specialized trafficking shelter. Victims who were not citizens of EU member states were only able to obtain permanent residency upon the successful prosecution and sentencing of traffickers, although residence permits for indefinite periods of time were available without conviction if authorities established a formal charge of trafficking. During the year, the government issued or renewed an unknown number of residence permits to trafficking victims.

PREVENTION
The government continued efforts to prevent trafficking. The Inter- Department Coordination Unit continued to lead an awareness campaign. Flyers were available in the consular sections of Belgian embassies and consulates abroad. The government’s previous anti- trafficking action plan expired in 2014, and the government was in the process of drafting a new plan at the end of the reporting period, for which it sought input from stakeholders, shelters, and NGOs.The government co-sponsored the “I Say Stop” campaign, launched in November 2014, to raise public awareness about child sex tourism and encourage reporting of possible cases to Belgian authorities.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.The government co-hosted a conference with OSCE on trafficking prevention within the diplomatic community, with a focus on preventing trafficking for the purpose of domestic servitude in diplomatic households. There were no efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor. The government did not provide specific anti-trafficking training in 2014 to Belgian troops prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping missions.

BELIZE: Tier 3 
Belize is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. The UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons reported Belizean women and girls were subjected to sex trafficking by family members, but the government has not arrested family members engaged in this form of trafficking. Child sex tourism, involving primarily U. S. citizens, is an emerging trend, concentrated in areas where tourism is important to the local economy. Sex trafficking and forced labor of Belizean and foreign women, girls, and LGBT persons, primarily from Central America, occurs in bars, nightclubs, brothels, and domestic service. Underage girls are reportedly present in bars that function as brothels. Foreign men, women, and children—particularly from Central America, Mexico, and Asia—migrate voluntarily to Belize in search of work; some may fall victim to forced labor in restaurants, shops, agriculture, and fishing.Traffickers often recruit through false promises of relatively high-paying jobs and subsequently subject victims to forced labor or sex trafficking. Trafficking-related complicity by government officials, including allegations of involvement of high-level officials, remains a problem.
The Government of Belize does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Authorities did not initiate any new investigations or prosecutions in 2014.Victim identification efforts significantly declined, and the lack of proactive victim identification resulted in the arrest, detention, and deportation of potential victims based on immigration violations.The government did not investigate or prosecute any public officials for alleged complicity in human trafficking-related  offenses.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR BELIZE:
Proactively implement the anti-trafficking law by vigorously investigating and prosecuting suspected traffickers; publicly acknowledge and condemn instances of official complicity and take steps to hold officials complicit in trafficking accountable; significantly improve victim identification efforts by involving Spanish-speaking social workers, NGOs, or victim advocates in the process to ensure trafficking victims are not penalized and re-victimized for crimes committed as a direct result of being subjected to human trafficking; finalize draft formal procedures to guide officials in the identification and referral of victims of sex and labor trafficking, particularly among groups vulnerable to trafficking such as children, people in prostitution, and migrant laborers; implement procedures to take trafficking victims to a safe location while conducting victim identification interviews, as victims often first appear as immigration violators and are reluctant to disclose details of their exploitation in a detention setting or post-raid environment; take steps to ensure the effective prohibition of the commercial sexual exploitation of children, including those aged 16 and 17; increase partnerships with NGOs to reintegrate victims and to deliver specialized victim care; and update and implement the national anti-trafficking plan.

PROSECUTION
The government decreased efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict traffickers.TheTrafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Act 2013 prohibits all forms of trafficking and prescribes penalties of one to eight years’ imprisonment for the trafficking of adults and up to 12 years’ imprisonment for the trafficking of children. The prescribed maximum penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with other serious crimes. The 2013 Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (Prohibition) Act criminalizes the facilitation of prostitution of children under 18 years of age.This law, however, allows for 16- and 17-year-old children to engage in sexual activity in exchange for remuneration, gifts, goods, food, or other benefits if there is no third party involved. Such children remain vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking.The government did not initiate any new prosecutions or convict any traffickers, including complicit government officials, in 2014, a decline from convicting one trafficker in 2013 and two in 2012. A prosecution from the previous reporting period, in which a suspect was arrested and charged with one count of trafficking involving a child, remained pending. Investigations of five human trafficking cases from previous years remained pending. Many off-duty police officers provide security for sex trade locales, which risks inhibiting victims from coming forward and law enforcement’s willingness to investigate allegations of trafficking in the sex trade.

PROTECTION
The government made minimal efforts to protect trafficking victims. It proactively identified 10 new potential trafficking victims among vulnerable groups in 2014, compared with three identified