of exploited girls. Although this phenomenon was
part of Maldivian culture, with the increase in education
opportunities on the other islands, it has been decreasing.


11. (SBU) E Cont'd - The second group of traffickers were employment
agents within the Maldives. As of 2009, all employers in the
Maldives were required to use employment agents to bring workers to
the Maldives. There were about 200 registered employment agents in
the country. In order to operate, agents needed to be registered
with the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports so that they
could receive quotas and work permits to bring in workers. However,
labor exploitation occurred not just with employment agents, but
with employers as well.


SECTION 24 - SETTING THE SCENE FOR THE MALDIVES' ANTI-TIP EFFORTS:


12. (SBU) A -- The Maldivian government does acknowledge that
trafficking of migrant workers was a problem.


13. (SBU) B -- The Maldivian Police Service, the Department of
Immigration and Emigration, the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth
and Sports, and the Prosecutor General's Office were all involved to
varying degrees with anti-trafficking efforts. There was no one
agency which had the lead.


14. (SBU) C -- The impediments to addressing the problem of
trafficking within the Maldives were primarily the migrant workers
themselves. Neither legal nor illegal migrant workers came forward
to make formal complaints to the Maldivian government. Migrant
workers often paid up to USD 4000 for a valid work permit to work in
the Maldives. Even when an exploitive situation was resolved,
workers were often reluctant to leave the Maldives until they could
make enough money to at least cover their expenses. There was a
lively market for casual day laborers, especially in the
construction sector on Male. If a worker could find steady
employment this way, he could make more money than he could as a
regular contract worker. This was believed to be the reason so many
migrant workers stayed illegally and did not object when the
promised job did not materialize or the amount of money promised was
different. In addition, if an employer or agents in the Maldives
held an employee's passport, the worker could obtain a new one
through his country's high commission (both India and Bangladesh
have diplomatic missions in Male). Often though, this was not done
right away. Only when a worker decided to leave Male would he apply
for a new passport and a ticket home. The Maldivian government
required that employment agents pay a bond on migrant workers equal
to the cost of a plane ticket home. As a result, there was money to
send people back to their home countries. As for other resources to
support trafficking victims, the Maldives is a developing country
that is lacking in resources, so having money set aside to help a
small number of trafficking victims was not a priority.


15. (SBU) D -- The Maldivian government did not systematically
monitor its anti-trafficking efforts. The Police and Department of
Immigration and Emigration did track information on
trafficking/smuggling, but this data was not made public.


SECTION 25 - INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS:


16. (SBU) A -- The Maldives did not have laws that definitively
defined and prohibited trafficking. However, there were three
separate laws that covered trafficking offences. The Constitution,
adopted in August 2008, prohibits forced labor and slavery. The
Employment Act of 2008, which came into force in October 2008,
regulates all aspects of employment and covers exploitive labor.
The Protection of Children Act covers labor exploitation of
children. There were no laws that specifically outlawed sexual
exploitation or even assault, but these crimes could be tried under
section 173 of the Rules of Procedure adopted in February 2008.


17. (SBU) D -- Sexual offenses were punishable by 3 to 15 years
imprisonment.


18. (SBU) C -- The only prescribed penalty for labor trafficking was
a fine. However, even this was not carried out in practice.
Generally, if there was a violation of the Employment Act, the
Ministry of Human Resources would blacklist the company, preventing
it from bringing in new workers until it had rectified the
violation. The Labor Tribunal that the 2008 Employment Act called
for had not yet been setup.


19. (SBU) D -- Sexual offenses were punishable by 3 to 15 years
imprisonment.


20. (SBU) E - In early 2008, the Prosecutor General's Office
prosecuted and received a conviction in one case of forced labor.
The migrant worker was chained in a small room for days and let out
only for work. The convicted person was sentenced to four months
imprisonment. No details were available about which law the person
was convicted under. There was one case of possible external
trafficking for sexual purposes, but the case was dropped due to
lack of evidence against the trafficker.


21. (SBU) E Cont'd -- There were no prosecutions or investigations
against employers or labor agents for labor exploitation.


22. (SBU) F -- Officers with the Maldivian Police and the Department
of Immigration and Emigration had training in the recognition of
trafficking victims. No NGOs were known to be involved in the
training. There was no training, however, for investigating and
prosecuting trafficking crimes.


23. (SBU) G -- There were no known examples or requests for the
Maldivian government to cooperate with other governments in the
investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases.


24. (SBU) H -- There were no known requests for the Maldivian
government to extradite anyone charged with trafficking.


25. (SBU) I -- There was no known involvement of Maldivian
government officials in or tolerance of trafficking at any level.


