U.S. Dep't of State, 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Tunisia

TUNISIA (Tier 2) The Government of Tunisia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Tunisia remained on Tier 2. These efforts included convicting the largest number of traffickers since the enactment of the 2016 anti-trafficking law and continuing to train officials on the use of the NRM. The government also provided expertise to multiple governments developing victim identification and referral procedures.

The government continued partnering with international organizations and some NGOs to ensure all identified victims received appropriate services. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government identified the fewest number of trafficking victims since 2017. Xenophobic rhetoric from high-level government officials and widespread official actions, such as expulsions and forcible displacement, without screening for trafficking indicators, continued to increase undocumented migrants’ vulnerability to trafficking and reluctance to report trafficking crimes due to distrust of authorities, fear of retaliation, and deportation.

The lack of implementation or awareness of victim identification procedures and screening among vulnerable populations may have led authorities to inappropriately penalize some unidentified victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Despite allegations some officials accepted bribes to facilitate trafficking, the government did not report any law enforcement action against complicit officials. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Fully and consistently utilize formal procedures for all relevant officials to screen and proactively identify trafficking victims – particularly among vulnerable groups, such as domestic workers, undocumented migrants, children experiencing homelessness, and persons in commercial sex – and train officials on their use. * Increase efforts to investigate all credible allegations of official complicity in human trafficking and hold complicit officials criminally accountable through prosecution. * Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. * Develop procedures, especially for law enforcement, judicial, and border officials, to ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as for “prostitution” or immigration violations. * Raise awareness about the existing legal and regulatory environment that allows NGOs and international organizations to provide services to trafficking victims and populations vulnerable to human trafficking, and increase collaboration between government and civil society. * Authorize more government officials throughout the country to officially identify trafficking victims to allow for more efficient access to protection services. * Train and build the capacity of judicial and law enforcement officials on the application of the anti-trafficking law, investigative techniques, evidence collection specific to trafficking cases, witness and victim protection best practices during trial, and alternatives to victim testimony. * Continue implementation of the NRM using a victim-centered approach to ensure officials refer all trafficking victims to the appropriate protection services and train law enforcement and judicial authorities on appropriately referring victims to care. * Provide adequate protection services to all trafficking victims, including appropriate shelter, psycho-social care, and long-term services tailored specifically to trafficking victims. * Provide funding or in-kind support to NGOs that provide care to trafficking victims. * Reduce the vulnerability of sub-Saharan migrants to trafficking by ceasing rhetoric from government officials that increases incidents of violence against this population and discourages victims from reporting trafficking crimes.

PROSECUTION

The government increased law enforcement efforts. Tunisia’s anti-trafficking law, Organic Law 2016-61, enacted in July 2016, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 Tunisian dinars (TND) ($16,320) for crimes involving adult victims and 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 50,000-100,000 TND ($16,320-$32,640) for those involving child victims. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping. Article 171 of the penal code criminalized begging and using children to beg and prescribed penalties of six months to two years’ imprisonment.

An international organization reported the government frequently charged migrant smugglers under the anti-trafficking law; thus, the government’s reporting of trafficking investigation, prosecution, and conviction data may be conflated with other crimes not involving exploitation through labor trafficking or sex trafficking, such as migrant smuggling. In 2023, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) conducted a total of 241 new investigations, which included 34 cases of sex trafficking, 182 cases of child “economic exploitation” (forced labor) and forced begging, 19 cases of child forced criminality, and six cases of “baby trafficking;” it was not clear if the “baby trafficking” cases were trafficking cases or illegal adoption. This compared with 266 investigations initiated in 2022. The National Authority to Combat Trafficking in Persons (National Authority) – the government’s lead agency coordinating anti-trafficking efforts – reported the government, with the assistance of a legal aid NGO, initiated 53 new prosecutions (48 sex trafficking and six labor trafficking) and continued 109 prosecutions initiated in previous reporting periods.

In 2022, the government initiated 29 new prosecutions under the 2016 anti-trafficking law. Courts convicted 84 traffickers in 44 cases in 2023 (11 sex trafficking cases, 27 labor trafficking cases, and six cases involving unspecified forms of trafficking); 12 of the 44 cases were convicted under the anti-trafficking law but the government did not report under which laws the other 32 cases were convicted. Of the 84 convictions, 11 were for sex trafficking, 27 for labor trafficking, and 46 for unspecified forms of exploitation; 81 of the 84 convicted traffickers were Tunisian and the other three foreign nationals. This was a significant increase compared with 59 convictions in 2022 and the largest number of convictions in a single year since the enactment of the 2016 anti-trafficking law.

