U.S. Dep't of State, 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Tanzania

TANZANIA (Tier 2) The Government of Tanzania 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, Tanzania remained on Tier 2. These efforts included increasing its federal budget for anti-trafficking programs, in addition to allocating significant funds for the construction of three new shelters dedicated to trafficking victims. The government prosecuted more suspected traffickers and convicted traffickers for the first time in three years.

The government operationalized the Anti-Trafficking Secretariat (ATS) office in Zanzibar, assigning permanent staff and beginning to implement the 2008 anti-trafficking law there, including by training front-line officials. The government also continued to increase efforts to protect migrant workers and prevent trafficking among this population. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government investigated fewer trafficking crimes and remained without a formal national referral mechanism to systematize victim access to services.

The government did not adequately address corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes, though they both remained significant concerns. The government did not maintain a centralized law enforcement data collection system on trafficking crimes, hindering its ability to report on human trafficking statistics. Due to inconsistent screening and limited protection services, the government did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged traffickers, including complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.

Further train officials on the use of the standard operating procedures for victim identification and systematically and proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including individuals involved in commercial sex, refugees, foreign workers from neighboring countries, and Cuban regime-affiliated professionals, including teachers. Develop, finalize, and implement a formal national referral mechanism to refer victims to appropriate care. Increase the availability of protection services – including short-term shelter, long-term housing, counseling, and medical care – for all trafficking victims, through direct support and by partnering with civil society service providers Continue to establish a systemic victim-witness assistance program to increase protective services for trafficking victims participating in the criminal justice process and prevent re-traumatization. In Zanzibar, allocate increased financial and personnel resources to the Anti-Trafficking Secretariat (ATS) office and fully implement the 2008 anti-trafficking law, including by training front-line officials on the law.

Add representatives from the Tanzania Employment Services Agency (TaESA) and the Department of Employment in Zanzibar to the Anti-Trafficking Committee (ATC). Increase protections for Tanzanian trafficking victims exploited abroad, including by training Tanzanian embassy staff to identify and assist victims and assigning additional labor attachés to Tanzanian embassies to monitor migrant working conditions abroad. Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Continue to allocate increased financial and personnel resources for anti-trafficking efforts and develop a successor to the 2021-2024 National Action Plan, including subsequent activities in Zanzibar.

Develop a comprehensive and centralized database on trafficking crimes to improve interagency coordination and accurately report anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts and victim identification statistics. Consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including by training labor inspectors to identify and report trafficking crimes and increasing efforts to identify fraudulent labor recruiters and hold them criminally accountable.

PROSECUTION

The government slightly increased law enforcement efforts. The 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, as amended, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. The law prescribed punishments of 20 to 30 years’ imprisonment and a fine between 50 million to 100 million Tanzanian shillings (TZS) ($20,830 to $41,670) for offenses involving adult victims and a minimum of 30 years’ imprisonment and a fine between 50 million to 100 million TZS ($20,830 to $41,670) for those involving child victims. These penalties were sufficiently stringent, and with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping.

The government did not maintain a centralized law enforcement data collection system on trafficking crimes, hindering its ability to disaggregate national human trafficking statistics and likely resulting in underreporting. The government investigated seven trafficking cases, compared with eight cases during the previous reporting period. The government initiated prosecution of 10 defendants, nine of which were charged under the 2008 anti-trafficking law, and one charged under an unspecified law, compared with six defendants prosecuted in the previous reporting period. It reported prosecutions of seven defendants, one for sex trafficking, five for forced labor, and one for an unspecified form of trafficking initiated in previous reporting periods remained ongoing.

The government convicted four traffickers, three under the 2008 anti-trafficking law and one convicted under an unspecified law, after not having convicted any traffickers in the prior two years. An NGO launched a new data collection system to track human trafficking cases throughout Tanzania that received input from more than 100 member organizations to assist in coordinating anti-trafficking efforts. The government did not report any 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. The government reported suspending 10 immigration officials while it investigated them for potential labor trafficking violations in issuing passports to 30 Tanzanian girls migrating to the United Arab Emirates as domestic workers; the investigation remained ongoing at the end of the reporting period.

Although not explicitly reported as human trafficking, the UN reported three new allegations submitted in 2024 of alleged sexual exploitation with trafficking indicators by Tanzanian peacekeepers deployed to the UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. UN investigations into the allegations were pending at the end of the reporting period; however, the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces took steps to address allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) through internal investigations and emphasis on SEA prevention during pre-deployment training. Investigations and accountability actions remained pending for similar allegations reported in previous years, including two in 2023 and one in 2022. The government’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU) in the Office of the Director of the Public Prosecutions (DPP), continued to act as a specialized unit focused on human trafficking and crimes against children.