26. (SBU) J -- N/A


27. (SBU) K -- Prostitution was illegal in the Maldives, as were the
activities of prostitutes, brothel owners/operators, clients, pimps
and enforcers. These laws were enforced.


28. (SBU) L -- N/A


29. (SBU) M -- The Maldives did not have an identified problem of
child sex tourists coming to the Maldives nor have any Maldivians
been implicated in engaging in child sex tourism.


SECTION 26 - PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS:


30. (SBU) A -- There was no special protection provided for victims
and witnesses under Maldivian law.


31. (SBU) B -- The Maldives did not have any victim care facilities
specifically for trafficking victims.


32. (SBU) C -- The Maldivian government did not provide trafficking
victims with any special legal, medical or psychological services
that regular Maldivians were not entitled to.


33. (SBU) D -- The Maldivian government's policy was to get foreign
national trafficking victims out of the Maldives as quickly as
possible. As a result, there were no provisions for granting
residency status.


34. (SBU E -- The Maldivian government did not provide shelter or
housing benefits to victims, except on a very short-term basis.


35. (SBU) F -- There were no institutions that provided victim
assistance to trafficking victims in the Maldives.


36. (SBU) G -- There were two confirmed cases of international
sexual trafficking to Male in 2008. Both victims were identified as
trafficking victims by the Police. There were no care facilities or
other assistance programs for the victims, but the Maldivian
government did provide a location for them to stay until their high
commissions assisted them in returning home. There were no cases of
international labor trafficking or internal trafficking victims
identified within the reporting period.


37. (SBU) H -- Officers with the Maldivian Police and the Department
of Immigration and Emigration had training in the proactive
identification of trafficking victims. Whether or not this could be
considered a formal system was not clear.


38. (SBU) I -- The rights of trafficking victims, both sexual and
labor, were respected. There were no known instances in which
trafficking victims were fined or prosecuted. Instead, they were
sent out of the country as soon as possible.


39. (SBU) J -- The Maldivian government neither encouraged nor
discouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution
of labor trafficking. There were two confirmed cases of sexual
exploitation in 2008. After it was confirmed by the Police that
they were not in fact prostitutes, they were both assisted in
leaving the country by their high commissions. The Maldivian
Government's policy was to get victims out of the country as quickly
as possible. However, this did have the result that the victims
were not available to testify in any prosecutions. In both of these
cases, the traffickers were also foreign nationals and they were
deported soon after it was determined that a crime had been
committed. The government said that deportation was preferable to
imprisonment because of the high cost of incarceration,
approximately $100 per day per prisoner.


40. (SBU) K -- Officials in the Police and the Department of
Immigration and Emigration had received training in the
identification of trafficking victims; however, none were trained on
the provision of assistance. Because there were no instances of
Maldivians being trafficked abroad, there was no special training on
protection and assistance to Maldivian embassies and consulates.


41. (SBU) L -- The Maldivian government did not have a policy to
provide assistance to Maldivian trafficking victims; however, there
were also no instances of Maldivians being repatriated as victims of
trafficking.


42. (SBU) M -- There were no international organizations or NGOs
that worked with trafficking victims in the Maldives.


SECTION 27 - PREVENTION:


43. (SBU) A -- The Maldivian government conducted one
anti-trafficking information campaign in January 2008. The aim of
the campaign was to educate the public on the content of the 2008
Employment Law.


44. (SBU) B -- The Department of Immigration and Emigration did
monitor immigration and emigration patterns for evidence of
trafficking. Each week it intercepted approximately 10-15
smuggling/trafficking attempts at its one international airport.
When identified, the person being smuggled/trafficked was returned
to his point of origin.


45. (SBU) C -- There was no formal mechanism for coordination and/or
communication between Maldivian government agencies on
trafficking-related matters. However, the Ministry of Human
Resources, Youth and Sports, which issues work permits for migrant
workers, and the Department of Immigration and Emigration, which
overseas visas and border control, were in frequent contact
regarding migrant workers. Other government personnel in different
agencies also talked with one another, but this was based more on
personal relationships rather than any formal mechanism.


46. (SBU) D -- The Maldivian government did not have a national plan
to address trafficking in persons.


47. (SBU) E -- The Maldivian government did not report any efforts
to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts during the reporting
period. However, the demand for commercial sex did not appear to be
significant in the Maldives.


48. (SBU) F -- The Maldivian government did not take any steps to
reduce participation of its nationals in international child sex
tourism; however, there was no known involvement by Maldivians in
international child sex tourism.


49. (SBU) G -- N/A