however, it is making significant efforts to do so”.66 Such efforts have included “expanding
measures to prevent trafficking through migrant worker outreach, accommodating more victims
at its shelter, and carrying out victim screening procedures while strengthening investigation. 67
55. The effective implementation of the recommendations in the U.S. Government’s 2018 Trafficking
in Persons Report with respect to Brunei Darussalam is imperative to ending human trafficking.
These recommendations include:
I.
increasing “efforts to investigate, prosecute, convict, and punish both sex and labour
traffickers, including complicit government officials, with strong penalties”;
II.
ceasing “the arrest, deportation, and punishment of trafficking victims for crimes
committed as a direct result of their being subjected to trafficking”;
III.
increasing “protective services to provide incentives for victims to participate in
investigations and prosecutions, including by allowing adult victims in government shelters
to move freely and by issuing work permits to all victims”;
IV.
allocating “resources for the completion of the pending dedicated trafficking victims’ shelter
and expand existing shelter services to accommodate adult male trafficking victims”;
V.
training “officials on implementation of proactive procedures to identify trafficking victims
among vulnerable groups”;
VI.
training “judges on accurate and effective implementation of trafficking laws; allocate
government resources to the victims’ fund established under the 2004 law and allow those
funds to be paid directly to victims as restitution”;
VII.
strengthening “efforts to enforce laws prohibiting acts that facilitate trafficking, such as
retention or confiscation of migrant workers’ identity documents”;
VIII.
offering “foreign victims long-term alternatives to removal from the country”;
IX.
expanding “comprehensive and visible anti-trafficking awareness campaigns directed at
employers of foreign workers and clients of commercial sex”;
X.
approving and implementing the “national action plan”; and
XI.
acceding to the 2000 UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol.68
66
U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report (June 2018) 110
<https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/282798.pdf>.
67 U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report (June 2018) 110
<https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/282798.pdf>.
68 U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report (June 2018) 111
<https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/282798.pdf>.
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