The government had 27 staff dedicated to the AHTCPU, including members of ATS, police officers, prosecutors, immigration officials, and social welfare officers that maintained central office space in Dar es Salaam. Observers reported the AHTCPU improved interagency coordination and streamlined victim support services as part of a coordinated, national response to trafficking cases. However, they also noted a lack of interagency case referrals, unclear roles, and information-sharing challenges hindered overall anti-trafficking efforts. The government continued efforts to build anti-trafficking enforcement capacity in other regions outside Dar es Salaam.

ATS continued to support the anti-trafficking working group (ATWG) in the country’s North Western Zone to increase coordination of trafficking cases. The ATWG included resident magistrates, police officers, immigration officers, social welfare officers, prosecutors, and labor officers from the Geita, Kagera, Katavi, Kigoma, Shinyanga, and Tabora regions. The government, in partnership with international organizations and local NGOs conducted training programs in 12 regions for police officers, immigration officials, prosecutors, magistrates, social welfare officers, labor officers, and other officials on anti-trafficking laws, trafficking trends and vulnerabilities, victim-centered investigations and prosecutions, and victim identification. Despite these trainings, observers reported officials continued to misidentify and prosecute potential trafficking crimes as migrant smuggling or kidnapping.

Officials reported resource and capacity limitations, including a lack of vehicles and evidence gathering technology, impeded their ability to comprehensively investigate trafficking crimes, particularly outside urban areas. Prosecutors and judges continued to rely on in-person victim testimony and regularly dropped cases or acquitted defendants due to a lack of evidence, as victims often chose not to participate in court proceedings due to the lack of available victim-witness assistance. The DPP continued to collaborate with the Governments of Malawi and Mozambique on anti-trafficking law enforcement activity through informal border enforcement coordination arrangements and mutual legal assistance activities. ATS held a joint planning meeting on trafficking in persons, organized crime, and marine security with government officials from Kenya and Uganda.

The DPP and the AHTCPU coordinated closely with their counterparts in the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar to address trafficking issues.

PROTECTION

The government maintained protection efforts. Due to the lack of coordinated data collection, the government only provided data from shelters that had a formal MOU with ATS. The government identified 33 trafficking victims, compared with 54 trafficking victims during the previous reporting period. Of the 33 identified victims, traffickers exploited 10 in sex trafficking, 17 in labor trafficking, and six in other forms of exploitation; 13 were adults (all women), and 20 were children (six boys and 14 girls); 20 were Tanzanian nationals and 13 were foreign nationals from Burundi.

Eight of the 33 victims identified were persons with disabilities. NGOs and international organizations reported identifying an additional 94 trafficking victims. The government coordinated information sharing between ATS and the Department of Social Welfare (DSW); social welfare officers often worked closely with police and designated “gender and children’s desk officers” to identify and refer victims to assistance. Although the government maintained formal SOPs to guide officials in the proactive identification of victims, stakeholders noted their poor application remained a weakness for effective victim protection and that officials required further training on their use; in practice, officials routinely bypassed the SOPs and directly contacted and relied on NGOs to coordinate victim assistance.

ATS, in collaboration with the Director of Refugee Services, continued to conduct trafficking screening in the Nduta and Nyarugusu refugee camps; however, the government did not provide information on the number of victims identified during these specific screenings. The government remained without a formal national referral mechanism to systematize victim access to services. The government, in partnership with an international organization, previously published a national anti-trafficking service provider directory; however, the government did not publish the directory online or train officials on its use, which limited its implementation. The government continued to rely on civil society organizations to provide the vast majority of victim services and did not operate any trafficking shelters.

However, the government allocated 1.9 billion shillings (approximately $760,000); identified plots of land for; and contracted the Tanzania Buildings Agency to build specialized shelters for human trafficking victims in Dodoma, Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam. An international organization will manage the Dodoma shelter, while the government will manage the rest. It reported there were 17 NGO-operated shelters on mainland Tanzania; that men were generally separated from women and children in these facilities, and that many accommodated only girls aged 18 or younger, with no shelters available exclusively for men. ATS maintained MOUs with nine NGO-operated shelters that offered lodging, medical assistance, counseling, and family reunification services to trafficking victims.

