PROTECTION
The government made limited efforts to identify victims and negligible efforts to protect victims. In 2014, the government identified 20 potential sex trafficking victims. Identified victims were given access to a government counselor. The government did not fund or provide any additional protective services for victims, nor did it report whether any victims received shelter or support from other entities. Although several trafficking-related convictions in 2014 included fines or asset forfeiture, none of these funds were used to support victims. The government did not train officers to proactively identify victims among vulnerable populations, such as foreign workers or women in prostitution. It offered only short-term legal alternatives, on an ad hoc basis, to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they might face hardship or retribution; the attorney general could designate victims as “vulnerable”, making them eligible for alternate employment and accommodation assistance, but authorities did not report whether any victims benefited from this policy in 2014.The government did not provide witness protection, and it did not formally investigate and prosecute threats against trafficking victims. NGOs report victims are sometimes detained, fined, or jailed for unlawful acts committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking.

PREVENTION
The government decreased efforts to prevent trafficking. It did not reconstitute the anti-trafficking working group dissolved during the previous reporting period.The government neither developed a national action plan against trafficking nor conducted educational or anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.The government made no discernible effort to decrease the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor. Palau is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

PANAMA:  Tier 2 
Panama is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

Most Panamanian trafficking victims are exploited in sex trafficking in the country. Panamanian women are also vulnerable to sex trafficking in other countries, including one known case in Guyana. The majority of foreign trafficking victims in Panama are women from Colombia, neighboring Central American countries, and the Dominican Republic. Most of these women migrate voluntarily to Panama for employment—including in the sex trade—but are subsequently exploited in sex trafficking or, to a lesser extent, in domestic servitude. Colombian refugee women are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.Within the last five years, authorities have identified Eastern European women working in nightclubs as potential sex trafficking victims. Nicaraguan, and to a lesser extent, Colombian men are subjected to labor trafficking in construction, agriculture, mining, and other sectors. Men and women from China are subjected to debt bondage, including in supermarkets, laundries, and other small businesses operated by Chinese citizens. Authorities have reported cases of traffickers subjecting men from Colombia to forced labor in restaurants, and an international organization has identified cases of debt bondage of Indian men in door-to-door peddling. Men from the United States have been investigated as child sex tourists in Panama. Panamanian and European officials reported some men and women from other countries, who transit Panama en route to the Caribbean or Europe, are subsequently subjected to sex or labor trafficking in their destinations. Immigration officials have been investigated for labor trafficking offenses.
The Government of Panama does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Authorities increased the number of victims identified, including more labor trafficking victims; convicted five sex traffickers in two cases; and continued public awareness efforts.Victim protection was lacking, and the majority of identified victims did not receive services. The government failed to allocate funding to its trafficking victim assistance fund.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PANAMA:
Significantly increase funding for the delivery of specialized victim services, including through implementing the dedicated victim assistance fund and funding civil society organizations to provide services; intensify law enforcement efforts to proactively investigate and prosecute both labor and sex trafficking crimes—including cases involving Panamanian victims in the country—and convict and sentence traffickers, including any allegedly complicit government officials; continue to develop and institutionalize government- provided anti-trafficking training for relevant officials; implement the previously developed victim identification and assistance guidelines and train officials widely on these provisions; in partnership with civil society, make specialized services available to all male victims and child victims; amend the anti-trafficking law to adopt a national definition of human trafficking consistent with international law; and strengthen interagency coordination mechanisms, including outside the capital.

PROSECUTION
The government continued modest but uneven law enforcement efforts against human traffickers. Law 79 of 2011 prohibits all forms of trafficking, with prescribed sentences ranging from six to 30 years’ imprisonment, depending on the nature of the offense. These punishments are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.This law also prohibits moving adults for the purposes of prostitution (without requiring the use of force, fraud, or coercion) and illegal adoption (without requiring evidence of exploitation) as forms of trafficking, offenses that are not considered human trafficking under the 2000 UNTIP Protocol.Although Law 79 does not define trafficking to require movement of the victim, in implementing the law, Panamanian officials investigated and prosecuted human trafficking cases that did not involve movement as other crimes, such as commercial sexual exploitation.
In 2014, authorities investigated 11 new trafficking cases, four for sex trafficking and seven for labor trafficking, all of which involved movement. Although the government did not initiate any new prosecutions, it continued seven sex trafficking prosecutions from previous years and convicted five sex traffickers, an increase from three traffickers convicted in 2013. Prison sentences for convicted traffickers ranged from 10 years to 12 years and six months.The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions for trafficking crimes that did not involve movement. Panamanian authorities cooperated on trafficking investigations with officials from Peru, Nicaragua, and Colombia.The government did not report any new investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking offenses, or any developments in the appeal of the 2012 dismissal in a case involving six former immigration officials suspected of labor trafficking. In 2014, the government trained some government officials on the provisions of the 2011 anti-trafficking law, though foreign donors funded the majority of training for Panamanian officials.