PREVENTION
The government sustained prevention efforts. It continued to operate a gender affairs hotline with operators trained to identify and assist victims; the hotline received four trafficking-related calls in 2014. Authorities continued to distribute public awareness materials and posters in English and Spanish that targeted victims, as well as the general public, and shared information on radio and television. The gender affairs department partnered with other government officials and NGOs to raise awareness about trafficking indicators and available government services, including by visiting two secondary schools and distributing posters throughout the country. The government developed a national anti-trafficking action plan in consultation with an international organization.The Trafficking in Persons Committee included representatives from various government entities and two NGOs and met every six weeks. A separate anti-trafficking taskforce focusing on trafficking investigations and victim protection met at least twice per month in 2014. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel. The government reported raiding two establishments aimed at reducing the demand for forced labor or commercial sex. The government and local NGOs reported no evidence that child sex tourism occurs in Antigua and Barbuda and reported no child sex tourism investigations.

ARGENTINA:  Tier 2 
Argentina is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Argentine women and children are subjected to sex trafficking within the country, as are women and children from other Latin American countries. To a more limited extent, Argentine men, women, and children are subjected to sex and labor trafficking in other countries. Transgender Argentines are exploited in sex trafficking within the country and in Western Europe. Men, women, and children from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and other countries are subjected to forced labor in a variety of sectors, including sweatshops, agriculture, street vending, charcoal and brick production, domestic work, and small businesses. Chinese citizens working in supermarkets are vulnerable to debt bondage. Argentine officials report isolated cases of foreign victims recruited in Argentina and subjected to trafficking in third countries. Some officials, mainly at the provincial level, including police officers and mayors, protect brothels where trafficking occurred. NGOs and officials report that judges receive bribes from traffickers or do not adequately investigate signs of official complicity. A government entity has reported police were complicit in 40 percent of sex trafficking cases either as purchasers of commercial sex or as personal contacts of brothel owners; this serves as a disincentive for victims to report exploitation.
The Government of Argentina does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Authorities identified a significant number of potential trafficking victims, launched a national awareness campaign, and convicted an increased number of traffickers, including three government officials complicit in sex trafficking. Nevertheless, government funding for victim services was insufficient to assist the large number of potential victims identified during the year. Authorities did not report how many victims received specialized services or shelter in 2014, raising concerns that many trafficking victims—particularly in forced labor— might not have access to services beyond emergency assistance. Trafficking-related corruption, mainly amongst government officials at the provincial level, remained a serious concern.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ARGENTINA:
Increase funding for specialized victim services, particularly for forced labor victims, in partnership with civil society, at the federal, provincial, and local levels; increase prosecutions and convictions with dissuasive sentences for government officials complicit in trafficking; increase availability of shelter, legal, medical, and employment services for victims; consistently offer foreign victims the opportunity to remain in the country and document how many do so; strengthen efforts to investigate, prosecute, convict, and punish traffickers with sufficiently stringent sentences; strengthen coordination among the federal and provincial governments and NGOs, including through establishing the federal council on human trafficking and implementing an anti-trafficking plan with a

budget; improve efforts to collect data on victim identification and assistance to verify that victims receive care beyond emergency services; and continue to train officials and provide guidance on victim identification and  assistance.

PROSECUTION
The government maintained law enforcement efforts. Law 26842 of 2012 prohibits all forms of human trafficking and prescribes penalties of four to 10 years’ imprisonment.These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.The law establishes the use of force, fraud, and coercion as aggravating factors rather than essential elements of the crime, and defines facilitating or profiting from the prostitution of others and illegal sale of organs as human trafficking. The government issued implementing regulations for the law in January 2015; these regulations outline victim assistance procedures and mandate interagency collaboration, among other provisions. Although trafficking is a federal crime, some provincial authorities investigated or prosecuted trafficking cases under different statutes related to exploitation and pimping, making it difficult to collect comprehensive data. Confusion over whether federal or provincial governments had jurisdiction caused significant delays in trafficking investigations and  prosecutions.
Authorities did not report the total number of anti-trafficking cases investigated by police in 2014. The anti-trafficking prosecutor’s office, which monitored trafficking cases heard by courts in the country, opened investigations of 139 sex trafficking cases and 59 labor trafficking cases. Authorities prosecuted 66 individuals for sex trafficking and 26 for labor trafficking in 2014, a decrease from 249 individuals prosecuted for sex and labor trafficking in 2013.The government convicted 37 sex traffickers and 18 labor traffickers in 2014 and acquitted seven alleged sex traffickers in one case. Sentences ranged from one to 14 years’ imprisonment. Authorities did not report how many sentences were suspended, although press reports indicated some traffickers served their sentences on probation, and at least one convicted trafficker continued to operate a brothel where sex trafficking had occurred. In comparison, authorities convicted 39 traffickers in 2013. The government provided anti-trafficking training to police, prosecutors, judicial officials, and other officials, including through a virtual training course. Some provincial judges had limited understanding of trafficking, which at times hampered efforts to hold traffickers criminally accountable. Some government materials and officials incorrectly stated that for the crime of trafficking to have occurred, the victims had to have been transported. In 2014, Argentine prosecutors coordinated with foreign governments on five new transnational trafficking investigations. Authorities initiated investigations and prosecutions for trafficking-related complicity, including charging four mayors in the La Pampa province with tolerating brothels where sex trafficking was suspected. The government convicted three police officers for trafficking in 2014; one received a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence while the other two officers were sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment. Prior investigations of trafficking-related complicity remained ongoing, including: two separate cases from 2013 in which deputy police chiefs allegedly provided protection to brothels where sex trafficking occurred; a 2010 investigation of over 70 Buenos Aires police officers accused of taking bribes to protect brothels; and a 2010 investigation of the former head of the anti-trafficking police unit accused of running brothels.