PREVENTION
The government made minimal efforts to prevent trafficking.The government drafted a national action plan against trafficking and took initial steps to demobilize child soldiers and put mechanisms in place to prevent their future recruitment. The government signed an action plan to end child soldiering in 2009 and formally recommitted to that action plan in 2012 and again in 2014. In October 2014, the minister of defense, in partnership with the UN, launched the “Children: Not Soldiers” campaign, which details 18 measures the SPLA must undertake to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to end grave violations against children in accordance with international humanitarian law and human rights law by 2016.The government also disseminated radio messages highlighting the child soldiers and submitted legislative amendments to the Ministry of Justice to apply sanctions to the recruitment of children by army commanders. SSNPS trained 440 officers on investigative procedures, including identifying and assisting victims. However, it did not conduct any anti-trafficking information or education campaigns or partner with civil society organizations to promote awareness of the dangers of human trafficking, and trafficking awareness remained low among government officials and the public. Authorities took no known steps during the reporting period to address the labor exploitation of South Sudanese nationals working abroad or foreign nationals within South Sudan. The government had memoranda of understanding with Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda to facilitate information exchanges, including on human trafficking. The government made no new efforts to ensure its policies, regulations, or agreements did not contribute to forced labor. The government made no discernible efforts to reduce the demand for forced labor or commercial sex acts during the reporting period. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel. South Sudan is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

SPAIN:  Tier 1 
Spain is a destination, source, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.Women from Eastern Europe (particularly Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, and Croatia), South America (particularly Paraguay, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador), China, and Nigeria are subjected to sex trafficking in Spain. Men and women from China, India, and Pakistan are subjected to forced labor in domestic service, textile, agricultural, construction, industrial, and service industries.Victims are recruited by false promises of employment in the service industry or agriculture and are subsequently forced into prostitution and debt bondage upon their arrival to Spain.Traffickers also lure some victims from within Spain and other regions of the EU. A large percentage of individuals in prostitution in Spain are believed to be victims of human trafficking. Many women in prostitution in Spain are held under the control of Nigerian, Romanian, and

Spanish trafficking networks that operate out of major cities in Spain, though victims are increasingly subjected to trafficking by individuals and smaller groups of traffickers. Unaccompanied migrant children in Spain continue to be vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced begging. Police and other officials have been investigated, charged, and convicted for complicity in human trafficking crimes.
The Government of Spain fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. During the reporting period, the government convicted twice as many traffickers, but prosecuted slightly fewer suspected traffickers, than in 2013.The government identified more trafficking victims and increased funding for victim assistance and law enforcement.The government and NGOs cooperated on victim identification and referral to services. The new position of the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in People was created in April 2014, but the government did not fulfill its plan to update its national anti-trafficking action plan.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR  SPAIN:
Increase investigations and prosecutions of trafficking offenses, particularly those involving labor trafficking; continue to prosecute and punish government officials complicit in trafficking; establish specialized anti-trafficking services for child victims and labor trafficking victims; continue to provide regular training on proactive identification of victims, in particular among women in prostitution, irregular migrants, and unaccompanied minors; continue targeting industries and agricultural regions with high incidence of labor exploitation to identify labor trafficking victims; train all prosecutors and judges on a victim-centered approach to law enforcement, not just those specializing in trafficking cases; take steps to ensure potential trafficking victims are afforded a reflection period to decide whether to cooperate with law enforcement; establish national procedures for the proactive identification of child victims and ensure prosecutors and child protective services are coordinated to avoid re-victimization; and conduct awareness campaigns on forced labor.

PROSECUTION
The government maintained strong law enforcement efforts in 2014. Spain prohibits all forms of both sex and labor trafficking through Article 177 bis of its criminal code, which prescribes penalties from five to eight years’ imprisonment. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with the prescribed penalties for other serious crimes, such as rape. As of December 2014, the Office of the Prosecutor was investigating 293 trafficking cases for sexual or labor exploitation. Courts initiated prosecutions of 98 defendants for sex trafficking and six for labor trafficking in 2014, compared to 104 and six, respectively, in 2013. Sixty-two traffickers were convicted in 2014, double the 31 convicted in 2013. Of the 62 convictions, 60 were convicted of sex trafficking and two were convicted of labor trafficking. While the government did not provide comprehensive sentencing data, it sentenced

the leader of a Nigerian sex trafficking ring to 53 years and nine months in prison, and gave prison sentences to 18 other members of the ring ranging from six months to 12 years. Two individuals convicted of trafficking minors for sexual exploitation received prison sentences of 10 and 12 years. In May 2014, the government sentenced the leader of a Brazilian sex trafficking ring with alleged ties to the Spanish National Police and the Civil Guard to 20 years in prison, but police and civil guard officers accused in the case were not convicted. In June 2014, six police officers in Catalonia received prison sentences ranging from five to 11 years for their involvement in preventing immigration inspections at a brothel in Castelldefels between 2002 and 2008.The government did not report any new investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offenses.The government provided specialized training on trafficking to law enforcement officials developed with input from NGOs.