However, the government did not report sentencing data for the second consecutive year. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. Some non-governmental organizations observers alleged that, during migrant expulsions at the Tunisia-Libya border, some Tunisian officials colluded to transfer migrants to Libyan counterparts who then “sold” them to smugglers and traffickers. In addition, some Tunisian officials allegedly accepted bribes from criminal networks to facilitate trafficking and migrant smuggling, ignore potential trafficking crimes, drop investigations, or facilitate the release of arrested traffickers or smugglers.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) designated a judge at each tribunal of first instance, for a total of 28 judges, to serve as focal points to prosecute and investigate human trafficking cases. The MOI’s special victims unit included brigades of judicial police and national guard officers throughout the country who specialized in cybercrime and assistance to trafficking and GBV victims. The MOJ continued to monitor and maintain statistics on human trafficking cases brought before the judiciary through a specialized office; this office also had the authority to both conduct research and advise the Minister of Justice on the application of the anti-trafficking law. The National Authority reported working on a project to dismantle human trafficking and migrant smuggling criminal networks including other countries in the region.

The government – at times in coordination with international and civil society organizations – conducted a wide variety of anti-trafficking trainings for law enforcement and judicial officials, healthcare practitioners, social workers, and other government officials on identifying and assisting trafficking victims, as well as investigating and prosecuting trafficking cases. Nevertheless, insufficient training of judicial and law enforcement officials continued to hinder investigations and victim identification efforts, and some officials conflated human trafficking and migrant smuggling. The lack of an independent budget and insufficient capacity building hindered the government’s efforts to fully implement the anti-trafficking law. Furthermore, civil society organizations reported a continued low level of awareness among police and judicial authorities on the application of the anti-trafficking law and handling of trafficking cases.

Due to their lack of familiarity with the anti-trafficking law, some judicial officials used other laws with more lenient penalties to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders. Observers reported courts dismissed several potential trafficking cases because of a lack of evidence on the exploitative nature of the crime. Prosecutors continued to rely on victim or witness testimony without seeking corroborating evidence in cases where victims chose not to participate in criminal justice proceedings, inhibiting successful prosecutions and convictions.

PROTECTION

The government maintained uneven victim protection efforts. In 2023, the National Authority identified 532 victims – the fewest number of trafficking victims identified since 2017 – compared with 560 victims identified in 2022. Of the 532 identified victims, traffickers exploited 46 in sex trafficking, 480 in labor trafficking (including 184 forced labor and domestic servitude, 88 child victims of economic exploitation, 22 child forced criminality victims, and 186 child forced begging victims), and six victims for “illegal adoption for the purposes of exploitation.” The majority of identified victims (498) were women and children. Of the 532 identified victims, 294 were foreign nationals from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Nigeria, Mali, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Syria; at least 180 of the 294 identified foreign victims were Ivoirian.

The government provided direct assistance or referrals to civil society organizations for all identified trafficking victims in 2023. The Ministry of Health (MOH) provided healthcare to 136 victims, including Tunisian and foreign nationals. The government continued implementing the NRM, which streamlined all stages of the referral process from victim identification and assistance to civil and criminal proceedings. Judicial and border police continued to have procedures to screen for potential trafficking victims among those who overstayed their legal residency or who were subject to expulsion after serving a prison sentence; the government did not report how consistently these procedures were implemented.

The government also provided practical guides to security officers and judicial police on victim identification techniques. Frontline responders, including police, child protection actors, labor inspectors, and prosecutors, could grant potential victims “pre-identification” status, which guaranteed access to services until authorities granted official victim status; however, some officials such as labor inspectors and child protection actors rarely granted this status due to lack of awareness of their role in the victim identification process. The National Authority, the MOI special victims unit, and judges were government entities authorized to officially identify trafficking victims, which entitled victims full access to state-run services and exemptions from exit visas for foreign victims. NGOs continued to report the limited number of ministries that could legally identify trafficking victims slowed the process for identification and subsequently for victims to receive care.

Moreover, insufficient interagency coordination and resources reportedly hindered the timely identification and referral to services of trafficking victims. Civil society organizations also reported the special victims unit did not have sufficient personnel or resources to provide adequate assistance to trafficking victims, nor did personnel have the cultural understanding or training to communicate with vulnerable sub-Saharan migrants, including potential trafficking victims. Civil society organizations also expressed concern the government’s process to provide exemption from visa penalties for foreign trafficking victims was slow and cumbersome, thereby creating difficulties for civil society to assist victims in a timely manner. As a result of the official identification procedures and other constraints outlined above, civil society noted authorities likely penalized some unidentified victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as “prostitution” or immigration violations.

