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

LESOTHO (Tier 2) The Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho does not fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Lesotho remained on Tier 2. The government increased prosecutions of alleged traffickers and funding for anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The government increased efforts to raise awareness of trafficking and established 11 community-based protection committees focused on trafficking prevention.

The government established an office to investigate cybercrime, including cases that involve human trafficking. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government identified fewer trafficking victims and did not allocate any funding for victim protection efforts. The government continued to rely on one NGO to provide all services to trafficking victims without dedicating sufficient government funding, and shelter options remained limited.

Gaps in training resulted in some front-line officials lacking awareness of the NRM and SOPs for victim identification and referral. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Using the SOPs and NRM for victim identification and referral to care, proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators and institutionalize specialized training for officials, including police, immigration officials, and labor inspectors, on their use. * Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, including complicit officials, which should involve significant prison terms, and address court backlogs. * Allocate funding for victim services and increase the availability of protection services for all trafficking victims – especially male victims – including by partnering with and allocating sufficient funding and/or in-kind support to civil society service providers. * Increase collaboration between law enforcement and labor inspectors to facilitate more effective criminal investigations and increase identification and referral to services of forced labor victims, particularly in manufacturing and agriculture sectors. * Institutionalize and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including by eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers and holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable. * Formalize collaboration with foreign governments to increase information sharing and coordination on transnational trafficking investigations. * Systematically collect and analyze anti-trafficking law enforcement and victim protection data. * Screen foreign workers for forced labor indicators and refer identified forced labor victims to appropriate services.

PROSECUTION

The government slightly increased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The 2011 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, as amended, criminalized labor trafficking and sex trafficking. The law prescribed penalties of up to 25 years’ imprisonment for the trafficking of adults and up to life imprisonment for the trafficking of children. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape.

The government initiated six investigations – four for sex trafficking and two for labor trafficking – and continued seven investigations from previous reporting periods. This compared with 10 investigations initiated during the previous reporting period. The government initiated four prosecutions involving four alleged traffickers, compared with one prosecution involving an unknown number of alleged traffickers in the previous reporting period, and continued 14 prosecutions from the previous reporting period. A court convicted and sentenced one trafficker to 15 years’ imprisonment (five years were suspended), compared with one conviction in the previous reporting period.

The government increased allocated funding for the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) Anti-Trafficking and Migrant Control (ATMC) Unit from 100,000 maloti ($5,430) in 2022 to 135,000 maloti ($7,330) in 2023. ATMC maintained five specialized focal points, composed of three to four investigators, in Botha-Bothe, Leribe, Mafeteng, Mohale’s Hoek, and Maseru. ATMC Unit officers received anti-trafficking training in all 10 districts. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) previously assigned a team of prosecutors to process the large backlog of trafficking prosecutions; however, due to staff shortages, the government could not continue this effort.

The government reported it maintained two trained prosecutors in Maseru. Similarly, observers reported the number of judges who were familiar with trafficking crimes were limited and unable to cover all 10 districts, hindering overall law enforcement efforts. LMPS established a cybercrime office to investigate cyber-related crimes, including online trafficking crimes and fraudulent recruitment, however the office was not yet fully operational by the end of the reporting period. LMPS also coordinated with international law enforcement organizations, such as INTERPOL, on trafficking investigations.

The governments formally launched the Bi-National Commission of Cooperation (BNC) with South Africa to increase and formalize cooperation in multiple areas, including law enforcement coordination to combat trafficking crimes. 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 concerns. In the previous reporting period, the government investigated two cases involving officials allegedly complicit in the illegal entry, transportation, and harboring of foreign nationals; the government closed its investigations for reported lack of evidence in one case and deficiencies in the processing of persons entering the country in the other. The government continued implementing a rotational system for immigration officials to deter participation in illicit activities, including human trafficking.

However, observers reported frequent staffing rotations of immigration officials without adequate training hindered anti-trafficking efforts.

PROTECTION

The government decreased overall protection efforts. The government identified and referred to care nine trafficking victims, including six sex trafficking victims, two labor trafficking victims, and one victim of an unspecified form of trafficking, compared with 25 victims identified and referred to care in the previous reporting period. The government, with support from an international organization, continued implementation of its SOPs for victim identification and the NRM to refer victims to services. The NRM was available in Sesotho and disseminated to local officials.

