Country Narratives 65
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COUNTRY NARRATIVES C OUNTRY Narratives Children who work in stone quarries are subjected to long days of harsh, unhealthy, and hazardous working conditions that are harmful to their growth and development. In exchange they are paid little and exposed to physical, emotional, and sometimes even sexual abuse. 65 AFGHANISTAN (Tier 2 Watch List) AFGHANISTAN TIER RANKING BY YEAR Afghanistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking. The majority of Afghan victims are 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 children subjected to human trafficking in carpet-making and brick kiln factories and domestic servitude, and in commercial sexual exploitation, begging, and transnational Recommendations for Afghanistan: Eliminate police and AFGHANISTAN drug smuggling within Afghanistan and in Pakistan, Iran, court penalization of trafficking victims for offenses committed and Saudi Arabia. Some Afghan families knowingly sell their as a direct result of being trafficked, such as prostitution or children for forced prostitution, including for bacha baazi— adultery; increase use by law enforcement of the 2008 anti- where wealthy or influential men, including government trafficking law, including prosecuting suspected traffickers officials and security forces, use young boys for social and and convicting trafficking offenders; consider amending the sexual entertainment. Other families send their children 2008 anti-trafficking law to prohibit and penalize all forms through labor brokers for employment, but the children end of trafficking in persons; investigate and prosecute government up in forced labor. Opium-farming families sometimes sell officials suspected of being complicit in human trafficking; their children to settle debts with opium traffickers. According strengthen the High Commission for Combating Crimes of to the government and the UN, insurgent groups force older Abduction and Human Trafficking/Smuggling, and implement children to serve as suicide bombers. Some Afghan families the anti-trafficking national action plan; educate government are trapped in debt bondage in the brick-making industry in officials, including law enforcement and judicial officials, on eastern Afghanistan. the definition of human trafficking as well as protection and law enforcement strategies; segregate older and younger boys Increasing numbers of men, women, and children in in trafficking shelters to prevent the abuse of younger boys; Afghanistan pay intermediaries to assist them in finding strengthen the capacity of the ministry of interior’s anti- employment in Iran, Pakistan, India, Europe, or North trafficking/smuggling unit, including by ensuring the unit is America; some of these intermediaries force Afghan citizens fully staffed and differentiating between smuggling and into labor or prostitution after their arrival. Afghan women trafficking; undertake initiatives to prevent trafficking, such and girls are subjected to forced prostitution and domestic as running a public awareness campaign to warn at-risk servitude in Pakistan, Iran, and India. Afghan boys and populations of the dangers of trafficking, and encourage men are subjected to forced labor and debt bondage in the religious leaders to incorporate anti-trafficking messaging in agriculture and construction sectors in Iran, Pakistan, Greece, religious teachings; improve efforts to collect, analyze, and Turkey, and the Gulf states. There were reports of women and accurately report counter-trafficking data; and accede to the girls from the Philippines, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and 2000 UN TIP Protocol. China subjected to sex trafficking in Afghanistan. Under the pretense of high-paying employment opportunities, labor recruiting agencies lure foreign workers to Afghanistan, Prosecution including from Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Iran, Pakistan, and The Government of Afghanistan improved anti-trafficking Tajikistan. Traffickers also recruit Afghan villagers to Afghan law enforcement efforts over the reporting period, though cities and then sometimes subject them to forced labor or official complicity in human trafficking remained a problem. forced prostitution after their arrival. Afghanistan’s 2008 Law Countering Abduction and Human Trafficking/Smuggling, along with Article 516 of the penal The Government of Afghanistan does not fully comply with code, prohibits many, but not all, forms of human trafficking. the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Government officials, including law enforcement and judicial The government has not shown evidence of increasing efforts officials, continued to have a limited understanding of human to address human trafficking compared to the previous year; trafficking. In Dari—the language spoken most widely in therefore, Afghanistan is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a Afghanistan—the same word denotes both human trafficking fourth consecutive year. Afghanistan was granted a waiver and human smuggling, compounding the confusion. The from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its law prescribes between eight and 15 years’ imprisonment government has a written plan that, if implemented, would for persons convicted of some forms of labor trafficking constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into and prescribes penalties of up to life imprisonment for compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of those convicted of some forms of sex trafficking. The 2009 trafficking and would devote sufficient resources to implement Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law and that plan. During the reporting period, the Afghan government other provisions of the penal code contain penalties for most recorded the first known convictions of trafficking offenders forms of trafficking. These penalties are sufficiently stringent under its 2008 law. The government continued, however, to and commensurate to those prescribed for other serious penalize and re-victimize trafficking victims for offenses crimes, such as rape. The attorney general’s office reported committed in the course of being trafficked. Government the convictions of four Afghan and Pakistani men who forced officials’ complicity in trafficking remained a serious problem. four Pakistani women into prostitution. The first-level court’s The level of understanding of human trafficking among Afghan verdict, which sentenced the four trafficking offenders to government officials remained very low. 20 years’ imprisonment, was upheld by the appellate court. These are the first known convictions under the government’s anti-trafficking law. A husband was convicted under the EVAW law for killing his wife because she refused to engage 66 in prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment, of child trafficking victims placed in juvenile detention centers, ALBANIA and his accomplice, a male child, was sentenced to 10 years’ sometimes for several years. Officials often placed trafficked imprisonment. International organizations and NGOs women who could not be accommodated in shelters in prison. continued to provide training to police, prosecutors, and Some trafficked boys were placed in a facility for juvenile other government officials on identifying and investigating criminals, and trafficked adult men were incarcerated, in trafficking cases. The Ministry of Interior (MOI) and Ministry part because they could not stay in shelters. The government of Justice provided venues and provincial government trainers does not have a policy that provides relief from deportation for some of the programs. for foreign victims of trafficking who may face retribution or hardship in the countries to which they would be deported; Government employees’ complicity in human trafficking however, Afghan law allows foreign victims of trafficking to remained a serious problem. Reports indicated that government remain legally in Afghanistan for at least six months. There officials, including commanders of the Afghan National was no information that the government forcibly deported Security Forces and provincial governors, were complicit any foreign victims of trafficking during the reporting period. in the practice of bacha baazi. There have been reports that national and border police facilitated trafficking and raped sex trafficking victims. Police at the western border with Iran Prevention routinely collaborated with child traffickers and let traffickers During the reporting period, the Government of Afghanistan pass through the border controls with their victims. An Afghan made no discernible progress in preventing human trafficking, National Army (ANA) sergeant was convicted and sentenced to though it did adopt an anti-trafficking action plan. The High 11 years’ imprisonment under the EVAW law for forcing his wife Commission for Combating Crimes of Abduction and Human into prostitution; clients were local power brokers and ANA Trafficking/Smuggling continued to meet on a quarterly basis, colleagues. There were no other reports of investigations or though it was ineffective due in part to its lack of a designated prosecutions of government employees for alleged complicity budget. While the terms of reference of the group require that in trafficking-related offenses during the reporting period. ministries send deputy minister-level members to participate in meetings, many ministries sent lower-level officials or failed to attend meetings entirely.