subjected to trafficking; however, a lack of formal procedures for victim identification left many victims unidentified and at risk of being punished. Officials often lacked sufficient office space to keep victims and perpetrators separated during interviews. Cambodia’s weak and corrupt legal system and the lack of adequate victim and witness protection, exacerbated by a lengthy trial process and fear of retaliation by traffickers, hindered victims’ willingness to cooperate in cases. Victims whose families received out-of- court settlements from traffickers often changed their testimonies, hampering the pursuit of successful prosecutions. Victims were theoretically eligible for restitution, though this was limited by a legal requirement that compensation be paid only following the completion of a trafficker’s jail term.

PREVENTION
The government continued moderate prevention efforts. The interagency committee and its secretariat coordinated anti- trafficking efforts, and in February 2015 it launched a new national action plan.The committee continued to face difficulty obtaining funding sufficient to effectively implement activities, though its budget was projected to increase in 2015. Local committees coordinated efforts at the provincial level and, for the first time, the central government provided modest funds to two of five committees that requested them.The government did not punish any labor recruiters for illegal practices that may have contributed to trafficking. With support from foreign and local donors, it produced and disseminated printed materials, radio broadcasts, billboards, and posters addressing the dangers of various forms of human trafficking.The Ministry of Tourism sustained collaboration with NGOs in producing trainings, billboards, and handouts aimed at reducing the demand for commercial sex acts and child sex tourism, though these efforts were targeted at foreign sex tourists rather than the local population that was the main source of demand for commercial sex with children. Authorities reported the arrest of 12 foreign child sex tourists and the conviction of two foreign tourists and seven Cambodian citizens for the purchase of commercial sex acts with children; this is an increase from seven such convictions in the previous year. Local experts reported concern over the government’s ongoing failure to properly investigate or impose punishments on foreign nationals who purchase commercial sex acts with children.The government provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel and to members of the military prior to their deployment abroad on peacekeeping initiatives.

CAMEROON:  Tier 2 
Cameroon is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for men in forced labor. Trafficking operations usually target two to four children, often when rural parents give their children to an intermediary promising education or a better life in the city. Child traffickers increasingly resort to kidnapping their victims, including inYaounde, as heightened public awareness about trafficking has led parents to be less willing to give their children to these intermediaries. Cameroonian children are exploited in domestic service, restaurants, street begging or vending, artisanal gold mining, gravel quarries, fishing, animal breeding, and agriculture (on onion, cotton, tea and cocoa plantations), as well as in urban transportation and construction working as errand boys and laborers. Many children are subjected to sex trafficking within

the country. Reports document hereditary slavery in northern chiefdoms. Children from neighboring countries are exploited in spare parts shops or by herders in northern Cameroon or transit the country en route to Gabon or Equatorial Guinea. Cameroonian women are lured to Europe and other regions by fraudulent internet marriage proposals or offers of domestic work and subsequently become victims of forced labor or forced prostitution. Cameroonian trafficking victims were identified in the Middle East, Haiti, the United States, and several African countries. Teenagers and adults from the Central African Republic (CAR) and Nigeria are lured by the prospect of a better life in Cameroon and subsequently are victims of labor trafficking. Refugees from CAR and Nigeria, as well as displaced Cameroonian citizens fleeing growing insecurity in border areas, are increasingly vulnerable to human trafficking in Cameroon.
The Government of Cameroon 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 anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts through the work of two regional multidisciplinary anti-trafficking taskforces and continued to implement its action plan to combat trafficking through reintegrating street children who were victims and conducting grass roots, regional, and national child trafficking public awareness campaigns. Despite these efforts, the government did not make progress in ensuring adult and child trafficking victims were identified and received access to protection services or in providing much needed anti-trafficking training to law enforcement, judicial, and social welfare personnel. Furthermore, the government did not provide budgetary support for the national and regional multidisciplinary governmental bodies responsible for addressing human trafficking. Data collection remained sporadic and did not cover the entire country, resulting in unreliable and incomplete statistics on victim identification and law enforcement efforts.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CAMEROON:
Enact legislation to address the lack of victim protection measures and to conform the definitions in the 2011 law with international law; continue to prosecute and convict traffickers, including government employees complicit in trafficking-related offenses; provide funding to support the anti-trafficking inter-ministerial committee and the three regional multidisciplinary anti-trafficking taskforces; increase efforts to educate police, judges, lawyers, and social workers about the law against human trafficking; develop and provide advanced training on victim-centered investigation and prosecution of human trafficking offenses for the anti-trafficking taskforces; dedicate resources to improve the collection of statistics relating to victim identification and law enforcement; fully implement the standardized procedures for referring trafficking victims to government and NGO care services and provide training on the procedures for government officials and the NGO community; continue to provide training for government service providers to ensure the quality of care for victims; establish multidisciplinary anti-trafficking taskforces

in the remaining seven regions; and address cases of hereditary servitude in the northern regions.