The government reported referring all 33 identified victims to NGO-operated shelter services; DSW reported directly providing medical assistance, counseling, passport and visa assistance, and family reunification services to victims in addition to referring them to NGO-provided services. Some NGO shelters for children provided access to government schools or vocational training and offered separate accommodations for boys and girls. The government maintained the Anti-Trafficking Fund to provide assistance to trafficking victims, which was utilized for ongoing projects to build a government-run safe house in Dodoma and establish a 24-hour anti-trafficking call center. The government reported spending 663 million shillings ($276,250) of its operating budget on trafficking victim protection and assistance.

Due to inadequate screening and the inconsistent use of formal identification SOPs, the government did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Additionally, given the limited availability of protection services, the government sometimes held potential victims in detention facilities for extended periods of time, often alongside traffickers; authorities did not always separate children from adults. The 2008 anti-trafficking law required authorities to consider legal alternatives for foreign trafficking victims who believed they may face hardship or retribution if returned to their country of origin, but the government did not report providing this protection to victims during the reporting period. The government did not require victims to participate in criminal justice proceedings to receive protection services, and the Whistle Blowers and Witness Protection Act of 2015 and the 2008 anti-trafficking law allowed any crime victim, including trafficking victims, the option to decline participation in the criminal justice process.

It reported providing legal assistance to 18 trafficking victims this reporting period. The government reportedly took steps to develop a systemic victim-witness assistance program by utilizing the Witness Care and Protection Guidelines to support victim-witness participation in criminal justice proceedings. Victims could testify during trial in private sessions or via video testimony; however, most courts did not have adequate equipment to accommodate alternatives to in-person appearances. Observers reported victims often decided not to participate in criminal proceedings due to the lack of assistance available.

The anti-trafficking law entitled victims to restitution from convicted traffickers and the government reported 11 Burundian victims were granted an unspecified amount in restitution this reporting period. Victims could also file civil suits against traffickers for damages, but the government did not report any cases in which they were issued and noted the lack of financial capacity to pursue civil suits made the practice uncommon.

PREVENTION

The government increased efforts to prevent trafficking. The ATS, the government’s national coordinating task force composed of working-level officials, continued to lead anti-trafficking efforts. The ATC, composed of 19 senior-level representatives from various government agencies and Zanzibar, maintained oversight over ATS; however, ATC’s efforts were limited due to ongoing personnel and financial constraints. ATC lacked representatives from labor agencies such as TaESA and the Department of Employment in Zanzibar, two agencies with an important role in protecting Tanzanians from forced labor domestically and abroad, creating challenges for interagency coordination.

The 2024 federal budget provided 663 million TZS ($276,250) to ATS for anti-trafficking programs, compared with 563.8 million TZS ($225,070) in 2023. The government concluded its 2021-2024 anti-trafficking NAP and the ATS began convening stakeholders to evaluate progress under the plan and develop its successor NAP. ATS, in partnership with international organizations and local civil society, held awareness campaigns throughout the country for business leaders, religious leaders, law enforcement officials, social welfare officers, teachers, journalists, and village-level community leaders to discuss trafficking trends and potential community risks. ATS also hosted a conference in July 2024 for more than 100 government and civil society stakeholders to develop joint strategies to combat trafficking.

ATS, in collaboration with Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, established a hotline dedicated to receiving reports of human trafficking from victims and stakeholders. The government also continued to fund and publicize a national 24-hour, toll-free hotline operated by a local NGO to report violence against children, including child trafficking. The Prime Minister’s Office of Labor, Youth, Employment and Persons with Disabilities (PMO-LYED) and TaESA, housed within PMO-LYED, continued to regulate labor migration, including efforts to prevent labor trafficking, and increased efforts to improve ethical recruitment practices. The 2002 Empowerment Act mandated TaESA oversight of employment practices and implemented a ban on recruitment fees, and the Companies Act of 2002 required recruitment agencies to be registered and licensed.

The government also required recruitment agencies to ensure migrant workers received training on worker rights and destination countries’ laws prior to departure. Despite these protections, government officials and observers noted that those who use informal or unregistered agents remained at greater risk of trafficking and that bad actors often targeted lone migrant workers, rather than groups. TaESA oversaw the migrant worker recruitment process from job request to placement using an online portal which has registered more than 100 employment agencies operating domestically and abroad. TaESA, in partnership with private recruitment agencies, provided mandatory pre-departure training for Tanzanians seeking work abroad, including on job skills, employment contracts, worker rights, and resources for assistance.

