PROTECTION
The government made some progress to protect victims of trafficking by officially opening its large-capacity shelter for runaway domestic workers in December 2014. Nonetheless, the government failed to develop and implement formal procedures to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as foreign migrants, domestic workers, and women in prostitution. The government did not develop or implement a referral mechanism to provide adequate protection services to victims. While Article 12 of the anti-trafficking law stipulates public prosecutors may refer a trafficking victim to an appropriate care facility during an ongoing trial until the time of repatriation, there was no indication this occurred in practice during the reporting period.The 2013 anti-trafficking legislation did not stipulate providing protection from prosecution for victims

who fled abusive employers. Workers who left their employer’s residence without permission risked criminal penalties and arrest, detention, and deportation, even if they were fleeing from an abusive sponsor.The threat of these consequences discouraged workers from appealing to police or other government authorities for protection and from obtaining adequate legal redress for their exploitation. Embassy contacts reported that some personally motivated police officials helped to ensure trafficking victims were not subjected to unwarranted incarceration. Trafficking victims rarely filed cases against their employers, yet some victims who alleged nonpayment of wages received a monetary settlement for wages owed from their employers. The government reported public prosecutors sometimes tried cases on victims’ behalf if they were unable to afford legal counsel while pursuing cases against their employer or sponsor.
In December 2014, the government officially opened its high- capacity shelter for runaway domestic workers only with 1,970 women receiving services and assistance at the shelter; an unknown number of the women were forced labor victims. It is unclear how many of these women endured trafficking abuses.The fully operational 700-bed facility served as a one-stop facility, providing medical and psychological care, assistance with repatriation, as well as access to officials from various ministries involved in filing cases against employers.Victims were not able to leave the facility unescorted. While the government previously required women to receive referrals from foreign embassies or international organizations before being granted access to the shelter, it amended this regulation in December 2014 to allow women access to the shelter without a referral. There continued to be no shelter or other protective services afforded for male trafficking victims. Domestic workers from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and other countries continued to seek assistance at their embassies; some source-country embassies reported providing shelter to at least 200 domestic workers who ran away from their employers.To assist embassies in repatriating trafficking victims, the government directly funded and coordinated with recruitment agencies to purchase airline tickets. MOSAL and the newly established Public Authority for Manpower paid approximately 100,000 Kuwaiti dinars (KD) ($350,000) to repatriate expat workers over the past two years. The MOI also repatriated expatriate workers, but it sought a refund of travel costs from the employers who sponsored the workers.The government also provided an annual operating budget of 600,000 KD ($2,040,000) for the new shelter. The government did not offer foreign trafficking victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution.

PREVENTION
The government sustained minimum efforts to prevent human trafficking. The government did not have a national body or a designated official responsible for coordinating anti-trafficking efforts between ministries. Nonetheless, the government conducted awareness campaigns at Kuwait International Airport aimed at educating newly-arriving domestic workers about the services offered at the domestic workers’ shelter.The government’s investigation of visa fraud rings led to the closure of hundreds of labor recruitment firms and resulted in the referral of hundreds of suspects for prosecution; however, it did not indicate the alleged violations included trafficking crimes. Most of the referred offenders would only be investigated and prosecuted under the penal code with inadequate sentences in the form of fines; of the several hundred people referred for prosecution, only the executives of

four companies were investigated under the anti-trafficking law. Nonetheless, the government did not report on prosecution of these individuals. The Public Authority for Manpower was established during the reporting period, but it lacked adequate numbers of labor inspectors and did not cover domestic workers. The government did not report efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and forced labor.The government provided anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

KYRGYZSTAN: Tier 2 
The Kyrgyz Republic (or Kyrgyzstan) is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking.Adult male labor migrants working abroad are reportedly at the highest risk of trafficking. Kyrgyz men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor in Russia and Kazakhstan, and to a lesser extent in Turkey and other European countries, as well as within the Kyrgyz Republic, specifically in the agricultural, forestry, construction, and textile industries, and in domestic service and forced childcare. Kyrgyz children are also subjected to forced labor in cotton and tobacco fields, the selling and distribution of drugs within the country, and hauling cargo both in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring countries. Women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking abroad, reportedly in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Russia, Kazakhstan, and within the country. Kyrgyz police officers allegedly exploit female trafficking victims, including some younger than age 18, for sex both in saunas and on the street. Police also allegedly threaten and extort sex trafficking victims, including minors, and reportedly accept bribes from alleged traffickers to drop cases. Street children who engage in begging and children engaged in domestic work (often in the homes of extended family members) are vulnerable to human trafficking. Women and underage teenaged girls from Uzbekistan are increasingly subjected to sex trafficking in southern Kyrgyzstan. Some men and women from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan transit the country as they migrate to Russia, the UAE, and Turkey, where they may become victims of sex and labor trafficking. International organizations and NGOs reported that some Kyrgyz individuals who join extremist fighters in Syria are forced to remain against their will and that others, including minors, may be deceived by recruiters promising jobs in Turkey, to later be forced by extremist groups to fight, work, or endure sexual servitude in Syria.
The Government of the Kyrgyz Republic does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.The government established a parliamentary commission to complete an evaluation of the government’s anti-trafficking efforts and reported increased prosecutions and convictions of trafficking offenders. However, the government did not have formal written procedures to guide officials in proactive identification or referral of victims. Additionally, the government failed to adequately address alleged complicity in trafficking and trafficking-related offenses despite a 2013 report by the UN special rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography that concluded there was serious and endemic corruption of police officers, who allegedly participated themselves in the detention and rape of child sex trafficking victims.