assisted by an international organization after escaping forced labor on Thai fishing vessels. Police and border officials identified an additional 45 cases, involving 68 victims at border crossings, compared with 47 such cases in 2013. During the reporting period, the government identified and released 322 children from the military through implementation of its UN-backed action plan on child soldiers, an increase from 206 children the previous year. While law enforcement officials in northern Burma continued to identify suspected victims en route to China for forced marriages likely to result in sex or labor exploitation, front-line officers throughout the country generally lacked adequate training to identify potential victims in Burma.The government did not make efforts to screen for indicators of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as individuals deported from neighboring countries, returning migrant workers filing complaints regarding employment abroad, or individuals in prostitution. Military officials were often cooperative in cases of child soldiering brought to their attention by civil society organizations, but were unlikely to proactively identify or investigate such cases.The government often granted UN monitors access to battalion-level military installations to inspect for the presence of children, but occasionally refused to grant access despite a formal commitment to provide unhindered access.The Ministry of Education issued a rule requiring schools to expedite reacceptance for former child soldiers and 200 children received modest reintegration support from the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and civil society partners, but overall government support to demobilized children remained minimal, with most service provided by civil society organizations.
Police and border officials consistently referred repatriated victims to DSW to receive protective services, but there were no referral mechanisms in place for victims of other forms of trafficking. Local experts reported modest improvement in working-level cooperation between DSW and the police during the year.The government continued to operate five centers for women and children, including trafficking victims, and one dedicated to female victims of trafficking. During 2014, it opened two facilities funded by a foreign donor that could serve both men and women.The government did not report the total number of victims receiving services in these facilities, or whether shelters housed any men. NGOs and foreign donors largely funded and facilitated delivery of the rudimentary services available to victims. DSW lacked the capacity to provide individualized services. Longer-term support was limited to vocational training for women in major city centers and in border areas; the lack of adequate protective measures for victims—particularly males—left them vulnerable to  re-trafficking.
Authorities encouraged victims to assist in investigations and prosecutions, but the lack of victim protection or compensation programs, exacerbated by a lengthy trial process and victims’ mistrust of the legal system, caused many victims to decline cooperation.A cumbersome investigation process required victims to give statements multiple times to different officials, increasing the possibility of re-victimization. The government made efforts to include victims’ perspectives in training sessions with police and during government meetings. Inadequate efforts to screen for indicators of trafficking in thousands of anti-prostitution interventions may have led to the treatment of sex trafficking victims as criminals. Children who fled military service or were demobilized by civil society organizations continued to face arrest and imprisonment on charges of desertion.The government did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution.

PREVENTION
The government sustained efforts to prevent trafficking.The Central Body for the Suppression of Trafficking in Persons coordinated anti-trafficking programs and policies in line with the five-year national action plan. In December 2014, the deputy minister of defense joined the committee as a permanent member. In August 2014, the military issued a proclamation to all regional commands banning the recruitment and use of child soldiers and establishing a centralized recruiting structure to enable greater oversight; local experts observed this policy was not fully adopted by field commanders.The government did not sufficiently strengthen age verification procedures for military recruits or change military policies—including high recruitment goals, which could not be met through voluntary enlistments, and a requirement that early retirees bring in a new recruit to fill their place—that continued to make children vulnerable to recruitment, including through deception and force.The government continued to deny citizenship to an estimated 800,000 men, women, and children in Burma—the majority of whom were ethnic Rohingya living in Rakhine State.The lack of legal status and access to identification documents significantly increased this population’s vulnerability to trafficking. The government conducted awareness campaigns in print, television, and radio media and trained members of community-based watch groups on trafficking. It increased efforts to train members of the military on prohibitions against the recruitment of children. It did not make efforts to punish labor recruiters or brokers for illegal practices that increase migrants’ vulnerability to exploitation abroad. The government provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel.Anti-trafficking police provided training to new tourism police units to stem child sex tourism.The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor.

BURUNDI:  Tier 3 
Burundi is a source country for children and possibly women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Children and young adults are coerced into forced labor on plantations or small farms throughout Burundi, in gold mines in Cibitoke, for informal commerce in the streets of larger cities, collecting river stones for construction in Bujumbura, or in the fishing industry. Traffickers include victims’ family members, neighbors, or friends who recruit them under false pretenses, only to later exploit them in forced labor and sex trafficking. Some families are complicit in the exploitation of children and adults with disabilities, accepting payment from traffickers who run forced street begging operations. Children endure domestic servitude in private homes, experiencing nonpayment of wages and verbal and physical abuse. Children in domestic servitude or working in guest houses and entertainment establishments may also be exploited in prostitution. At times, children are fraudulently recruited from rural areas for domestic work and later exploited in prostitution, including in rented houses in Bujumbura.Young women offer vulnerable girls room and board within their homes, eventually pushing some into prostitution to pay for living expenses.These brothels are located in poorer areas of Bujumbura, along the lake, on trucking routes, and in other urban centers such as Ngozi, Gitega, and Rumonge. Some orphaned girls are exploited in prostitution, with boys acting as their facilitators, to pay for school, food, and shelter. Incarcerated women facilitate commercial sex between male prisoners and detained children within the Burundian prison system. Male tourists from