TaESA also implemented government-funded vocational training programs, ranging from two weeks to one year for potential migrant workers. In partnership with a non-governmental organization, the government trained immigration officials and began screening departing overseas domestic workers at the Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar airports for trafficking indicators, verified completion of TaESA’s pre-departure training, and collected contact information for follow-up monitoring and support by an NGO. The government maintained labor MOUs with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates protecting Tanzanian workers abroad, and reported additional MOUs with Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Bahrain, South Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom were under negotiation. Tanzanian embassies abroad continued to require employers to submit security deposits to ensure registration of Tanzanian migrant workers upon their arrival and verify workers possessed proper documentation, including employment contracts and passports.

Despite these requirements, the government did not employ labor attachés at Tanzanian diplomatic missions and relied on virtual engagements with TaESA for verification, which potentially hindered the government’s overall ability to monitor migrant worker conditions abroad. The government did not report efforts to hold fraudulent or unregistered labor recruiters criminally accountable. The government reported training labor inspectors to identify cases of human trafficking and labor inspectors oversaw working conditions in the country through regular inspections. However, observers reported the inspectors in both mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar had insufficient resources to carry out labor inspections.

The government cooperated with a foreign donor to provide Tanzanian troops with anti-trafficking training prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping missions. The government made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by enacting amendments to Tanzania’s Child Protection Law which criminalized possession, distribution, and creation of child sexual abuse material; grooming of a child; and arranging to meet a child for sexual purposes. However, observers reported that investigatory and prosecutorial capacities related to these crimes hindered implementation.

ZANZIBAR

Trafficking in persons occurs in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania. The 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act became applicable in Zanzibar in September 2022 and the ATS maintained an office in Zanzibar staffed by four employees during this reporting period. Zanzibar also had other laws it could use to prosecute some forms of trafficking. Section 172 of the Penal Act Decree of 2004, entitled “trafficking in persons,” criminalized illegal adoption crimes that did not constitute trafficking in persons under the international definition of the crime.

However, Sections 155, 256, and 263-265, which criminalized child sexual exploitation, slavery and forced labor crimes, could be utilized to prosecute some forms of sex and labor trafficking. The Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Elders and Children (MoCDGEC), in collaboration with ATS, led anti-trafficking efforts in Zanzibar. Of the seven investigations and 10 prosecutions the government reported, two occurred in Zanzibar, compared to no investigations and no prosecutions during the previous reporting period. Reporting of human trafficking crimes in Zanzibar generally developed through either the Zanzibar branch of the ATS or via Zanzibar’s Transnational Organized Crimes Task Force (TOC), though observers noted families or village elders continued to settle allegations of violence, including human trafficking, informally through traditional means without recourse to the formal criminal justice system.

The government, in partnership with foreign donors, continued to operationalize TOC, housed within the Zanzibar DPP, which acted as a specialized investigation team focused on organized crime, including human trafficking and crimes against children. Officials noted low awareness among police, prosecutors, and judges and limited mechanisms for victim protection all of which impeded investigations and prosecutions throughout the archipelago, with a noticeable imbalance between the island of Unguja and the less-populated Pemba. Observers also reported, in practice, local law enforcement did not refer suspected trafficking cases to the specialized team. Hierarchical coordination protocols among government agencies impeded interagency coordination on trafficking cases.

Of the 33 victims identified, 12 victims were identified in Zanzibar, compared with six victims identified in Zanzibar during the previous reporting period. The government prioritized screening vulnerable populations at entry, exit, and transit points at Malindi Port employing three officials trained to identify and intercept potential trafficking victims and ensured a social welfare officer or local NGO-employed social worker was present at the port for all ship arrivals and departures. Officials reported the lack of a dedicated space to conduct victim interviews at the port created challenges to actively avoid re-traumatizing victims, especially unaccompanied minors. MoCDGEC and the Zanzibar Social Work Association (ZASWA) built capacity of social workers to assist law enforcement in identifying potential trafficking victims and refer victims to services.

However, officials underscored that insufficient resources and a lack of awareness related to trafficking crimes for front-line officials and in the general community continued to limit effectiveness. The MoCDGEC could provide services, including shelter, medical care, and family reunification assistance at a government-operated shelter in Unguja, supporting up to 10-15 children, with separate housing available for boys and girls. Officials reported plans to establish a second government-operated shelter reserved exclusively for trafficking victims on the island of Pemba. The Zanzibar DPP had a victim-witness assistance unit that could provide services to victims of gender-based violence, including human trafficking, participating in criminal justice proceedings.

TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Tanzania, and traffickers exploit victims from Tanzania abroad. Traffickers exploit men, women, children, and individuals from underserved communities – particularly impoverished children, orphans, and children with disabilities from rural areas – in forced labor in domestic work, mining, agriculture, and forced begging and in sex trafficking in urban areas, such as Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Mbeya, and Mwanza.

Traffickers exploit children in sex trafficking, including extraterritorial sexual exploitation and abuse, forced labor, begging, and domestic servitude in Zanzibar. Observers noted a recent increase in online sexual exploitation. Traffickers and brokers often fraudulently promise family members, friends, or intermediaries to provide their children with education, better living conditions, or employment, but instead exploit them in forced labor and sex trafficking. Some unscrupulous individuals manipulate the traditional practice of child fostering – in which parents entrust their children into the care of wealthier relatives or respected community members – and exploit children in forced labor, particularly in domestic work or sex trafficking.

Traffickers often promise Tanzanian women and girls from rural areas marriage, education, or employment in Zanzibar, facilitate their travel from the mainland and subsequently exploit them in forced labor in domestic work and farming. Traffickers exploit children in forced labor in tobacco and sea salt farming, cattle herding, mining, quarrying, and fishing. Traffickers exploit women and girls in domestic servitude throughout the country and in sex trafficking, particularly in tourist hubs along the border with Kenya. Traffickers utilize transnational organized crime networks in Lake Victoria to facilitate the exploitation of adults and children in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.

Traffickers exploit Tanzanians in forced labor and sex trafficking in other African countries, the Middle East, and Asia. Increasingly, traffickers utilize social media and online technology to recruit Tanzanians through fraudulent job postings or other advertisements, and use initial payment for travel documents, accommodation, and transportation to exploit victims through debt-based coercion abroad. Tanzanians from rural areas, including the island of Pemba, are particularly vulnerable to trafficking schemes. Traffickers bring children and persons with physical disabilities from Tanzania to Kenya and exploit them in forced begging; traffickers often coerce victims to serve as facilitators to further these trafficking schemes.

Traffickers increasingly use Zanzibar to transit Tanzanian women to the Middle East, namely Oman and the United Arab Emirates, where traffickers subsequently exploit them in domestic servitude. Observers report traffickers exploit Zanzibari migrant workers in forced labor abroad, including in the fishing sector in Yemen and domestic servitude in Oman. Fraudulent recruiters promise Zanzibari migrant workers employment as security guards in Qatar; however, upon arrival, traffickers may exploit these individuals in situations indicative of forced labor, including domestic servitude. A research study released in January 2024 found more than half of Tanzanian domestic workers experienced trafficking during their employment abroad.

The study found the majority of returned domestic workers had worked in Oman, followed by the United Arab Emirates. The research identified high rates of restricted movement and violence, with 52 percent of respondents reporting being prohibited from leaving the workplace during non-working hours, 14 percent reporting experiencing physical violence, and 16 percent experiencing sexual violence while working abroad. Media and NGOs report unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and illicit recruiters, fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from Africa – including Tanzania – South Asia, and South America for vocational training programs and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites. Media report workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching, and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which are indicators of human trafficking.

Tanzania hosts more than 240,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, primarily in the Nduta and Nyarugusu refugee camps in Kigoma. Refugee populations are particularly vulnerable to domestic servitude in western Tanzania, and refugee children are vulnerable to forced labor in farming and sex trafficking. Traffickers exploit migrant children, particularly from Burundi and Rwanda, in forced labor in agriculture and girls from Burundi and Malawi in domestic servitude and sex trafficking in Tanzania. Observers report vulnerable migrants, including potential trafficking victims, from the Horn of Africa transit Tanzania en route to South Africa where they are vulnerable to trafficking.

Observers also report migrants from neighboring countries, primarily Burundi, are increasingly transiting Dar es Salaam en route to the Middle East and to Mayotte, a French department; traffickers may exploit these individuals in forced labor or sex trafficking. Chinese national workers may be exploited on worksites affiliated with Chinese national-owned companies and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The Cuban regime may have forced Cuban regime-affiliated workers in Tanzania, including medical professionals and teachers, to work. On This Page search > < TANZANIA (Tier 2) PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION ZANZIBAR TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Bureau of African Affairs Human Trafficking Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Reports Tanzania