Increased racism and violence against migrants, including inflammatory statements from high-level government officials, increased foreign trafficking victims’ reluctance to seek assistance from the government and civil society due to fear of deportation and retaliation. The government expelled thousands of sub-Saharan migrants, a population particularly vulnerable to trafficking, to the Libyan and Algerian borders without due process; the government did not report if it screened for trafficking indicators, and expelled migrants reported extreme abuse and violence during the expulsions. The Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) operated two shelters for children in Tunis and Sidi Bouzid and three shelters for adults in Tunis, Sousse, and Sfax; at least two of the three shelters for adults had designated areas for trafficking victims where victims could enter and exit freely and return on a regular basis for assistance seeking employment. The five MoSA shelters supported 123 victims in 2023, including 61 women, 62 men, and 70 children; 13 of the 123 victims were foreign nationals.

In 2022, the shelters assisted 179 victims. The MoSA shelters provided psycho-social care, family reintegration, social support, material assistance, professional integration, and health services. The MoSA and National Authority continued to uphold a 2019 agreement for the MoSA to dedicate one room in all social care centers for trafficking and violence victims. An MOH-operated hospital in Tunis continued to have a unit with trained personnel dedicated to caring for victims of violence, including sexual exploitation, which offered psycho-social support, medical documentation, and legal expertise; the government did not report if this unit assisted any trafficking victims.

The government did not report providing financial or in-kind support to partner NGOs providing services to trafficking victims. Although the National Authority and NGOs partnered to reintegrate victims into society, the lack of resources, trained personnel, and sufficient shelter availability – especially outside of Tunis – created challenges in doing so. Some non-governmental organizations reported the government’s increased restrictions on civil society and increased political sensitivity associated with assisting sub-Saharan migrants decreased civil society organizations’ ability to assist trafficking victims. The government offered foreign trafficking victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they might face hardship or retribution.

The anti-trafficking law provided all identified foreign trafficking victims relief from deportation; the government did not report whether it provided temporary relief from deportation for any foreign trafficking victims in 2023. Victims had the right to free legal aid to assist them in engaging in civil and criminal proceedings against traffickers, and there were provisions to protect victims’ privacy during court proceedings, such as recorded testimony and physical protection. The government allowed trafficking victims a 30-day reflection period, renewable once, while they decided whether to participate in criminal justice proceedings; victim assistance was not dependent on assisting law enforcement. Prosecutors could seek restitution in trafficking cases, and if victims were unable to collect restitution after a final judgement, victims could claim compensation from the government; however, the government did not report whether courts issued restitution in trafficking cases or if the government provided compensation to any victims in 2023.

Trafficking victims could request legal aid to assist them in filing a civil suit against the trafficker for compensation; the government did not report whether courts awarded such compensation.

PREVENTION

The government maintained prevention efforts. The government continued implementing the 2018-2023 national anti-trafficking strategy and continued drafting a new national strategy. The MOJ continued to lead the National Authority, which included representatives from 13 ministries and experts from civil society; although the National Authority is an independent government body, it did not have a separate budget from the MOJ and lacked the resources to fully implement its mandate. A 2019 decree established SOPs and guidelines for the National Authority and four specialized commissions to focus on monitoring and evaluation, research, training and development, and tracking the causes of trafficking.

The National Authority established a network of trafficking survivors that served as a council to share experience, advise, and present recommendations to the committee to help improve its work during previous reporting periods; the government did not report if the survivor consultant network was still active. The government continued to conduct numerous anti-trafficking public awareness and information campaigns, at times in partnership with civil society organizations. The government provided expertise to the Lebanese and Libyan governments, in coordination with a foreign donor, to develop victim identification tools; the Lebanese and Tunisian governments launched Lebanon’s new victim identification toolkit in Tunis March 2024. The government operated a hotline to report potential trafficking crimes, which was operational five days a week during regular business hours and whose operators spoke Arabic, French, and English.

The hotline received 302 calls in 2023, of which 57 resulted in identified victims, referral to assistance, or criminal investigations. The government initiated the process of acceding to the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings at the end of the reporting period. After President Saied’s February 2023 remarks accusing migrants from sub-Saharan Africa of being part of a plot to change the demographics of the country, sub-Saharan migrants experience increased violence, evictions, and barriers to employment that further increased distrust of authorities and vulnerability to trafficking. The Agency for Placement Abroad in Private Establishments (EPPA) continued to regulate private labor recruiters and had 31 EPPA officers in Tunisian embassies abroad to oversee labor migration.

Article 4 of Law 2010-2948 on the EPPA prohibited worker-paid recruitment fees. The Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment maintained three resource centers for Tunisian labor migrants to offer support and services before, during, and after traveling abroad for work. In addition, the Directorate General for Immigration continued to coordinate with the Minister of Vocational Training and Employment to combat illegal job recruitment agencies. The National Agency for Employment and Independent Work (ANETI) maintained a network of 120 approved private recruiting agencies, 1,000 job advisors, and an online platform to improve employment searches in Tunisia and prevent exploitative work contracts.

