PROSECUTION
The government did not report any anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The increasingly violent civil war continued to cause exacerbated, and contributed directly to human trafficking crimes to flourish throughout the country. Decree No. 3 of 2011 provides a legal foundation for prosecuting trafficking offenses and protecting victims, but it does not include a clear definition of human trafficking. This decree prescribes a minimum punishment of seven years’ imprisonment, a penalty that is sufficiently stringent, though not commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.The government adopted Law no. 11/2013 in June 2013, which criminalizes all forms of recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 by armed forces and armed groups. The government made no efforts to prosecute this crime. The government did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting suspected trafficking offenders, nor did it investigate, prosecute, or convict government officials complicit in human trafficking, including officials that forcibly recruited and used child soldiers in combat and support roles. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training for officials.

PROTECTION
The government did not identify or protect trafficking victims. The government failed to protect children from being forcibly

recruited and used as soldiers, human shields, and in support roles by government forces and pro-government groups, armed groups, and terrorist organizations. Furthermore, the government subjected children, who were forcibly recruited and used by opposition groups, to arrest, detention, rape, torture, and execution for affiliation with these groups; the government made no efforts to exempt these children from punishment or to offer them any protection services.The government neither encouraged trafficking victims to assist in investigations or prosecutions of their traffickers nor provided foreign victims with legal alternatives to their removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution.

PREVENTION
The government did not prevent human trafficking; rather, the government’s actions continued to result in human trafficking crimes.The government failed to implement measures to prevent children from being recruited and used as combatants and in support roles by government, government-affiliated armed groups, and by opposition and terrorist organizations. The government did not raise awareness of human trafficking among the general public or officials.The government did not report efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor, nor did it prevent child sex tourism abroad.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel. Syria is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

TAIWAN:  Tier 1 
Taiwan is a destination for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and, to a much lesser extent, a source of men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Most trafficking victims are migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines,Thailand,Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, mainland China and Cambodia. Most of Taiwan’s over 550,000 migrant workers are hired in their home countries through recruitment agencies and brokers, some of whom are fromTaiwan, to perform low-skilled work as home caregivers and domestic workers or in the farming, manufacturing, construction, and fishing industries. Some migrant workers are charged exorbitantly high recruitment fees, resulting in substantial debts used by brokers or employers as tools of coercion to obtain or retain their labor. After recruitment fee repayments are garnished from their wages, some foreign workers inTaiwan earn significantly less than minimum wage. Domestic workers and home caregivers are especially vulnerable to exploitation, since they often live in their employers’ residences, making it difficult to monitor their working and living conditions. Brokers in Taiwan often assist employers in forcibly deporting “problematic” foreign employees should they complain; this enables the broker to fill the empty positions with new foreign workers and continually use debt bondage to control the work force. Documented and undocumented migrant workers, mostly from mainland China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, have experienced indicators of trafficking on Taiwan fishing vessels including non- or underpayment of wages, long working hours, physical abuse, lack of food, and poor living conditions. Women and girls from mainland China and southeast Asian countries are lured toTaiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employment offers for purposes of sex trafficking. Men and women from Taiwan are exploited and vulnerable to trafficking abroad in illegal business operations.Women from Taiwan are recruited through classified ads for employment in Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and

the United States; after their arrival in these countries, some are forced into prostitution.
Taiwan authorities fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. During the reporting period, authorities continued to prosecute trafficking offenses, including both forced labor and sex trafficking, trained law enforcement and other officials on trafficking indicators, and raised public awareness of trafficking. There were, however, no arrests or convictions for trafficking violations on Taiwan fishing vessels. Prosecutors and judges continued to demonstrate limited understanding of trafficking crimes by not appropriately recognizing or exhibiting limited awareness of trafficking crimes.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR TAIWAN:
Increase efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers underTaiwan’s anti-trafficking law; vigorously investigate and prosecute, using the newly established procedures, the owners of Taiwan-owned or
-flagged fishing vessels who allegedly commit abuse and labor trafficking onboard long haul fishing vessels; increase efforts to reduce exploitation of migrant workers by brokers, includingTaiwan recruiters andTaiwan employers, by simplifying the process of direct hiring and building public awareness of the Direct Hiring Service Center; designate specialized anti-trafficking trainers withinTaiwan’s law enforcement and judicial sectors to improve the effectiveness of anti-trafficking training, and to decrease the knowledge gap among prosecutors and judges; institutionalize anti-trafficking training for Taiwan authorities being deployed overseas; address gaps in basic labor protections for household caregivers and domestic workers; sentence convicted traffickers to sufficiently stringent punishments; establish a systematic information sharing process to foster more robust interagency anti-trafficking coordination; disaggregate case information to ensure that reported trafficking cases are correctly recognized; actively operationalize information sharing memoranda of understanding, including for the travel of individuals who have committed child sexual exploitation; and continue efforts to increase public awareness of all forms of trafficking.

PROSECUTION
Authorities sustained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Taiwan’s Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Act (HTPCA) prohibits sex and labor trafficking and prescribes penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment; these penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Despite the anti-trafficking law, authorities prosecuted the majority of trafficking cases under other laws, such as the Criminal Code, and the Children and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Law.
Authorities initiated prosecutions against 71 suspected traffickers, compared with 130 in 2013, and convicted 17 traffickers, compared with 39 in 2013, under the HTPCA; sentences imposed on the majority of the traffickers were six months to less than one year. Under the Children andYouth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Law,