among vulnerable populations. However, the government’s inability to report the number of victims identified and assisted in 2014 and the drop in its efforts to increase the availability of shelter options, in addition to the significant reduction of its anti-trafficking budget, raise serious concerns about the government’s political will and capacity to provide adequate services to human trafficking victims.While the government investigated cases involving a small number of victims from neighboring countries, it failed to criminally investigate more organized trafficking operations involving foreign companies and did not seriously address internal trafficking, including child domestic servitude.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ZAMBIA:
Implement the 2008 anti-trafficking act by ensuring use of a broad definition of trafficking that does not rely on evidence of movement, but rather focuses on exploitation, consistent with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol; amend the trafficking law so that force, fraud, or coercion are not required for cases involving children under the age of 18 to be considered sex trafficking crimes; increase anti-trafficking funding and continue to improve government services for victims through the establishment of additional shelters; investigate and prosecute internal trafficking cases involving both children and adults in prostitution and forced labor; continue to train police, immigration officials, prosecutors, and judges on investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes; increase the number of labor inspectors and ensure they are trained on trafficking indicators; formalize and implement victim identification and referral procedures; improve coordination among service providers to prevent detention of male victims and facilitate their placement in shelters; actively use the new database to compile information on trafficking cases and trends for use by all stakeholders; and continue to conduct public awareness campaigns.

PROSECUTION
The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, initiating four prosecutions in 2014, compared to three prosecutions in 2013.The anti-trafficking act of 2008 criminalizes some forms of trafficking; although contrary to international law, it requires the use of threat, force, intimidation, or other forms of coercion for a child to be considered a sex trafficking victim.The act prescribes penalties ranging from 20 years’ to life imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.
The government investigated five potential trafficking cases, initiated prosecution of four of these cases, and convicted one defendant of trafficking.The government convicted a Zambian woman for exploiting seven Congolese children in forced labor; sentencing remained pending in the High Court. A majority of the trafficking cases investigated involved cross-border trafficking of women and children for labor and sexual exploitation; the government failed to investigate internal cases involving Zambian children in prostitution and domestic servitude or forced labor in the

Zambian mining and agricultural sectors. In one case pending from the previous reporting period, the government did not obtain a conviction of a suspected recruiter and trafficker for their alleged enslavement of a Zambian girl in domestic servitude. Generally, criminal investigations into forced child labor offenses or cases in which victims were not moved across borders were rare; the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) Child Labor Unit cited mediation with parents as the usual process for handling child labor cases.The government remained limited in its capacity to adequately monitor the mining and agricultural sectors and failed to criminally investigate or prosecute companies responsible for labor trafficking in these sectors; allegations of large or foreign companies and foreign governments exerting influence over officials remained a concern.The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offenses.
Training covering the 2008 anti-trafficking act was included in all law enforcement courses at the police academy, as were investigation techniques and procedures to identify and protect victims. The government continued use of its database to track trafficking case data, and in 2014 it expanded the piloted program to include additional police stations. The government increased its partnerships in the region by initiating routine coordination of anti-trafficking efforts with Zimbabwe and South Africa during the reporting period.

PROTECTION
The government decreased efforts to protect victims and did not increase its capacity to more aptly do so. It continued to rely on international organizations and local NGOs to provide the majority of victim care, with only modest in-kind support and acknowledged a shortage of shelters in the country, particularly for male victims. The government allocated 570,000 kwacha ($89,400) for its anti-trafficking budget, a significant decrease from the previous year’s budget of 1,358,700 kwacha ($213,000).The government was unable to report the number of victims identified due to the lack of a shared database and adequate coordination among service providers; however, international organizations identified 11 victims of labor exploitation, two victims of sexual exploitation, and two victims of both labor and sexual exploitation.
The government, in cooperation with international partners, developed and launched a series of protection tools to assist officials and service providers in identification of trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as migrants and unaccompanied minors. However, without data on its efforts to identify and refer victims during the year, it is unclear how these new procedures were implemented. The government reportedly continued use of its national referral mechanism, while the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health (MCDMCH) oversaw the placement of victims in NGO shelters and continued to provide in-kind assistance. Government officials, in partnership with international organizations, offered routine assistance to victims, including medical care, counseling, court preparation, repatriation or regularization of immigration status; however, it was unclear how many victims benefited from these services during the year. The government offered legal alternatives to the removal of victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution; however, it is unclear how many victims received such assistance in 2014.

Zambia’s Minimum Standard Guidelines on Protection of Victims of Trafficking outline minimum requirements for victim care, to include establishment and upgrade of existing shelters.While the government made vigorous efforts to increase the availability of shelter options in previous years, government agencies and NGOs reported a lack of resources to establish or upgrade additional shelters in 2014.The MCDMCH continued to oversee a 40-person shelter opened in 2012 in Luapula province, in addition to two NGO shelters which remained in operation. MCDMCH’s construction of a new shelter in Kapiri Mposhi, a key transit point on the border with Tanzania, which was planned to start in 2013, remained incomplete. NGO shelters did not provide accommodation for male victims over the age of 12. As a result of the lack of shelter availability and resources, it was not uncommon to house victims, even children, in jail for short periods of time.