Migrants, including some refugees and asylum seekers from East and West Africa, South Sudan, Syria, and Nigeria smuggled into or through Sudan are highly vulnerable to exploitation. Eritrean nationals are abducted from Sudan-based refugee camps or at border crossings, while some are willingly smuggled out of Eritrea and are subsequently extorted for ransom money and brutalized by smugglers, many of whom are linked to the Rashaida tribe; some are forced to perform domestic or manual labor. Some refugee and asylum seeker abductees are increasingly taken from Khartoum, where they endure severe abuses and are subjected to forced labor or transferred to other countries for similar purposes. Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Filipina women are subjected to domestic servitude in Sudanese homes. Bangladeshi adults migrate legally to Sudan for work in factories, where some are subjected to forced labor. East African and possibly Thai women are subjected to forced prostitution; agents recruit women from Ethiopia with promises of employment as domestic workers, with the intent to force them into prostitution in brothels in Khartoum.
Sudanese women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and sex trafficking abroad. Some Sudanese men who voluntarily migrate to the Middle East as low-skilled laborers encounter situations of forced labor. Sudanese children in Saudi Arabia are used by criminal gangs for forced begging and street vending. Sudanese criminal gangs falsely promise Sudanese nationals jobs in Libya, but sell them to Libyans who force them to work in agriculture. Corruption and bribery among Sudanese government authorities create obstacles in capturing, prosecuting, and holding traffickers in detention. It was reported that Sudanese police and border guards allegedly facilitate abductions of Eritrean nationals, some of whom are trafficking victims, and allow potential victims to be transported across security checkpoints or international borders without intervention. In October 2014, a prison guard was charged with facilitating the escape of a convicted trafficker. Some officials are reportedly involved in child prostitution rings and profit from such crimes.
The Government of Sudan 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 overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period.Therefore, Sudan is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. In 2014, the government increased its efforts to publicly address trafficking and prevent the crime: it established a national anti-trafficking council; began drafting a national action plan against trafficking, smuggling, and kidnapping; hosted a regional conference to address trafficking and smuggling; acceded to the UN TIP Protocol; and engaged on regional initiatives to address human trafficking and regional migration. The government also designated special prosecutors to oversee trafficking cases and demonstrated increased cooperation with international agencies working to combat trafficking. Nevertheless, it continued to deny the existence of forced labor, sex trafficking, and recruitment of child soldiers by government security forces. The government did not always clearly distinguish human trafficking, which involves reducing or holding someone in compelled service, as distinct from other crimes, such as smuggling, kidnapping, and organ harvesting. The government supported a safe house operated by an international organization that provided protection to trafficking victims. However, it did not proactively identify or provide adequate protection to trafficking victims, and victims continued to be penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to trafficking.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUDAN:
Implement the anti-trafficking law to increase prosecutions and convictions of traffickers, including officials complicit in trafficking crimes and child soldiering; harmonize national- and state-level anti-trafficking legislation; establish federal anti-smuggling legislation, as distinct from the anti-trafficking law, and train law enforcement authorities on how to distinguish trafficking cases from other crimes and ensure trafficking victims are not prosecuted for involvement in these crimes; develop and implement a national anti-trafficking action plan; criminalize child prostitution in the absence of coercion, and amend the anti-trafficking law to include a definition of exploitation and exclude the requirement to prove gain or advantage to the trafficker; prevent the recruitment of child soldiers by any group and demobilize all child soldiers from the ranks of government forces, aligned militias, and rebel groups and provide them access to protective services; proactively identify and provide protective services to trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as domestic workers, women and children in prostitution, refugees and asylum seekers, foreign migrants, and Sudanese nationals abroad; establish and implement procedures for law enforcement officials to identify trafficking victims and refer them to appropriate assistance; continue to work with international organizations to provide adequate protective services, including shelter, to victims; allow victims protective services regardless of their participation in the investigation of their trafficker, and ensure physical protection and translation services to victims willingly participating in these investigations; institute regular anti-trafficking training for relevant government officials and Sudanese diplomats overseas; amend the Law of 1955 Regarding Domestic Servants to provide additional rights and protections for domestic workers; proactively identify, retrieve, and reintegrate abductees who remain in situations of enslavement; and develop community-based approaches to prevent trafficking by addressing the factors that motivate perpetrators to commit trafficking crimes.

PROSECUTION
The government increased its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts; however, it continued to lack effective implementation of anti-trafficking legislation. The government did not maintain comprehensive data on law enforcement efforts or make such information publicly available; however, to improve data collection, the government began in 2014 to require states to report trafficking statistics to Khartoum on a regular basis. The anti- trafficking law, enacted in March 2014, prescribes between three and 10 years’ imprisonment for acts of trafficking, between five and 20 years’ imprisonment for aggravated trafficking, and capital punishment in cases where the trafficking victim dies; these penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. The legislation does not, however, criminalize all forms of human trafficking. Contrary to international law, it does not prohibit child prostitution in the absence of coercion and fails to adequately define “exploitation.”The Child Act of 2008 prohibits, but does