PREVENTION
The government maintained prevention efforts.The government- run anti-trafficking roundtable drafted a national action plan that awaited presidential approval as of April 2015. The roundtable’s effectiveness was limited by a lack of funding and limited participation of some government entities.The MWA supported 11 regional and four municipal anti-trafficking roundtables that varied in effectiveness. Authorities conducted a variety of workshops and several trafficking awareness campaigns, including one on child domestic servitude, often with foreign donor funding and civil society partnership.While authorities reported citizens from neighboring countries have paid for sex with prostituted children in the tri-border region, the government did not report any investigations for child sex tourism in Paraguay. Authorities did not report efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor.The government provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel and Paraguayan troops.

PERU: Tier 2 
Peru is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Indigenous Peruvians are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Peruvian women and girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are exploited in sex trafficking within the country. Women and girls exploited near mining communities are often indebted due to the cost of transportation and unable to leave due to remoteness of camps and complicity of miners in their exploitation. Peruvian women and children are exploited in sex trafficking in other countries, particularly within South America, and women and girls from neighboring countries are found in sex trafficking in Peru. Child sex tourism is present in areas such as Cuzco, Lima, and the Peruvian Amazon. Peruvian men, women, and children are exploited in forced labor within the country, principally in informal gold mining and related services, logging, agriculture, brick-making, the informal sector, and domestic service. Peruvians working in artisanal gold mines experience forced labor, including through deceptive recruitment, debt bondage, restricted freedom of movement or inability to leave, withholding of or nonpayment of wages, and threats and use of physical violence. Forced child labor occurs in begging, street vending, and criminal activities,

including cocaine production and transportation. The terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, recruits children and adults to serve as combatants and in the illicit narcotics trade. Peruvian men, women, and children are found in forced labor in other South American countries, the United States, and other countries. Peru is a destination for forced labor victims from other countries, including labor trafficking victims in the fishing industry. Third country migrants transiting through Peru to Brazil were reportedly vulnerable to trafficking. Government officials, NGOs, and victims report police extort nightclub and brothel owners using the threat of sex trafficking charges; falsely charge victims trying to escape bars or brothels with crimes such as theft; and force victims to sign declarations absolving their traffickers. Officials and NGOs report police officers extort women in prostitution, threatening to arrest them for trafficking; this intimidation serves as a disincentive for victims to report their exploitation. Some officials’ involvement in the mining industry poses a conflict of interest that impedes law enforcement action against trafficking in mining areas. Some officials reportedly accept money to drop charges or exonerate traffickers. There were reports police in the anti-trafficking unit accepted traffickers’ bribes.
The Government of Peru does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government opened a dedicated shelter for child sex trafficking victims, increased staff in the anti- trafficking police unit, and established a dedicated prosecutorial unit in Lima in 2014.Trafficking-related complicity remained a serious and largely unaddressed problem as authorities reported no new prosecutions or any convictions of complicit officials. Efforts to identify and assist forced labor victims and to prosecute and convict labor traffickers remained inadequate.Victim services remained limited. Government data on human trafficking was unreliable.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR PERU:
Increase funding for and access to specialized, comprehensive services for all victims, including adults and victims outside the capital, in partnership with NGOs; follow through on investigations of trafficking-related complicity by prosecuting and convicting officials guilty of such crimes; significantly increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict and punish trafficking offenders, especially for forced labor; initiate proactive labor trafficking investigations through enhanced partnerships between law enforcement officials, labor officials, and civil society organizations; create and implement victim-centered identification and referral mechanisms that focus on avoiding re-victimization and coordinating interagency efforts, including during law enforcement operations; establish systematic training efforts to improve victim identification by government officials; verify through ongoing oversight that police and prosecutors conduct intelligence-based raids and employ effective victim screening and referrals; dedicate funding in ministry and regional government budgets to carry out anti-trafficking responsibilities; and improve data collection.

PROSECUTION
The government made uneven progress on prosecution efforts. Law 28950 prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons, prescribing penalties of eight to 25 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.This law was modified in 2014 to clarify the definition of trafficking.The law diverges from the 2000 UNTIP Protocol by penalizing illegal adoption and the sale of organs as trafficking. Some police, prosecutors, and judges classified trafficking cases as other crimes, such as pimping or enabling prostitution, which carry lower penalties. Judges often downgraded trafficking charges to lesser charges related to prostitution and frequently failed to sentence traffickers for aggravated trafficking in cases involving child victims, as required by law.
Data collection was uneven, and law enforcement officials continued to conflate adult prostitution and sex trafficking, making data unreliable. Prosecutors reported opening 105 trafficking investigations and initiating prosecutions of 20 individuals for trafficking in 2014. The government reported convicting 19 traffickers under the trafficking statute, a significant decrease from 41 traffickers convicted in 2013. Authorities did not report how many of these convictions were for forced labor, how many were prior convictions upheld by appeals courts, or if any were for illegal adoption or sale of organs. Authorities did not report the range of sentences or how many sentences were suspended. Investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for forced labor appeared to remain low relative to the size of the problem.The anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling police unit was based in the capital, with a smaller branch in Iquitos. In 2014, the government increased the unit’s staff in Lima and raised it to the level of a directorate. The directorate’s ability to conduct victim-centered operations, particularly outside Lima, remained hampered by limited resources and staff turnover. Some police reportedly have asked victims’ families for money to do police work, including raids. Authorities launched an anti-trafficking prosecutorial unit with jurisdiction over Lima. Police and prosecutors coordinated poorly and lacked expertise, compromising efforts to rescue victims and investigate cases. In some areas, a lack of government presence, absence of victim services, and officials’ fear of traffickers hampered law enforcement efforts. Some police and prosecutors blamed victims for their exploitation or categorized trafficking cases as labor infractions or runaway youth. In partnership with NGOs and an international organization, officials provided training to police, prosecutors, and other officials. Authorities coordinated with foreign governments on trafficking investigations.
In 2014, authorities investigated two police officers accused of collaborating with traffickers and raping a child victim. In February 2015, prosecutors closed the investigation of a congressman for running a motel where child sex trafficking occurred. The government removed two prosecutors from office in 2014 for covering up a trafficking case. Criminal charges remained pending against two prosecutors who had been temporarily suspended in 2012 for accepting money from a trafficker. An investigation initiated during the previous reporting period of a police commander arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe to ignore human trafficking remained ongoing.The government did not report any prosecutions or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking.