PREVENTION
The government continued robust efforts to prevent trafficking. A national anti-trafficking coordinator headed a taskforce that coordinated the government’s anti-trafficking efforts and included NGOs. The government published a report on the implementation of its 2012-2014 action plan on its website. The taskforce’s labor exploitation working group developed victim identification guidelines for use by labor inspectors and raised awareness among businesses and labor organizations. The government subsidized several publications and television programs on trafficking and funded campaigns to inform women in prostitution and clients of the legal rights of women in prostitution. The government also continued school exhibitions to sensitize Austrian youth to trafficking.The exhibitions were supplemented by a handbook for teachers that contained information on identifying victims. The interior ministry continued to run a 24-hour trafficking hotline and email address.The taskforce distributed leaflets on child trafficking to government authorities and the military. The government continued to cooperate with Germany and Switzerland on the “Don’t Look Away” campaign that placed ads against child sex tourism in public transportation. The government reissued the “Global Code of Ethics for Tourism” to tour operators, hotels, and restaurants to combat child sex tourism.The foreign ministry held an event for employees of diplomatic households that led to the identification of a trafficking victim.The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, but did

conduct awareness campaigns to sensitize clients of prostitution about sex trafficking. Austrian troops received government- funded anti-trafficking training conducted by an NGO prior to their deployment abroad as part of peacekeeping missions.The government provided anti-trafficking training and guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

AZERBAIJAN:  Tier 2 
Azerbaijan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Azerbaijani men and boys have been subjected to forced labor in Turkey, Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Azerbaijan. Women and children from Azerbaijan have been subjected to sex trafficking within the country and in Turkey, Russia, and the UAE. Azerbaijan is a destination country for sex and labor trafficking victims from China, Russia,Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Some migrant workers from Turkey and other countries in Europe and South and Central Asia are subjected to forced labor in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was used as a transit country for victims of sex and labor trafficking from Central Asia to the UAE,Turkey, and Iran in previous years.Within the country, some children, particularly those of Romani descent, are subjected to forced begging and forced labor as roadside vendors and at tea houses and wedding facilities. Filipina victims subjected to domestic servitude in Azerbaijan is an emerging problem. In 2014, one police officer was implicated in a trafficking case.
The Government of Azerbaijan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting period, the government increased the number of trafficking investigations and convictions, enacted a new national action plan, and introduced new legislation to provide reintegration assistance to vulnerable populations, especially children released from correctional facilities, orphanages, and state-run boarding schools. During the reporting period the government identified three foreign labor trafficking victims, but did not identify any Azerbaijanis subjected to trafficking within the country. The government failed to provide adequate and consistent financial support to NGO partners that provide rehabilitation and reintegration services to victims. Pervasive corruption limited the effectiveness of anti-trafficking regulations and mechanisms.

RECOMMENDATIONS   FOR AZERBAIJAN:
Vigorously investigate and prosecute government officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking, and sentence convicted offenders with dissuasive penalties; strengthen efforts to identify foreign and domestic victims of labor trafficking by law enforcement within the country by creating standard operating procedures; increase law enforcement efforts against traffickers, including individuals or companies that subject migrant workers to forced labor, and

increase the number of convicted offenders sentenced to time in prison; improve communication among government agencies, including about victim referrals and potential cases; formalize the role of NGOs and other stakeholders in the National Referral Mechanism; increase funding to victim service providers and expand the network of providers outside Baku; provide safe accommodation for victims who choose not to cooperate with law enforcement; provide sensitivity training to law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and the judiciary, including on how to work with trafficking victims who have experienced psychological trauma; strengthen the capacity of the State Migration Service to identify and refer foreign trafficking victims; and target public awareness campaigns to foreign migrant workers, describing indicators of human trafficking and avenues to seek help.

PROSECUTION
The government increased law enforcement efforts. Azerbaijan’s 2005 Law on the Fight against Trafficking in Persons and Article 144 of the criminal code prohibit sex trafficking and forced labor and prescribe penalties of five to 15 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.The government reported investigating 23 sex or labor trafficking cases in 2014, a slight increase from four labor trafficking investigations and 17 sex trafficking investigations in 2013.The total number of prosecutions was unavailable.The government convicted 26 traffickers in 2014, compared with five in 2013; three cases were still pending at the end of the reporting period. Twenty-one traffickers were sentenced to prison: seven received a three to six-year sentence, and 14 received eight- to nine-year sentences.The government acknowledged difficulties in investigating and prosecuting child labor violations due to conflicting bureaucratic mandates and the lack of mechanisms for effective interagency cooperation.
Widespread corruption in Azerbaijan hindered anti-trafficking efforts. Civil society groups continued to report law enforcement bodies did not adequately investigate accusations of forced labor in the construction sector for fear of recrimination by influential figures, including government officials. During the reporting period, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) identified one criminal case in which a former police officer abused his authority by confiscating the identity documents of a foreign national, limiting his freedom, and subjecting him to forced labor.The officer was dismissed from his law enforcement position, and a criminal case was initiated. Local police were accused in a previous reporting period of accepting bribes from brothels, some of which had sex trafficking victims, to overlook illegal activities. In 2013, the government investigated one case of forced labor of a Filipina domestic worker in the home of a politically connected businesswoman, who was found guilty in May 2014 under the trafficking and forced labor statute and sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison. However, the court replaced the jail term with a suspended sentence of one year. Civil society contacts claimed the trafficking victim was deported from Azerbaijan in January 2015.