ANETI raised awareness about its work and advised job seekers to avoid communicating with unauthorized recruitment agencies as they may use exploitative contracts. Law No. 37 of 2021 defined the terms of employment for domestic workers and the rights and obligations of the employer and wage earner, as well as monitoring and inspection mechanisms. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Women, Children and Family signed a partnership agreement to implement Law 37, which included measures such as training courses, establishing a complaint mechanism, and creating a database for domestic workers. Civil society reported concerns the government did not provide sufficient initiatives to address the internal child domestic servitude problem.

The government made efforts to reduce demand for commercial sex acts, including by conducting awareness campaigns targeting purchasers of commercial sex. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Tunisia, and traffickers exploit victims from Tunisia abroad. Some Tunisian children are vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking in Tunisia. During the pandemic, child sex trafficking, including online sexual exploitation and recruitment through social media, increased; the government also reported family members were, at times, the alleged trafficker.

Tunisian girls working in domestic service for wealthy families in Tunis and major coastal cities are highly vulnerable to trafficking, experiencing restrictions on movement, physical and psychological violence, and sexual abuse. Tunisian children – many of whom dropped out of school and were between the ages of 11 and 12 years old – work in small workshops, auto mechanic garages, and domestic service; some of these children may be vulnerable to trafficking. Children who experience homelessness or use the streets as a source of livelihood and rural children working in agriculture to support their families in Tunisia are vulnerable to forced labor or sex trafficking. Organized gangs force children who experience homelessness into theft, begging, and drug trafficking.

Traffickers reportedly exploit Tunisian women in sex trafficking under false promises of work within the country. Migrants and refugees are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and other forms of forced labor in Tunisia. Foreign trafficking victims either come from countries for which Tunisia allows a stay of up to three months without a visa or arrive in Tunisia on a valid tourist or student visa and remain in an exploitative situation for an average of five to 13 months, surpassing the validity of their visa, according to civil society organizations. Traffickers increasingly exploit women, primarily from West Africa and increasingly from Cote d’Ivoire, in domestic servitude in private homes in Tunis, Sfax, Sousse, and Gabes.

Traffickers forced some men from Cote d’Ivoire to work on farms and construction sites. Traffickers reportedly coerce Ivoirians to smuggle cannabis and opioids into Tunisia. Recruiters in Cote d’Ivoire target well-educated and non-skilled individuals in the country with false and fraudulent promises of work in Tunisia. Well-educated Ivoirians who pay a recruiter to assist them to find work in Tunisia are reportedly promised jobs that do not exist and, upon arrival in Tunisia, are held in debt bondage and are forced into domestic service in Tunisian households.

Recruiters also target unskilled and uneducated individuals, primarily from San Pedro, Cote d’Ivoire, to work in domestic service, construction, or agriculture in Tunisia; recruiters and employers then require these individuals to repay the transportation costs and recruitment fees upon arrival, resulting in debt bondage, according to civil society organizations. Female victims of domestic servitude and other forms of forced labor, whose employers hold them in debt bondage, are further exploited by nightclub owners that cater to sub-Saharan African communities in Tunisia. The nightclub owners falsely promise to pay the women’s debts in exchange for working in the nightclubs as servers, but the owners subsequently force the women into sex trafficking for the nightclubs’ clientele as reported by civil society organizations. Male migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who experience poor working conditions could be vulnerable to forced labor.

Tunisian LGBTQI+ rights associations report migrants and asylum-seekers from neighboring countries who escaped violence or discrimination because of their gender identity or sexual orientation may be particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor in Tunisia. Boys from sub-Saharan and West Africa, including Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, are vulnerable to trafficking after accepting fraudulent offers of soccer careers in Tunisia. The majority of unaccompanied child migrants in Tunisia experience human rights abuses, including sex and labor trafficking, during their journey and in Tunisia. Reports by international organizations indicate an increase in criminal networks kidnapping migrants at the Algerian and Tunisian borders, holding the migrants in Sfax, and torturing the migrants to extort ransoms; criminal networks may have also subjected the migrants to sex and labor trafficking.

Humanitarian workers assisting forcibly displaced migrants in border areas reported residents coerced some migrant women into performing sex acts in exchange for food and basic services, a form of sex trafficking. Traffickers reportedly exploit Tunisian women in sex trafficking under false promises of work in the region, such as Lebanon, the UAE, and Jordan. Tunisian trafficking victims were identified in Saudi Arabia. Since 2020, an increasing number of undocumented Tunisian migrants traveled to Italy in part because of pandemic-related economic fallout; these undocumented migrants are vulnerable to trafficking.

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