PREVENTION
The government maintained considerable efforts to prevent trafficking. The government adopted a 2014-2017 national strategy and action plan to combat trafficking in November 2014. The government provided the national anti-trafficking coordinator’s office 4.7 million lek in 2014 ($47,000).The national coordinator published regular activity reports on its website and regularly convened stakeholders belonging to the national referral mechanism. However, a special taskforce formed in 2013 to improve anti-trafficking coordination between police, prosecutors, and judges did not meet. Twelve regional anti- trafficking committees comprised of local officials and NGOs worked on finalizing local action plans on prevention and victim assistance.The national coordinator’s office, the state police, and the State Labor Inspectorate signed a memorandum of understanding to identify forced labor cases. Local NGOs and international organizations conducted a study of street children, one-third of whom said their parents forced them to work. Based on this study, the government launched a pilot program to combat child begging inTirana, which led to the placement of 11 children in social care institutions; police charged five suspects with exploitation of children for begging, and two parents were prosecuted for child exploitation. The government co-established a free hotline and a mobile application for citizens to report suspected trafficking cases. The government conducted a week-long campaign on trafficking, including media and billboard ads and discussions with secondary and university students.The government co-sponsored two trainings to sensitize hotels and tour operators on sex and labor trafficking. The government did not demonstrate efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex or forced labor. The government provided anti-trafficking guidance for its diplomatic personnel. The national coordinator briefed Albanian diplomats stationed in seven cities on human trafficking regulations.

ALGERIA:  Tier 3 
Algeria is a transit and, to a lesser extent, destination and source country for women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and, to a lesser extent, men subjected to forced labor. Civil society groups report Algeria is increasingly becoming a destination for both undocumented migration and human trafficking. Criminal networks, which sometimes extend to sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, are involved in human trafficking and smuggling. Sub- Saharan African men and women, often en route to neighboring countries or Europe, enter Algeria voluntarily but illegally and frequently with the assistance of smugglers. Many of these migrants, unable to pay off smuggling fees once they arrive in Algeria, become indebted to traffickers. Female migrants may be forced into prostitution, domestic service, and begging. Diplomatic and NGO sources indicate that Nigerien female migrants begging in Algeria may be forced labor victims and often carry children sometimes rented from their mothers in Niger. Sub-Saharan African men endure domestic servitude; employers often confiscate their identification documents, coercing them to remain in the home to work. Illegal sub-Saharan migrants from Anglophone countries remain particularly vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking in Algeria, primarily due to poverty and language barriers. Foreign women and children, primarily sub-Saharan migrants, are forced into prostitution in bars and informal brothels; the traffickers are often the victim’s co-nationals. Algerian women, and to a much lesser extent children, endure sex trafficking in Algeria. In 2014, the media and an international NGO reported Vietnamese migrants were forced to work on construction sites for Chinese contractors in Algeria.
The Government of Algeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government did not vigorously investigate or prosecute sex trafficking or forced labor crimes. It continued to conflate human trafficking and smuggling, and some officials denied that trafficking existed in the country. The government reported its first conviction ever under the anti- trafficking law, but it did not provide any details other than the nationality of the victim. As in previous years, the government did not identify victims among vulnerable groups and did not provide or refer victims to NGO-run protection services. Due to lack of victim identification procedures, trafficking victims were frequently subject to arrest and detention.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR ALGERIA:
Investigate, prosecute, and convict sex and labor trafficking offenders, distinct from human smuggling, and punish them with imprisonment; establish formal procedures to guide officials in the identification of victims of forced labor, forced prostitution, and child prostitution, particularly among illegal migrant communities; train officials on these identification measures; establish a policy to ensure identified and suspected victims are not punished for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected

to human trafficking; establish and implement victim referral procedures, and provide appropriate protection services, including shelter, medical care, psychological care, legal aid, and repatriation assistance, to all trafficking victims; provide support to and establish strong partnerships with NGOs or international organizations that offer protection services to trafficking victims; collaborate with relevant organizations and source country missions to ensure the safe and voluntary repatriation of foreign victims; and raise public awareness of trafficking, including on the differences between human trafficking and smuggling.

PROSECUTION
The government made minimal law enforcement efforts to address human trafficking. Algeria prohibits all forms of trafficking under Section 5 of its criminal code, enacted in February 2009. Prescribed penalties under this statute range from three to 10 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Law No.14-01, adopted in February 2014, criminalizes the buying and selling of children under the age of 18 years, which provides prison terms of three to 20 years’ imprisonment for individuals and groups convicted of committing or attempting to commit this crime; however, this law is overly broad and could be interpreted to include non-trafficking crimes such as human smuggling or illegal adoption. The government maintained that human trafficking was not a significant concern in Algeria, and some officials, including law enforcement officers, denied the crime occurred in the country; this sentiment and lack of knowledge severely hindered law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking. It is unclear if the government has an effective system to collect and report anti-trafficking law enforcement data, and officials had difficulty distinguishing between human trafficking and smuggling crimes. From September to December 2014, the government reportedly investigated one potential trafficking case involving 19 Vietnamese nationals allegedly forced to work on a Chinese-contracted construction site; however, the government reported it did not find evidence of trafficking. Though police reportedly conducted an unknown number of investigations of begging, prostitution, and illegal immigration offenses—that could include potential trafficking crimes—it did not arrest any suspected trafficking offenders. The government reported it convicted a trafficker under the anti-trafficking law in December 2014 with a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment; however, the government did not provide any details of the case except that the victim was an Algerian female. By law, Algerian courts must hear testimony from victims to convict suspected traffickers and are thus unable to secure a conviction if a victim has left the country. Despite reports of complicity, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in trafficking offenses. A local NGO reported police officers allegedly frequented establishments where women were forced into prostitution, yet there was no evidence to suggest the government investigated or prosecuted these officials.Though the General Directorate for National Security maintained six brigades of police officers specialized in illegal immigration and human trafficking, it was unclear whether they received adequate training on anti-trafficking measures.