RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR  NIGER:
Vigorously prosecute and punish trafficking offenders, including those guilty of slavery offenses and complicit government officials, using the anti-trafficking law; continue to train law enforcement and judicial officials throughout the country on the provisions of the anti-trafficking law in coordination with NGOs and international organizations; develop systematic procedures for the proactive identification of trafficking victims—especially among vulnerable populations, such as individuals in prostitution, girls born into slave castes, and children at worksites—and their subsequent referral to care; train law enforcement officials on such procedures; provide financial or in-kind support to NGO partners providing victim care; rescue and refer all suspected victims; increase the quantity and quality of services available to victims; increase efforts to rescue victims of traditional slavery practices and adult victims; initiate law enforcement investigations into suspected cases of local officials colluding with traffickers or accepting bribes to obstruct criminal investigations of trafficking crimes, particularly traditional slavery; and continue to raise public awareness about the anti-trafficking law—specifically targeting vulnerable populations, religious leaders, and traditional chiefs and encouraging victims to exercise their legal rights.

PROSECUTION
The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Order No. 2012-86 on Combating Trafficking in Persons, enacted in 2010, prohibits all forms of trafficking, including slavery and practices similar to slavery. This law prescribes sufficiently stringent punishments of five to 10 years’ imprisonment for committing trafficking offenses against adults and 10 to 30 years’ imprisonment when the victim is a child. Penalties for child trafficking are commensurate with those prescribed for other serious offenses, such as rape, but those prescribed for trafficking of adults are not. The law defines slavery and practices similar to slavery and specifically prohibits exploitative begging. Other statutes prohibit certain forms of trafficking; the country’s penal code prohibits slavery, procurement of a child for prostitution, and the encouragement of or profiting from child begging in Articles 270 (as amended in 2003), 292-293, and 181, respectively. Niger’s labor code, enacted in September 2012, outlaws forced labor.The penal code’s prescribed penalties of 10 to 30 years’ imprisonment for slavery offenses are sufficiently stringent and reflect the serious nature of the crime.The penalties prescribed in the labor code for forced labor are also sufficiently stringent in terms of imprisonment, but the law allows for the option of a fine in lieu of jail time, which does not reflect the serious nature of this crime.

The government investigated 144 trafficking offenses, prosecuted five defendants, and convicted five traffickers, compared with the prosecution of 18 cases and five convictions during the previous reporting period. Convicted offenders received prison sentences ranging from two to four years.Thirty-nine investigations, involving 139 individuals, remained pending at the close of the reporting period. In one landmark case in May 2014, the government obtained its first conviction for the practice of wahaya in a case in Tahoua region in which a Nigerien man bought a girl (age not provided) to be his “fifth wife,” with the intention of subjecting her to sexual and domestic servitude.The defendant was convicted under the slavery provision in the penal code and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, which was accounted for by time served.The government did not make progress in 2014 in ending impunity for marabouts who force children to beg or traditional chiefs who facilitate the enslavement of children. Structural barriers impeded victims’ access to justice, as they were often uninformed about their legal rights and lacked the necessary capacities and resources to seek punitive action against their exploiters. There were no reported developments in pending slavery cases, some of which have reportedly been ongoing for years.
In May 2014, the government cooperated with international partners to train 30 police chiefs and magistrates from across the country on effective application of the 2010 trafficking law in Niamey.The government conducted similar trainings in Agadez,Arlit, and Zinder. Unlike the previous year, there were no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials for complicity in trafficking or trafficking-related criminal activities.

PROTECTION
The government decreased efforts to identify and refer victims to NGOs to receive care, and overall victim protection efforts remained inadequate. Authorities did not develop or employ systematic measures to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as women and girls born into traditional slave castes or children at worksites.There were no formal procedures to guide officials in referring identified victims to protective services. The CNCLTP identified 28 child victims and on an ad hoc basis referred them to NGOs to receive protective care.This represents a consistent decrease in the government’s efforts to identify victims over the past three years, down from 50 and 183 identified victims within the two previous reporting periods respectively. NGOs identified 133 victims for a total of 169 total victims assisted in shelters during the reporting period. The government provided in-kind assistance to NGOs and international organizations in the form of food and primary health care to an unknown number of child victims.The government relied almost exclusively on NGOs and international organizations to provide services to victims, though NGOs’ capacity to provide shelter or long-term services to victims was inadequate; their primary role was often to facilitate victim repatriation or family reunification. There were no specialized services available in Niger for adult victims or victims of hereditary slavery.
The government reported adult victims would be encouraged to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. Victims’ lack of awareness of the legal options available to them, fears of retaliation by traffickers, and lack of adequate shelter and protective services impeded efforts to obtain their participation in investigations and prosecutions. Victims of forced labor and caste-based servitude were able to file civil and criminal complaints simultaneously. There were no reports identified victims were

detained, fined, or jailed for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to trafficking. Front-line officials did not receive training in identifying victims and referring them to protective services.The law includes provisions to ensure foreign victims would be safe upon return to their countries of origin and provides for the possibility of granting victims legal status in Niger, including the ability to obtain employment.