and recruitment of child soldiers occurred in the country. The government formed a National Committee to Combat Trafficking to coordinate inter-ministerial anti-trafficking efforts; it met for the first time in October 2014. In partnership with international organizations, the council began drafting a national action plan to implement the anti-trafficking law and address human trafficking, kidnapping, and smuggling. In October 2014, the government hosted a regional anti-trafficking and smuggling conference in Khartoum for governments in the Horn of Africa; during the conference, it signed bilateral border management and intelligence-sharing agreements, which included combating trafficking, with a number of African countries. Beginning in November 2014, the government also participated in an international initiative, which was aimed at combating trafficking and smuggling of migrants between the Horn of Africa and Europe.The government announced in October 2014 it would launch an inter-agency high-level coordination mechanism to review implementation of international labor law standards to address child labor problems. An international organization reported the MOL increased its monitoring of labor recruiters seeking Sudanese to work abroad, yet it was unclear what policy measures the MOL put in place—if any—to prevent exploitation of this group. Likewise, lack of capacity and poor access to conflict areas hindered the MOL’s ability to identify or address forced labor violations in the country or punish employment agencies for labor violations.
The government continued to deny recruitment of child soldiers. The SAF’s Child Protection Unit continued to lead efforts to work with international organizations on child protection issues, including preventing the recruitment of child soldiers. Various other government entities were also mandated to address the recruitment of child soldiers, but lacked the financial resources or capacity to effectively carry out their mandates in this regard. In addition, the Ministry of Education worked with an international organization to establish schools and develop initiatives to keep children in school to deter child recruitment by armed groups in Darfur. In February 2015, the government hosted a workshop organized with international organizations and NGOs on implementing standards for child protection, including children associated with armed conflict or armed groups. International organizations, however, reported cooperation with the government on disarmament and demobilization programming remained challenging due to the government’s limited resources. Sudan’s Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Commission remained a weak entity that lacked capacity and financial resources to carry out its mandate. Because the government continued to deny commercial sex and forced labor existed in Sudan, it did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and forced labor, nor did it raise awareness of child sex tourism.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel. Sudan acceded to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in December 2014.

SURINAME:  Tier 2 Watch List   
Suriname is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and men, women, and children subjected to forced labor. Reported trafficking cases in Suriname’s remote jungle interior—which constitutes approximately 80 percent of the country—increased in recent years; limited government presence in the interior renders the full scope of the problem unknown.Women and girls from Suriname,

Guyana, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic are subjected to sex trafficking in Suriname—including in remote and illegal gold mining camps in Suriname’s interior. Migrant workers in agriculture and on fishing boats off Suriname’s coast are highly vulnerable to forced labor, as are children working in gold mines and informal urban sectors. Chinese immigrants are subjected to sex and labor trafficking in Suriname, including in the mining, service, and construction sectors. Surinamese women in neighboring countries and territories engage in prostitution and may be vulnerable to sex trafficking. Traffickers from Suriname exploit victims in the Netherlands. Trafficking victims may transit Suriname’s remote interior to bypass official checkpoints. Government corruption and possible local official complicity in trafficking crimes impede anti-trafficking efforts.
The Government of Suriname does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Working-level officials— primarily police and prosecutors—continued to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases and referred more victims to assistance than in 2013. Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Suriname is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year. Suriname was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and it has committed to devoting sufficient resources to implement that plan. Senior government officials made limited anti- trafficking efforts.The government devoted insufficient resources to support law enforcement efforts or adequately assist victims. It failed to open a proposed government shelter for female and child victims. Interagency coordination suffered from continuing delays in the establishment of a new interagency anti-trafficking structure.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR  SURINAME:
Provide adequate long-term shelter to male and female trafficking victims of all ages and open the proposed government shelter for child and women victims; increase resources to the police anti-trafficking unit; vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict and punish traffickers, including officials complicit in human trafficking; improve interagency communication by establishing a new interagency oversight structure; increase efforts to identify trafficking victims, including victims of forced labor in the interior; strengthen and sustain partnerships with NGOs to identify victims and provide protective services; fund and implement the national strategy to combat trafficking; provide additional training to law enforcement, immigration, health care, labor, and judicial officials and social workers to better identify and protect victims; and increase efforts to raise awareness of trafficking.

PROSECUTION
The government sustained law enforcement efforts. Suriname

prohibits all forms of human trafficking through a 2006 criminal code amendment, prescribing penalties of five to 20 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Police reported investigating 11 potential sex trafficking cases and four potential forced labor cases involving 29 suspects; this represents an increase from five cases of child sex trafficking and zero cases of forced labor investigated in 2013.The prosecutor’s office reported initiating prosecutions of 10 trafficking suspects in 2014 compared with seven prosecutions in 2013.The government convicted 10 sex traffickers in 2014, compared with eight in 2013; there were no forced labor convictions. Sentences for convicted traffickers ranged from one to nine years’ imprisonment. The government allocated insufficient resources to conduct investigations in the country’s interior. Police operated a specialized 13-person anti-trafficking unit charged with investigating cases, but staff required additional training.The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offenses.