PREVENTION
The government sustained moderate efforts to prevent trafficking. The MSA conducted a number of nationwide awareness-raising activities, including lectures, counseling sessions, trainings, and open-forum discussions for the general public.The national anti- trafficking committee did not meet during the reporting period; however, 13 regional bodies brought together police, social workers, transit companies, NGOs, and other groups engaged in combating trafficking on a regional level to coordinate activities to identify and assist victims and potential victims of trafficking, as well as support law enforcement efforts. Regional bodies remained severely underfunded and lacked sufficient resources.
In response to previous cases involving Burkinabe women subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution in Lebanon, the government offered counseling on the potential risks of trafficking to all women who applied for work visas to travel to Lebanon. However, the government did not make any discernible efforts to reduce the demand for forced labor during the reporting period. The government continued its failure to address the issue of traffickers posing as Koranic school teachers who force children to beg in the streets.The government, in partnership with foreign donors, provided Burkinabe troops with anti-trafficking training prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping missions. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

BURMA: Tier 2 Watch List         
Burma is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking. Some Burmese men, women, and children who migrate for work abroad—particularly to Thailand and China, as well as other countries in Asia, the Middle East, and the United States—are subjected to forced labor or sex trafficking. Men are subjected to forced labor in the fishing, manufacturing, forestry, and construction industries abroad, while women and girls are primarily subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, or forced labor in garment manufacturing. NGOs report an increase in the number of Burmese males transiting Thailand en route to Indonesia and Malaysia, where they are subsequently subjected to forced labor, primarily in the fishing industry. Some Burmese men in the Thai fishing industry are subjected to debt bondage, passport confiscation, or fraudulent recruitment; some are also subjected to physical abuse and forced to remain aboard vessels in international waters for years. Reports indicate some Rohingya asylum seekers transiting Thailand en route to Malaysia are sold into forced labor on Thai fishing boats, reportedly with the assistance of Thai civilian and military officials. Burmese women are transported to China and subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude through forced marriages to Chinese men; Burmese government officials are reportedly occasionally complicit in this form of trafficking.
Government officials are complicit in trafficking within Burma. Men, women, and children from ethnic areas, including the estimated 98,000 persons displaced by conflict in Kachin and northern Shan States and the estimated 146,000 displaced persons in Rakhine State, are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Reports indicate some Rohingya women are subjected to sex trafficking in Rakhine State. Local traffickers use deceptive tactics to recruit men into forced labor on palm oil and rubber plantations or in jade and precious stone mines. Children are subjected to sex trafficking or

to forced labor in teashops, the agricultural sector, and in begging. Children and adults are subjected to domestic servitude. A small number of foreign child sex tourists exploit Burmese children.
Some military personnel and ethnic armed groups continue to be involved in the recruitment and use of child soldiers, particularly in conflict-prone ethnic areas. Although monitoring groups, including ILO and UNICEF, report the incidence of forced conscription is decreasing, men and boys continue to be forced to serve in the Burmese army and in ethnic armed groups through intimidation, coercion, threats, and violence. Children of the urban poor are at particular risk of conscription. Reports from the UN and former child soldiers indicate army recruiters, including civilian brokers, target orphans and children alone on streets and in railway stations; sometimes recruiters trick children into joining the army and or threaten them with jail or physical abuse if they do not agree to join.
The Burmese military, and to a lesser extent, civilian officials, and some ethnic armed groups use various forms of coercion, including threats of financial and physical harm, to compel victims to provide forced labor. In areas with active conflict, local populations—mostly men, but also women and children— remain at risk for forced labor. International organizations report this practice remains common in conflict regions, particularly in Rakhine State.
The Government of Burma does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.The government continued to investigate and prosecute cross-border sex trafficking offenses and cooperate with international partners to identify and demobilize children forcibly recruited into the military’s ranks. During the reporting period, the government released 376 child soldiers from its armed forces and provided some assistance to civil society groups in their reintegration.The government continued to support a nationwide awareness raising campaign to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers.To better coordinate on combating human trafficking offenses committed by members of the Burmese military, the government designated the deputy minister of defense as a permanent member of its anti-trafficking coordinating body. Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Burma is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year. Burma was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and it has committed to devoting sufficient resources to implement that plan.Authorities did not make progress in investigating and prosecuting cases of internal trafficking.Victim identification and protection remained inadequate, and the majority of victims continued to be identified through international repatriations. The government took disciplinary action against an unknown number of military officials for the recruitment and use of child soldiers, but did not prosecute or convict any government officials for forced labor of civilians or forced recruitment of child soldiers. The military did not grant complete, unfettered access for monitors to military bases to inspect for the presence of children.