PROTECTION
The government maintained victim identification efforts and increased funding for victim assistance.The government identified 264 trafficking victims in 2014, compared with 262 in 2013, and assisted 85 victims, compared with 105 in 2013. Of the total identified victims, 116 were subjected to sex trafficking, 91 to labor trafficking, 53 to forced begging, and four to forced criminal activities. There were 238 adult victims and 26 minors; the majority of victims, 231, were subjected to trafficking abroad. The government provided 7,256,300 leu ($467,000) to seven domestic violence shelters that assisted trafficking victims, an increase from the 6,011,900 leu ($387,000) provided in 2013.The government fully funded the Chisinau Assistance and Protection Center, which received victims repatriated from abroad, providing 2,899,100 leu ($186,000) in 2014, more than twice the 1,312,100 leu ($84,400) provided in 2013.The government spent 600,000 leu ($38,600) for the repatriation of victims in 2014, a large increase from the 120,000 leu ($7,720) spent in 2013.Teams of

local officials and NGOs were present in all regions of Moldova to coordinate victim identification and assistance.The government provided trafficking victims with shelter and medical, legal, and psychological assistance, regardless of their cooperation with law enforcement. Authorities recognized legal aid and long-term reintegration support were insufficient, however, and victims were unable to get free medical insurance. Male victims had access to specialized medical and psychological care. Child trafficking victims were placed with relatives, in foster care, or in rehabilitation clinics that provided specialized medical and psychological care. Child victims 14 years old or younger were interviewed in specialized hearing rooms with recording equipment with the assistance of a psychologist. Reportedly, the government did not adequately protect victims participating in investigations and prosecutions. Shelters had little security and corruption undermined police protection. Prosecutors did not maintain regular contact with the victims nor adequately prepare them for trial. Some victims experienced intimidation in the courtroom and were pressured by traffickers to change their testimony.
Victims had the right to sue traffickers for damages, but most did not due to threats from perpetrators, inability to present proof required by courts, and perceived corruption in the judiciary. A court ordered a trafficker to pay 14 Moldovan labor trafficking victims 32,160 leu ($2,070) each in 2014. Moldovan law provides temporary residence permits to foreign victims willing to cooperate with law enforcement, though none were granted during the reporting period. Moldova’s criminal code exempts trafficking victims of criminal liability for committing offenses related to their exploitation. However, the government continued to prosecute a labor trafficking victim for theft because the case was investigated under a statute on forced labor, which does not exempt victims from criminal liability. Moldovan law affords trafficking victims a reflection period—time in which to recover before deciding whether to cooperate with law enforcement—but authorities rarely provided one due to criminal procedure rules that require prosecutors to press charges within strict time limits.Transnistrian victims received support from Moldovan shelters.

PREVENTION
The government maintained considerable efforts to prevent human trafficking. The government adopted its sixth national action plan for 2014-2016.The national anti-trafficking committee secretariat coordinated the government’s anti-trafficking response but institutions lacked sufficient resources. The secretariat organized an independent assessment of the implementation of previous national action plans.The government included the labor inspectorate in the national committee to combat labor trafficking. The education ministry trained over 2,600 teachers and school administrators on child abuse, neglect, and trafficking. Secondary education and university students attended classes on trafficking. The government carried out a week-long campaign on traffickers’ online recruitment methods and trafficking victim services. The national labor force agency set up a division in 2014 to inform Moldovans about legal employment opportunities abroad. In April 2014, the government adopted guidelines on protecting child victims of trafficking, violence, neglect, and exploitation and launched an information hotline.The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor. The government provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel on identifying trafficking victims.

MONGOLIA: Tier 2 
Mongolia is a source and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Mongolian men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor, and women are subjected to sex trafficking abroad, primarily in China, Hong Kong and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia and Indonesia. Mongolian men are subjected to forced labor in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, and the Czech Republic. Mongolian women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in Sweden.Women are subjected to domestic servitude or forced prostitution after entering into commercially brokered marriages to Chinese men and, with decreased frequency, South Korean men. There have been reports over the past five years that Mongolian girls employed as contortionists, under contracts signed by their parents, have been subjected to forced labor and sometimes forced begging in Mongolia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and Turkey. The majority of repatriated Mongolian victims in 2014 were exploited in China.
Women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in Mongolia in massage parlors, hotels, bars, and karaoke clubs. Traffickers sometimes use drugs or fraudulent social networking, online job opportunities, and English language programs to lure Mongolian victims into sex trafficking. NGO reports suggest an increasing number of victims from rural areas are subjected to sexual exploitation in Ulaanbaatar. Previous reports allege Japanese tourists engage in child sex tourism in Mongolia. Mongolian children are sometimes forced to beg, steal, or work in the informal construction, horse racing, animal husbandry, mining, agricultural, and industrial sectors—often with the complicity of family members. The vulnerability of some Filipina domestic workers in Mongolia to trafficking remains a concern, although immigration authorities noted the number of undocumented workers has decreased significantly. Thousands of North Korean and Chinese workers employed in Mongolia as contract laborers in construction, production, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, factories, wholesale and retail trade, automobile maintenance, and mining are vulnerable to trafficking. North Korean laborers reportedly do not have freedom of movement or choice of employment and receive sub-minimum wages while being subjected to harsh working and living conditions. Chinese workers have reported nonpayment of wages. Corruption among Mongolian officials remains a significant problem in the country, impairing anti-trafficking efforts.
The Government of Mongolia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. In 2014, the government passed five implementing regulations for the Law on Victim and Witness Protection, referred 36 potential trafficking victims to an anti-trafficking NGO for assistance, and promulgated a labor trafficking announcement on social media and television networks.The government maintained limited victim protection efforts in 2014. The government convicted one trafficker in 2014, compared with five in 2013 and began implementation of one of the five regulations necessary to allow for full use of the 2012 anti-trafficking law. During the reporting year, the government reduced funding to an NGO-run shelter, and neither finalized nor implemented the national action plan to combat trafficking.