national action plan to combat trafficking in persons and research the extent and nature of the crime within the country; and launch a nationwide anti-trafficking public awareness campaign.

PROSECUTION
The government did not make anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period.The 2004 Law on the Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons prohibits all forms of trafficking and prescribes penalties of 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment, punishments which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. The government did not maintain law enforcement statistics and did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of any suspected trafficking offenders in 2014.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to law enforcement officials. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking offenses during the reporting period; however, general corruption and official complicity in trafficking-related offenses were common during the reporting period.

PROTECTION
The government did not make efforts to protect trafficking victims, failing to identify or refer any victims to protective services in 2014. Although the 2004 anti-trafficking law mandates the government provide legal assistance, psychological and medical care, lodging, food, access to education, training, and employment opportunities to trafficking victims, it provided no such services. Law enforcement authorities did not employ procedures to proactively identify trafficking victims or make efforts—in either a systematic or ad hoc way—to refer victims to organizations providing care. The absence of a proactive victim identification process, including procedures to screen deportees, impaired the government’s ability to assist foreign trafficking victims and ensure they were not penalized for crimes committed as a direct result of being subjected to human trafficking. Rather, the government routinely detained foreign nationals, including potential trafficking victims, at police stations for periods of several days to several months, and seldom notified their embassies of their detention or deportation. In many of these cases, police and border officials solicited bribes from the detainees and deported those who did not pay. The overwhelming majority of those detained were young men, though children and women were also sometimes detained and deported. The government did not provide foreign trafficking victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they might face retribution or hardship.

PREVENTION
The government did not make efforts to prevent trafficking. It did not launch any anti-trafficking awareness campaigns for the general public, and the Inter-Ministerial Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons remained inactive.The government did not implement any programs to address forced child labor or identify a single child labor victim, despite having approximately 13 labor inspectors dedicated to documenting labor infractions. It did not undertake any discernible measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor during the year. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

ERITREA: Tier 3 
Eritrea is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor. To a lesser extent, Eritrean adults and children are subjected to sex and labor trafficking abroad.The government continues to be complicit in trafficking through the implementation of national policies and mandatory programs amounting to forced labor within the country; it has also increased citizens’ vulnerability to trafficking abroad. Proclamation 82 of 1995 requires persons aged 18 to 40 years to perform compulsory active national service for a period of 18 months—six months of military training followed by 12 months of service in a government-run work unit, including the Eritrean Defense Forces. However, the 18-month timeframe is arbitrary and unenforced; many persons are not demobilized from government work units after their mandatory period of service and are forced to serve indefinitely under threats of detention, torture, or familial punishment. In 2012, the government instituted a compulsory citizen militia, requiring medically fit adults up to the age of 70 and not currently in the military to carry firearms and attend military training or participate in national development programs such as soil and water conservation projects.Working conditions are often harsh and sometimes involve physical abuse.
All 12th-grade students, including some younger than 18, are required to complete their final year of secondary education at the Sawa military and educational camp; those who refuse to attend cannot receive high school graduation certificates, attain higher education, or be offered some types of jobs.Though government policy bans persons younger than 18 from military conscription, it was undetermined whether all persons compelled to enter Sawa had reached 18 years of age. Reports indicate male and female recruits at Sawa are beaten, and female recruits sexually abused and raped.The Ministry of Education continued Maetot, a national service program in which secondary-school children are assigned to work in public works projects including in the agricultural sector during their summer holidays. Some Eritrean children are subjected to forced labor, including forced begging. Some Eritrean women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking within the country.
Thousands of Eritreans continue to flee the country monthly to escape forced labor or governmental persecution, as well as to seek better economic opportunities.The government’s strict exit control procedures and limited issuance of passports and exit visas effectively oblige those who wish to travel abroad to do so clandestinely, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Children who attempt to leave Eritrea are sometimes detained or forced to undergo military training despite being younger than the minimum service age of 18. Some Eritrean women and girls travel to Saudi Arabia or other Gulf states for domestic work, but are subjected to sex trafficking upon arrival. Smaller numbers of Eritrean women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in South Sudan, Sudan, and Israel; some Eritrean men are reportedly vulnerable to sex trafficking in Israel. International criminal groups kidnap vulnerable Eritreans living inside and near refugee camps, particularly in Sudan, and transport them to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and to a greater extent Libya, where they are subjected to human trafficking and related abuses, such as being forced to call family and friends abroad to pay ransom for release. Some migrants and refugees report being forced to work as cleaners or on construction sites during their captivity. Reports allege Eritrean diplomats, particularly those posted in Sudan, provide travel documents and legal services to Eritrean nationals in exchange

for bribes or inflated fees, potentially facilitating the trafficking of Eritrean nationals. Some Eritrean military and police officers are complicit in trafficking crimes along the border with Sudan.
The Government of Eritrea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. It continued to subject its citizens to forced labor in compulsory national service, often for periods of indefinite duration, and its citizen militia.The government failed to investigate or prosecute any trafficking offenses and identify or protect any victims. It continued to arrest and detain unidentified victims for acts committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking or in the course of fleeing forced labor. Although the government continued to warn its citizens of the dangers of trafficking, authorities lacked understanding of the crime, conflating it with transnational migration.