PROTECTION
The government sustained efforts to protect child sex trafficking victims, but failed to identify or provide adequate protective services to other trafficking victims, including adults. The government identified two child sex trafficking victims during the reporting period, a decrease from seven victims identified in 2013. The Minors Brigade systematically referred all cases of identified children in prostitution to the Child Development Unit (CDU) of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development, and Family Welfare for assistance. CDU officials referred one victim to a multipurpose NGO shelter for care. The government paid the NGO approximately 7,565 rupees ($239) per month to care for the child. The other victim was returned to her family. The government provided the two victims with medical and psychological assistance in public clinics and child welfare officers accompanied them to these clinics; police worked in conjunction with these officers to obtain statements from the children. The government, partially in collaboration with a local NGO, provided two trainings on child sexual exploitation offenses to 83 government officials; these trainings focus on victim protection measures. The MOL does not proactively identify child labor trafficking victims and does not have a formal referral mechanism to ensure such victims receive care.
The government failed to identify or provide any services to adult victims of labor trafficking.The government identified one adult sex trafficking victim; however, it is unclear whether the government provided any services to this victim. Due to the lack of understanding of human trafficking among law enforcement, some adult victims of forced prostitution and forced labor may have been penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficking. For example, law enforcement officers and prosecutors generally did not investigate whether adult women were involuntarily engaging in prostitution. During the reporting period, immigration officials regularly turned back single Malagasy women, traveling on their own, with less than 4,200 rupees ($132) who attempted to enter the country on tourist visas on the grounds that they might be coming to Mauritius to engage in prostitution; some of these women might have been trafficking victims. Additionally, under Mauritian law, migrant workers who strike are considered to be in breach of their employment contracts and can be deported at the will of their employers. Some migrant workers who gathered to protest abuses relating to their employment were deported during the reporting period; these deportations took place without conducting comprehensive investigations or screenings to identify if the individuals were victims of forced labor.The 2009 anti-trafficking law specifically provides legal alternatives, such as temporary residency, to removal to countries in which the trafficking victims would face retribution or hardship.

PREVENTION
The government sustained strong efforts to prevent the sex trafficking of children and reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, but demonstrated weak efforts to prevent other forms of trafficking. The Police Family Protection Unit and the Minors

Brigade continued extensive public awareness campaigns on child abuse and child rights at schools and community centers that included information on the dangers and consequences of engaging in or facilitating child prostitution.The Ministry of Tourism and Leisure also distributed pamphlets warning tourism industry operators of the consequences of engaging in or facilitating child prostitution. However, the government does not have an inter- ministerial coordinating body or a national action plan dedicated to combating all forms of trafficking.The government did not conduct any awareness campaigns relating to other forms of trafficking and did not make any discernible efforts to reduce the demand for forced labor during the reporting period. The MOL did not investigate child labor cases during the reporting period, despite receiving information on such cases from the police. The MOL is required to approve all employment contracts before migrant laborers enter the country. However, reports indicate many migrant laborers enter the country with incomplete contracts or contracts that have not been translated into languages that the workers understand. Additionally, the MOL’s Special Migrant Workers Unit, which is responsible for directly monitoring and protecting all migrant workers and conducting routine inspections of their employment sites, was staffed by only four inspectors; this number of inspectors is severely inadequate, as there are approximately 37,000 migrant workers currently employed in Mauritius. The government provided anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

MEXICO:  Tier 2 
Mexico is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Groups considered most vulnerable to human trafficking in Mexico include women, children, indigenous persons, persons with mental and physical disabilities, migrants, and LGBT Mexicans. Mexican women and children, and to a lesser extent men and transgender Mexicans, are exploited in sex trafficking within Mexico and the United States. Mexican men, women, and children are exploited in forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, food processing, construction, the informal economy, begging, and vending in both the United States and Mexico. Press reports state some Mexican citizens have wages systematically withheld, are held in debt bondage in agriculture, and are indebted to recruiters or to company stores. Residents at some substance addiction rehabilitation centers and women’s shelters have been subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. The vast majority of foreign victims of forced labor and sex trafficking in Mexico are from Central and South America.Victims from other regions have also been identified in Mexico, some en route to the United States. Child sex tourism persists, especially in tourist areas and in northern border cities. Many child sex tourists are from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Organized criminal groups profit from sex trafficking and force Mexican and foreign men, women, and children to engage in illicit activities, including as hit men; lookouts; and in the production, transportation, and sale of drugs.Trafficking-related corruption among public officials, especially local law enforcement, judicial, and immigration officials, is a significant concern. Some officials extort bribes and sexual services from adults and children in prostitution; extort irregular migrants, including trafficking victims; falsify victims’ documents; threaten victims with prosecution if they will not file official complaints against their traffickers; accept bribes from traffickers;

facilitate movement of victims across borders; operate or patronize brothels where victims are exploited; or fail to respond to trafficking crimes, including in commercial sex locations.
The Government of Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Authorities engaged in a variety of prevention activities and released for the first time a national anti- trafficking action plan and a national report on human trafficking. Eleven states and the Federal District also created or reconfigured anti-trafficking commissions to strengthen interagency efforts.The government reported increased trafficking convictions, though data on victim identification and law enforcement efforts were often unreliable, and it was unclear how many of these convictions were for trafficking as defined by international law. Official complicity continued to be a serious and largely unaddressed problem. Law enforcement efforts were insufficient to deal with the scale of the trafficking problem, particularly for forced labor, and authorities did not report how many labor traffickers, if any, were convicted. Government funding for specialized victim services and shelters remained inadequate and these services were virtually nonexistent in much of the country, leaving the significant number of reported victims vulnerable to re-trafficking.