ages, genders, and nationalities had access to services on an equal basis. Deportation of trafficking victims was not permitted by law. The government referred all identified victims to care facilities; however, assistance was not always offered at the investigative stage. Investigators often focused on interrogating women for evidence gathering, rather than interviewing them for purposes of determining whether they could be potential trafficking victims.

PREVENTION
The government sustained trafficking prevention efforts. Government officials participated in television, radio, and print media programs to raise awareness. In August 2014, the government funded a local NGO to discuss the risks of labor trafficking inTurkey in the border town of Adjara. Officials supported an initiative to develop a government-funded system to support the rehabilitation of children living on the street, a demographic vulnerable to trafficking. During the reporting period, the government provided services to 535 vulnerable children via three mobile teams, three care facilities, and two shelters.The government, in partnership with an international organization, produced video clips on trafficking, assistance available for victims, and contact information for law enforcement, which were broadcast on the public broadcasting system. The government, in partnership with an international organization, developed and disseminated 40,000 anti-trafficking flyers in five languages throughout Georgia’s Tourism Information Centers located in large metro centers as well as the Tbilisi, Kutaisi, and Batumi airports.The government continued to fund an anti- trafficking hotline operated by police within the government’s anti-trafficking division, as well as another hotline operated by the state fund that received calls from trafficking victims. During the year the anti-trafficking hotline received calls from 100 persons and the state fund hotline received 171 calls. The government demonstrated efforts to reduce the demand for sex trafficking or forced labor by distributing 40,000 flyers in five languages that warned the public of trafficking and discouraged the use of services of trafficking victims, including a reference to Article 143 of the criminal code.The government provided anti-trafficking training and guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

GERMANY:  Tier 1 
Germany is a source, transit, and destination country for women, children, and men subjected to sex and labor trafficking. Most identified sex trafficking victims in Germany (86 percent in 2013) are European nationals, primarily Bulgarians, Romanians, and Germans. Nationals of Nigeria, other parts of Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere are also subjected to sex trafficking in Germany. Most sex trafficking victims are exploited in bars, brothels, and apartments. A substantial number of identified sex trafficking victims (22 percent in 2013) reported they had initially agreed to engage in prostitution. Approximately half of identified victims are under the age of 21. Asylum seekers are increasingly vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking in Germany and traffickers use asylum shelters to find victims. Labor trafficking victims are predominantly European nationals, including Bulgarians, Poles, and Romanians, but also include nationals from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Identified and suspected victims of forced labor are exploited in agriculture, hotels, construction sites, meat processing plants, seasonal industries, restaurants, and diplomatic households. Roma and foreign unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, including forced begging and coerced criminal behavior.

Various governments reported German citizens engaged in sex tourism abroad.
The Government of Germany fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to prosecute and convict traffickers, identified and assisted sex trafficking victims, registered 61 labor trafficking victims, and made efforts to assess labor trafficking in Germany. Efforts to hold traffickers accountable continued to be undercut by weak sentences for trafficking convictions.The total number of government-registered victims, investigated cases, and defendants prosecuted and convicted for sex trafficking fell significantly from the previous year, while the number of suspected victims and investigations of labor trafficking rose. Government efforts to identify and assist labor trafficking victims and prosecute and convict labor traffickers remained inadequate given the scope of the problem, partially due to weaknesses in Germany’s labor trafficking statute, Section 233 of the criminal code.

RECOMMENDATIONS   FOR GERMANY:
Increase efforts to address labor trafficking, including by revising Section 233 of the criminal code to ensure proof required under the law does not unduly restrict investigations and prosecutions of labor trafficking offenses; increase proactive identification of labor trafficking victims and vigorous investigation and prosecution of labor trafficking crimes, convicting and punishing offenders with sentences commensurate with the severity of the crime; fully integrate labor trafficking into cooperation agreements and provide more consistent and stable funding of sex and labor trafficking victim assistance at the state level; standardize victim assistance measures and government-civil society cooperation across the 16 federal states, and increase the number of victims provided services through counseling centers; expand longer- term residence permit eligibility for victims that is not reliant on victims’ willingness to testify at trial; establish policies to encourage victims to self-identify and work with law enforcement including by addressing the requirement that officials report migrants’ undocumented status; encourage prosecutors’ offices to assign specialized prosecutors to trafficking cases; establish an independent national anti-trafficking rapporteur to produce assessments of the government’s anti-trafficking efforts; strengthen awareness campaigns targeting beneficiaries of forced labor and clients of the sex trade, particularly in the most frequented red light districts; and include all convictions for human trafficking in reported conviction data.

PROSECUTION
The government maintained law enforcement efforts. Germany prohibits all forms of sex and labor trafficking; sex trafficking is criminalized under Section 232 and forced labor under Section 233 of the criminal code. Punishments prescribed in these statutes range from six months’ to 10 years’ imprisonment and are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other