PROTECTION
The government continued its efforts to protect victims, but the availability of long-term care and standard operating procedures for assistance to foreign victims remained lacking. In 2014, the government identified 74 trafficking victims, a decrease from 122 victims identified in the previous year. Of those victims, 58 were victims of sex trafficking and 16 were victims of forced labor. All six foreign victims were from Central Asia, and 68 Kazakhstani victims from rural areas were subjected to internal trafficking.
Kazakhstan has four NGO-operated trafficking shelters, which provide legal, psychological, and medical assistance and are accessible to all trafficking victims, regardless of citizenship, gender, or age. However, NGOs report foreign victims sometimes experience difficulties in accessing local medical facilities due to a lack of health insurance or residency permits.The government allocated 6,475,000 Kazakhstani Tenge (KZT) ($35,500), an increase from 4,625,000 KZT ($25,400) in 2013, to one NGO- run shelter for trafficking victims in Astana, which assisted 39 victims in 2014; however, it had not yet developed a mechanism to provide long-term assistance beyond this shelter. The MVD allocated 2,127,500 KZT ($11,700), an increase from 1,480,000 KZT ($8,100) in 2013, for victim assistance during investigations. In 2014, civil society groups and government-funded programs assisted a total of 161 potential trafficking victims, an increase from 100 in the previous year; 73 of which were referred by the government and an additional 88 victims referred by international organizations, embassies, NGOs and self-referral. Of the total number of trafficking victims assisted, 59 were Kazakhstani and 102 were foreigners; 46 were victims of sexual exploitation and 115 of forced labor; 54 were female and 107 male.
To formally entitle trafficking victims to receive care under the Special Social Services law, the government expanded the law’s definition of “victims of violence” to include trafficking victims. In January 2015, amendments to the penal procedural code, made in the previous reporting period, came into force, allowing for victims to seek compensation from a government fund. NGOs reported effective victim referral and police cooperation with anti-trafficking units assigned to each region. Law enforcement units mandated to address migration or trafficking issues have a formal system to guide officials in the proactive identification of trafficking victims among at-risk persons, such as undocumented

migrants or persons engaged in prostitution. The government encouraged victims to participate in investigations and prosecutions by providing witness protection during court proceedings, access to pre-trial shelter services, and basic provisions such as food, clothing, and medical and legal assistance. Foreign victims were provided with legal protection and special temporary residency throughout the duration of their criminal investigation; however, if an investigation was not initiated, victims could not be given protective status.The government did not offer legal alternatives to removal of foreign victims; all victims were forcibly repatriated after expiration of their temporary residency rights.There were no reports of trafficking victims being criminally punished in 2014.

PREVENTION
The government maintained modest prevention efforts, including efforts to educate children on potential dangers of human trafficking. MVD assumed leadership of the interagency Trafficking in Persons Working Group, now chaired by the minister; two meetings were held in 2014 with participation from multiple ministries, NGOs, and international organizations. Members of the working group drafted a national action plan for 2015-2017 and submitted it to the prime minister’s office, where it remained awaiting approval at the close of the reporting period.The government continued to fund anti-trafficking information and education campaigns targeting potential victims of trafficking, including children.The Ministry of Culture and Information funded radio and television programs, as well as the publication of newspaper articles and web-publications, designed to prevent trafficking by raising public awareness. The government allocated approximately 7,492,500 KZT ($41,100) to NGOs for prevention projects, which included advertisement of the police hotline, booklets with consular information for those traveling abroad, and anti-trafficking handouts. The government continued to provide in-kind contributions to an international organization program on demand reduction for commercial sexual acts, serving to facilitate engagement and discussion of school inspectors and child-protection officials with male students. The government did not take any actions to reduce the demand for forced labor.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

KENYA:  Tier 2 
Kenya is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.Within the country, children are forced to labor in domestic service, agriculture, fishing, cattle herding, street vending, and begging. Children—both girls and boys—are also exploited in prostitution throughout Kenya, including in the coastal sex tourism industry; at times, their prostitution is facilitated by women in prostitution, “beach boys,” and sometimes family members. Children are exploited in prostitution by those working in sectors such as khat (a mild narcotic) cultivation areas, near Nyanza’s gold mines, along the coast by truck drivers transporting stones from quarries, and by fishermen on Lake Victoria. Kenyans voluntarily migrate to other East African nations, South Sudan, Angola, Europe, the United States, and the Middle East—particularly Saudi Arabia and Oman—in search of employment, where at times they are exploited in domestic servitude, massage parlors and brothels, or forced manual labor. Gay and bisexual Kenyan men are lured from universities with promises of overseas jobs, but are forced into prostitution in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Nairobi-based labor recruiters maintain networks in Uganda that recruit Rwandan and Ugandan workers through fraudulent offers of employment in the Middle East and Asia. Kenyan women are subjected to forced prostitution in Thailand by Ugandan and Nigerian traffickers.
Children from East Africa and South Sudan are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in Kenya; Kenyan children may endure similar exploitation in these countries. Kenya’s largest refugee camp complex, Dadaab, hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, and the security situation limits some humanitarian access, assistance, and protective services. Some Somali refugees reported the presence of al-Shabaab recruiters; a 2012 survey by a local NGO found fear of recruitment, especially of children, into this armed group was a concern of a small percentage of respondents. Some children in Kenya-based refugee camps may endure sex trafficking, while others are taken from the camps and forced to work on tobacco farms.Trucks transporting goods from Kenya to Somalia returned to Kenya with young girls and women subsequently placed into brothels in Nairobi or Mombasa. Indian women recruited to work in mujra dance clubs in Nairobi face debt bondage, which they are forced to pay off by dancing and performing sex acts.
The Government of Kenya does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. For the first time since it came into effect in October 2012, the government made robust efforts to implement the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act. In August 2014, the government established the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Advisory Committee (advisory committee), as mandated by the act, which met regularly and updated Kenya’s national action plan. The government reported prosecution of 65 trafficking cases, more than double than in the previous reporting period, and conviction of 33 traffickers, a significant increase from seven in 2013. In 2014, the government identified 658 child trafficking victims in 18 of Kenya’s 47 counties. In September 2014, as an attempt to better regulate overseas labor recruitment, the government revoked all accredited certificates issued to private employment recruitment agencies.The Ministry of Labor (MOL) established a new process for agencies sourcing jobs abroad, requiring their approval of contracts in advance of workers’ departure for employment overseas. The government identified at least 12 adult trafficking victims exploited overseas and assisted in their repatriation. Nonetheless, the government failed to provide adequate protective services to adult victims subjected to trafficking within the country or identified in situations of forced labor or prostitution overseas. In September 2014, the government passed the Victim Protection Act which improves support to trafficking victims, including the establishment of a fund. Government funding remained inadequate in light of Kenya’s significant trafficking problem.