PROSECUTION
The government made few discernible anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Iranian law does not prohibit all forms of trafficking. A 2004 law prohibits trafficking in persons by means of threat or use of force, coercion, abuse of power, or abuse of a victim’s position of vulnerability for purposes of prostitution, slavery, or forced marriage.The prescribed penalty under this law is up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the trafficking of adults and capital punishment for offenses against children. Both penalties are sufficiently stringent.The penalty for the trafficking of adults, however, is not commensurate with penalties prescribed under Iranian law for rape. In September 2014, a senior government official publicly claimed the anti-trafficking law was under review for amendment, including specific provisions to improve the effectiveness of the law. At the end of the reporting period, however, the amended law was still pending review by the judiciary and had not been enacted by the legislature. The constitution and labor code prohibit forced labor and debt bondage, but the prescribed penalty of a fine and up to one year’s imprisonment is not sufficiently stringent to deter these serious crimes. It was reportedly extremely difficult for female trafficking victims to obtain justice, as Iranian courts accord legal testimony by women only half the weight accorded to the testimony by men. Moreover, female victims of sexual abuse, including sex trafficking victims, are liable to be prosecuted for adultery, which is defined as sexual relations outside of marriage and is punishable by death.The government did not report official statistics on investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of trafficking offenders.The government also did not report investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in trafficking offenses, despite reports that such complicity was widespread. The government did not appear to report providing anti-trafficking training to officials during the reporting period.Throughout the reporting period, the government made some efforts to cooperate with various regional governments and one international organization on efforts to combat human trafficking, among other crimes.

PROTECTION
The government made no discernible efforts to protect trafficking victims. The government did not report identifying or providing protection services to any trafficking victims, including repatriated Iranian victims.The government reportedly continued to punish sex trafficking victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to human trafficking, such as adultery and prostitution.The government held foreign trafficking victims in detention centers and jails until the court ordered their deportation. The government did not appear to operate social or legal protection services for trafficking victims, nor did it provide

support to some NGOs providing limited services to victims.The government did not appear to encourage trafficking victims to assist in the investigation or prosecution of traffickers. It did not appear to provide foreign victims of trafficking a legal alternative to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution.

PREVENTION
The government appeared to make inadequate efforts to prevent human trafficking. The government did not improve its transparency on its anti-trafficking policies or activities, nor did it make discernable efforts to forge partnerships with NGOs to combat human trafficking.The government made no discernable efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, forced labor, or for child sex tourism by Iranian citizens traveling abroad. The government did not implement anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. However, it issued several public pledges to cooperate with other countries on anti-trafficking efforts, while a senior government official raised trafficking issues with Pope Francis in Rome in February 2015.The parliament reportedly continued to review for ratification the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its three associated protocols in the wake of the cabinet’s December 2013 endorsement of the convention. There was no indication the government provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel. Iran is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

IRAQ:  Tier 2 
Iraq is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking, and men, women, and children subjected to forced labor.The escalation of the conflict in 2014 with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gravely increased the vulnerability of the population to trafficking, in particular women and children. ISIL militants continue to kidnap thousands of women and girls from a wide range of ethnic and religious groups, with a significant focus this past year on the Yezidi community, and sell them to ISIL fighters in Iraq and Syria where they are subjected to forced marriage, sexual slavery, rape, and domestic servitude; there are reports ISIL executes captives if they refuse to marry fighters.Women and girls who escape ISIL captivity and become displaced in the country remain vulnerable to various forms of exploitation, including re-trafficking. ISIL also abducts and forcibly uses children in combat and support roles, including as human shields, informants, bomb makers, and suicide bombers; some of these children are as young as 8 years old and some are mentally disabled. Anecdotal information from international organizations reported Shia militias fighting against ISIL recruited and used children in support roles; however, it was not possible to independently verify these claims.
Women and girls from Iraq and Syria, including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), are exploited in sex trafficking by various individuals, including security and law enforcement officials, criminal gangs, taxicab drivers, and the victims’ family members. Reports indicate IDPs and some Syrian refugee women are forced into prostitution by a trafficking network in hotels and brothels in Baghdad, Basrah, and other cities in southern Iraq after promising to resettle them from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR); the women’s children are forced to beg on the street. Some Iraqi law enforcement officials allegedly ignored signs of or accepted bribes to allow sex trafficking in locations openly facilitating