trafficking offenses, and convict and punish traffickers; train law enforcement and judicial officials to implement the anti-trafficking law; designate a lead ministry to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts among government agencies and establish a government anti- trafficking taskforce that can spearhead anti-trafficking efforts; draft and approve a national plan of action that outlines RMI’s plan to combat trafficking; prosecute public officials when they are complicit in trafficking activities or hindering ongoing trafficking prosecutions; fund and administer, in cooperation with NGOs and international organizations, protective services for victims; develop and conduct anti-trafficking education and awareness raising campaigns; undertake research to study human trafficking in the country; and accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

PROSECUTION
The government made no anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Article 251 of the criminal code prohibits only transnational forms of human trafficking and prescribes penalties of up to 35 months’ imprisonment for the trafficking of adults and up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the trafficking of children.The penalties for the trafficking of children are sufficiently stringent, but the penalties for trafficking adults are not, and only the penalties for the trafficking of children are commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. In addition to trafficking, Article 251 also criminalizes other activities, including labor violations and the promotion of prostitution.
The government did not initiate any new trafficking investigations, compared with one initiated in 2013. The investigation initiated in 2013 involving foreign women in forced prostitution did not result in prosecutions for trafficking offenses or convictions.The government did not provide training to law enforcement or judicial officials on the anti-trafficking law, the identification of victims, or the prosecution of traffickers.The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offenses.

PROTECTION
The government made no efforts to identify trafficking victims or ensure their access to protective services. The government did not identify any victims of trafficking for four consecutive years. Law enforcement and social services personnel did not employ systematic procedures to proactively identify trafficking victims among high-risk populations, such as women in prostitution and foreign migrant workers onboard fishing vessels.The government reportedly made available free medical, legal, and police protection services for victims of trafficking, but no formal mechanism existed to verify this assistance was provided to any victims.The government did not provide or allocate funding specifically for the provision of services to victims.The government did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution and did not provide victims long-term residence visas or legal employment opportunities.

PREVENTION
The government made limited efforts to prevent trafficking. A police officer and attorney general participated in awareness-raising school assemblies, conducted by an international organization, by speaking to students about the crimes of human trafficking and the penalties associated with it.The government’s informal taskforce drafted a charter, a required document before the taskforce can

draft a national plan of action; the government, however, did not yet approve the charter.The approval of the establishment of a national taskforce on human trafficking also remained pending for the third consecutive year. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel. The government did not take steps to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor. The RMI is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

MAURITANIA:  Tier 3 
Mauritania is a source and destination country for women, men, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Adults and children from traditional slave castes in the Black Moor and Afro-Mauritanian communities are subjected to slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships. Although reliable data on the total number of slaves does not exist, local and international experts agree that slavery continues to affect a significant portion of the country’s population in both rural and urban settings. Held for generations by slave-holding families, persons subjected to slavery are forced to work without pay as cattle herders and domestic servants. Separately, some boys from within Mauritania and other West African countries who study at Koranic schools—referred to as talibes—are subsequently subjected to forced begging by corrupt imams. Talibe victims live in harsh conditions and do not attend school; many are forced to beg for food and to earn a daily financial quota to pay the imam. Boys from low-income families in the Halpulaar community were most vulnerable to forced begging. Children who lacked birth certificates were generally not permitted to enroll in school and were therefore at increased risk to trafficking. Mauritanian girls, as well as girls from Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and other West African countries, are forced into domestic servitude in Mauritania. Mauritanian women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in the country or the Middle East. Some enter into forced marriages, facilitated by brokers and travel agencies in Mauritania, and are subsequently exploited as sex slaves overseas. Men from Middle Eastern and North African countries use legally contracted “temporary marriages” as a means to sexually exploit young girls and women in Mauritania. Civil society representatives continued to criticize law enforcement and judicial officials for a failure to appropriately investigate and prosecute slavery cases brought to their attention. In particular, concerns remained regarding official intervention to suppress action against the alleged perpetrators in the one case investigated during the reporting period.
The Government of Mauritania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government took steps to raise public awareness about human trafficking, including through two televised debates and three symposia on the vestiges of slavery. However, it failed to prosecute or convict any traffickers and did not provide any anti-trafficking training to law enforcement officials. The government did not provide adequate protective services to victims and failed to establish procedures for the proactive identification of victims among persons arrested for prostitution and individuals detained and deported for immigration violations. Additionally, during the reporting period, the government arrested, prosecuted, and convicted several anti-slavery activists, some of whom were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.