RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TURKMENISTAN:
Finalize and adopt the 2016-2018 national action plan; develop systematic procedures to identify and refer potential victims to protection services; train border guards, police, and other relevant officials on such procedures; establish safeguards and train officials to ensure victims are not punished for unlawful acts, such as migration violations and prostitution, committed as a direct result of being subjected to trafficking; continue to use Article 129 to investigate and prosecute suspected trafficking offenses, respecting due process, and convict and punish trafficking offenders; continue to provide training for relevant government authorities on the proper application of Article 129; improve implementation of the protection provisions in the 2007 anti-trafficking law; provide financial or in-kind assistance to anti-trafficking organizations providing assistance to victims; develop a formal process for encouraging victims to assist in investigating and prosecuting suspected traffickers; increase awareness efforts among the general public; and continue to develop formal relationships with civil society groups to coordinate national anti-trafficking efforts.

PROSECUTION
The government demonstrated some progress in anti-trafficking

law enforcement efforts. The government prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons through Article 129 of its criminal code. Prescribed penalties under this statute range from four to 25 years’ imprisonment.These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. However, Article 129 provides that, unless certain aggravating circumstances are present, a convicted trafficking offender would not be sentenced if he or she voluntarily freed the victim.Turkmenistan’s 2007 anti-trafficking law sets forth the anti-trafficking responsibilities of government agencies and includes measures to protect trafficking victims as well as prevention strategies. In 2014, the government reported it initiated prosecution of six cases against an unknown number of defendants and convicted nine offenders under Article 129, compared with three convictions in 2013. All of these cases involved Turkmen citizens recruited by other Turkmen citizens and exploited in foreign countries. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking. In April 2014, 20 law enforcement officials, judges, and prosecutors attended training conducted by OSCE on trafficking prevention mechanisms, the role of law enforcement in prosecutions, and coordination with other countries. The prosecutor general’s office and the State Migration Service (SMS) reported they independently trained their officials on trafficking- related issues.

PROTECTION
The government made limited efforts to protect and assist victims. The government did not provide services to victims of trafficking, nor did it fund international organizations or NGOs to provide such services. The government identified 19 victims of trafficking in 2014, a decrease from 33 victims identified in 2013. An international organization reported assisting 62 victims; however, the government did not provide funding in support of this provision of care. An NGO operated one shelter for female trafficking victims in Turkmenistan with foreign donor funding.The shelter provided services to eight female victims in 2014. Local NGOs assisted all 62 victims with medical counseling services, vocational training, and transportation. Government officials informally referred suspected trafficking victims to an international organization, which screened and later referred victims to the shelter. The prosecutor general’s office reported repatriated victims of trafficking could apply for free medical care; however, NGOs indicated victims were occasionally required to pay for their own treatment. The government had no formal process for encouraging victims to assist in investigating and prosecuting traffickers. Prosecutors recognized the right of victims to come forth voluntarily and reported they would not pressure victims into giving information. At times, authorities punished trafficking victims for crimes committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking. After Turkmen victims returned home following their deportation from other countries, the SMS reportedly blocked them from exitingTurkmenistan for a period of up to five years and fined them for overstaying their visas while abroad.The government made no attempts to identify sex trafficking victims among women arrested for engaging in prostitution and, consequently, officials may have penalized sex trafficking victims for prostitution offenses.

PREVENTION
The government made some efforts to prevent human trafficking. In partnership with an international organization, the government established a working group and held three meetings to draft a

2016-2018 national action plan to combat trafficking; however, at the end of the reporting period, the government had not yet finalized and adopted this plan. However, the government adopted an interim written plan. In 2014, the government remained without an anti-trafficking coordinating body. The government approved the requests of an international organization and NGOs to conduct public information events and campaigns, including through radio, newspaper, and other media outlets.The government provided in-kind contributions for training provided by international organizations. The government provided anti- trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel. The stateless population in Turkmenistan, mostly consisting of former Soviet citizens, was vulnerable to trafficking. In 2014, the SMS worked with UNHCR to grantTurkmen citizenship to 786 formerly stateless persons.While the government made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by prosecuting clients of those in prostitution, its failure to screen women in prostitution for trafficking victimization raised concerns about overall law enforcement efforts targeting the sex trade.

UGANDA: Tier 2 
Uganda is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Ugandan children as young as seven are exploited in forced labor within the country in agriculture, fishing, forestry, cattle herding, mining, stone quarrying, brick making, car washing, scrap metal collection, street vending, bars, restaurants, and the domestic service sector. Prisoners in pre-trial detention engage in forced labor alongside convicts. Girls and boys are exploited in prostitution.Women and children from Uganda’s remote and underdeveloped Karamoja region are particularly vulnerable to domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced begging. Children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya,Tanzania, and South Sudan are subjected to forced agricultural labor and prostitution in Uganda. Ugandan children are taken to other East African countries for similar purposes and forced to engage in criminal activities. Additionally, many Karamojong children are brought to towns in Eastern Uganda where they endure forced labor in grazing and domestic servitude or to Kampala where they are exploited. South Sudanese children in refugee settlements in northern Uganda are vulnerable to trafficking, and UNHCR suspects instances of trafficking involving this population. Until August 2006, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted children and adults in northern Uganda to serve as soldiers, sex slaves, and porters; Ugandan children and adults previously abducted remain unaccounted for, and some remain captive with LRA elements in the DRC, Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
Licensed and unlicensed Kampala-based security companies and employment agencies continued to recruit Ugandans to work as security guards, laborers, and drivers in the Middle East. Some Ugandan migrant workers endured forced labor in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, even when recruited by licensed agencies. Official complicity hindered government oversight of labor recruitment agencies. Despite a continued ban on recruiting domestic workers for employment overseas, licensed and unlicensed agencies circumvented this ban, recruiting for “cleaners” or other trades with the intent of employing women in domestic work. Some Ugandan women fraudulently recruited for employment in the Middle East were exploited in forced prostitution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Kampala-