PREVENTION
The government sustained efforts to prevent trafficking. The government’s ministerial taskforce consisted of representatives from multiple government entities and two NGOs. A leading NGO that has played a significant role in identifying and assisting trafficking victims was not included, despite the organization’s critical role in victim protection. The government released an action plan to address trafficking in June 2014; however, it made uneven efforts to implement the plan. It conducted a variety of awareness-raising activities including distribution of posters at checkpoints in the interior, programs at secondary schools, community awareness initiatives, and publication of a newspaper article in observance of trafficking awareness day. The government operated a trafficking hotline, but did not report how many calls it received.The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

HAITI:  Tier 2 Watch List 
Haiti is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Most of Haiti’s trafficking cases consist of children in domestic servitude vulnerable to beatings, sexual assaults, and other abuses by individuals in the homes in which they are residing. A significant number of dismissed and runaway child domestic servants end up in prostitution or are forced into begging or street crime. Citizens of the Dominican Republic are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Haiti. Other vulnerable populations include: low-income Haitians; children working in construction, agriculture, fisheries, and street vending; women and children living in camps for internally displaced persons set up as a result of the 2010 earthquake; female-headed or single-parent families; children in unscrupulous private and NGO-sponsored residential care centers; and Haitians without documentation, including those returning from the Dominican Republic or The Bahamas. Haitians are vulnerable to fraudulent labor recruitment abroad. Haitian children are exploited in prostitution, domestic servitude, agriculture,

construction, and forced begging in the Dominican Republic. Haitian adults and children are exploited in forced labor primarily in the Dominican Republic, other Caribbean countries, South America, and the United States. Deficiencies and corruption in the judicial system impair efforts to prosecute criminals, including traffickers.
The Government of Haiti does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Haiti is placed onTier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year. Haiti 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 meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is devoting sufficient resources to implement that plan. The government reported four investigations and prosecuted two suspects under Haiti’s 2014 anti-trafficking law and identified 22 potential trafficking victims, a significant increase from the number identified in 2013. The government also developed a new national anti-trafficking action plan. The government has not convicted any traffickers and identified and assisted few victims of forced labor compared to the scope of the problem. The government lacked adequate victim identification and referral procedures and relied on NGOs to assist victims with minimal government support.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HAITI:
Vigorously investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence traffickers, including those responsible for domestic servitude and child sex trafficking; implement the new national anti-trafficking action plan; increase funding for trafficking victim assistance, including by working with the donor community to develop long-term, sustainable funding mechanisms for trafficking victim service providers; enforce provisions to guarantee victims are not detained or penalized for crimes committed as a direct result of being subjected to human trafficking; continue to train police, prosecutors, and judges on trafficking; and in partnership with NGOs, adopt and employ formal procedures to guide officials in proactive victim identification and referral of child and adult victims to appropriate shelters and services.

PROSECUTION
The government made progress in anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, but continued to lack any trafficking convictions. In June 2014, authorities enacted Law No. CL/2014-0010, which prohibits all forms of human trafficking and prescribes penalties of seven to 15 years’ imprisonment.The law provides for increased penalties of up to life imprisonment for human trafficking committed with aggravating circumstances, such as if the victim is a child or the trafficker is a public official, among other circumstances. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.The judiciary’s systemic weaknesses and vulnerability to corruption hampered

implementation of the law. Laws criminalizing trafficking-related crimes, such as abuse of children or prostitution, may be used to hold traffickers accountable, although there were no reports that traffickers were ever convicted under these laws. In contrast with the previous three reporting periods, the government reported four investigations and two prosecutions involving two suspected traffickers using the new law. One case involved the attempted labor trafficking of 17 children and the other involved sex trafficking of three foreign girls and two women. One of the two suspects was placed in pre-trial detention, and authorities issued an arrest warrant for the second suspect. After the judge’s mandate expired in the first case, the government reassigned the case to ensure the investigation could move forward. At the close of the reporting period, no traffickers had been convicted. Law enforcement pursued a third investigation initially believed to be a human trafficking case, but it was subsequently prosecuted under other charges. In a fourth case, a U.S. citizen was investigated and charged for alleged crimes against children, including potential trafficking; but the charges were later dropped.The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees for alleged complicity in trafficking-related offenses.The government continued efforts to train new police cadets on human rights issues, and to improve the response to crimes, including trafficking, against marginalized groups.