PREVENTION
The government maintained trafficking prevention efforts. The government implemented its third national action plan for 2014- 2017 and maintained a multi-stakeholder anti-trafficking network, including a national rapporteur, representatives from various government agencies, and three NGOs. Authorities provided assessments of government anti-trafficking efforts online. The government funded and conducted prevention efforts, including

an awareness campaign focused on labor trafficking linked to agriculture. Portuguese law penalized individuals who paid children for commercial sex acts in an effort to reduce the demand for commercial sex, but authorities did not demonstrate efforts to reduce the demand for forced labor. There were no reports of Portuguese citizens engaging in child sex tourism abroad during the year. The government provided anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.

QATAR:  Tier 2 Watch List 
Qatar is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution. Approximately 94 percent of the country’s workforce is comprised of men and women from South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East who voluntarily come to work as low- and semi- skilled workers, primarily in construction, oil and gas, service, transportation, and domestic work, but some subsequently face forced labor. Female domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to trafficking due to their isolation in private residences and lack of protection under Qatari labor laws. Qatar is also a destination country for women who migrate for employment purposes and become involved in prostitution; some of these women may be runaway domestic workers forced into prostitution by traffickers who exploit their illegal status. In 2014, reports by an international organization alleged Nepali and other migrant workers in Qatar died primarily due to poor working conditions.
Qatar’s low-skilled migrant worker population continues to be the largest group at risk of trafficking. Many migrant workers arriving in Qatar paid exorbitant fees to recruiters in their home countries, and some recruitment agencies in labor-sending countries lured foreign workers with false employment contracts. Migrant workers often live in cramped, unsanitary conditions, and many complain of excessive working hours and unpaid wages. Qatar’s sponsorship system places significant power in the hands of employers, who have unilateral power to cancel residency permits, deny workers the ability to change employers, and deny permission to leave the country. Debt-laden migrants who face abuse or are misled often avoid legal action out of fear of reprisal, the lengthy recourse process, or lack of knowledge of their legal rights, making them vulnerable to forced labor, including debt bondage.
Instances of delayed or nonpayment of salaries are a leading driver of forced labor, including debt bondage, in Qatar. Many migrant workers also face denial of exit permits; threats of deportation, physical or financial harm; physical, mental, and sexual abuse; hazardous working conditions and squalid living accommodations. According to recent studies conducted by Qatar University’s Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, 86 to 90 percent of expatriate workers’ passports are in their employers’ possession, despite laws against passport confiscation. International rights groups and the media also report some migrant laborers face severe labor abuses, some of which amount to forced labor. Rights groups also allege a high number of foreign laborers have died from heart failure due to harsh work in extreme heat.
The Government of Qatar does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate evidence of overall increasing efforts to address human trafficking during the previous reporting

period; therefore, Qatar is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. The government reported initiating investigation of 11 trafficking cases; however, no cases were investigated or prosecuted under the 2011 anti-trafficking law.The government did not convict any trafficking offenders in 2014, in comparison with nine convictions obtained the previous year. Additionally, the government has never prosecuted any exploitive employers or recruitment agencies under the 2011 anti-trafficking law; other existing labor protections remained weak and favored the employer. In February 2015, the government enacted legislation requiring employers to pay workers electronically and increased penalties for employers violating the labor code; employers were given six months from the law’s issuance to begin its implementation. In the interim period, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) trained inspectors and tested coordination efforts between MOLSA and Qatar Central Bank on technical systems. Domestic workers were vulnerable to forced labor or abuse because they remained unprotected by the labor law, which requires rest days, rest periods, and limits on working hours. The government reported 422 identified trafficking victims, 228 of which were victims of forced labor, a substantial increase from 62 reported the previous year. Nonetheless, this did not correlate with an expected increase in law enforcement efforts to address forced labor crimes.While the government conducted visits to work sites throughout the country, meeting laborers and educating them and their employers on trafficking regulations, it failed to abolish or drastically reform the sponsorship system—which would drastically reduce vulnerabilities to forced labor—as it had pledged to do in 2015.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR QATAR:
Abolish or significantly amend provisions of Qatar’s restrictive sponsorship system; significantly increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and punish traffickers, particularly for forced labor crimes, under the anti-trafficking law; extend labor law protection to domestic workers and ensure any changes to the sponsorship system apply to all workers; take action against employers who withhold workers’ wages or passports; enforce the law requiring that employees receive residence cards within one week of arrival and further enforce the law criminalizing passport withholding; consistently apply formal procedures to proactively identify victims of all forms of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as those arrested for immigration violations or prostitution, and continue to provide victims with adequate protection services; collect, disaggregate, analyze, and report anti-trafficking law enforcement data; continue to provide anti-trafficking trainings to government officials; and continue to conduct anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns.

PROSECUTION
The government demonstrated minimal anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Qatar’s comprehensive anti-trafficking law, enacted in October 2011, prohibits all forms of both sex and labor trafficking and prescribes penalties of no more than seven