Observers reported the need for additional training for law enforcement and frontline workers on the SOPs and NRM. The government provided trafficking victims assistance in accessing medical care and sponsored school fees for trafficking victims; however, it relied on one NGO to provide services for trafficking victims without providing the NGO with adequate resources. The government had an MOU with the NGO to provide emergency shelter to both foreign and Basotho female victims – and their dependent children – and child victims of trafficking, sexual assault, as well as domestic violence. The NGO provided short-term housing, medical care, counseling, job skills training, and legal assistance to nine trafficking victims.

While trafficking victims had a choice whether to enter the NGO shelter, it was the only shelter available; victims had freedom of movement while residing at the shelter. The NGO provided support services to male trafficking victims, however, there were no shelters equipped to house male victims. Observers expressed the need to establish shelters nationwide. While the government provided some in-kind support to the NGO, the government did not report providing any funding for victim services, compared with 150,000 maloti ($8,140) in 2022.

Additionally, the government did not provide any funding for anti-trafficking protection efforts, compared with 1.5 million maloti ($81,400) disbursed in 2022, which included funding for victim services, including the NGO, through a dedicated bank account. Victims were not required to participate in investigations to access services. The government could provide some assistance to victim-witnesses participating in criminal justice proceedings, including lodging, transportation, and security services. The law required victims who agreed to participate in criminal proceedings to be physically present in a courtroom with the perpetrator; however, courts allowed children to testify against traffickers via video in all 10 districts.

Courts could order restitution in trafficking cases; however, the government did not report awarding restitution to any victims during the reporting period. The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and its implementing regulations prohibited the prosecution of victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked and allowed foreign victims to elect permanent residency as a legal alternative to their removal. For foreign victims, provision of care beyond a 60-day reflection period was dependent on their cooperation with law enforcement; authorities repatriated victims who did not cooperate with law enforcement after the reflection period. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was responsible for coordinating with the victim’s home country for the issuance of travel documents within 60 days of victim identification if the victim no longer had possession of their travel documents.

If a foreign national victim cooperated with law enforcement, they could remain in Lesotho for the duration of the criminal case; however, barring safety concerns or qualifications of other immigration benefits, the victim had to return to their home country following the conclusion of any criminal proceedings.

PREVENTION

The government maintained anti-trafficking prevention efforts. The Anti-Trafficking Multi-Sectoral Committee (MSC), which coordinated anti-trafficking efforts, met six times during the reporting period. The MSC assessed implementation of the NRM, identified emerging trafficking trends throughout the country, and identified gaps in law enforcement response to trafficking; the findings helped inform anti-trafficking trainings for district officials. The National Strategic Framework and Action Plan (NSFAP) to Combat Trafficking in Persons for 2021-2026 provided a roadmap for anti-trafficking efforts that delineated responsibilities among government ministries.

The government dedicated resources to continue its implementation during the reporting period. The Ministry of Home Affairs allocated 536,960 maloti ($29,140) for trafficking awareness, training, and prevention activities in the 2024 budget. The MFA also maintained focal points based in all 20 of Lesotho’s foreign missions and consulates to respond to cases of human trafficking of its citizens identified abroad and continued disseminating a trafficking in persons handbook for diplomats, developed in partnership with an international organization. The government conducted activities to raise awareness of human trafficking, including outreach to vulnerable communities, and continued its participation in NGO-led activities.

Government officials distributed awareness materials in Sesotho and English, with picture illustrations for illiterate community members. The MSC led radio broadcasts to sensitize an estimated 800,000 Lesotho citizens on trafficking and the NRM. Eleven Community-Based Protection Committees (CBPCs) dedicated to trafficking prevention were newly established and its members were trained on trafficking. On March 25, Parliament approved and the King signed the draft Labour Act of 2024, which included provisions establishing various government committees to oversee compliance with labor and employment laws, requiring licensing of recruitment agencies, allowing labor inspections within private households where domestic labor takes place, and criminalizing fraudulent recruitment practices; the draft was pending official publication at the close of the reporting period.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE), in collaboration with the police and immigration officials, conducted 423 joint inspections in all 10 districts targeting establishments where foreign nationals were employed. While labor inspectors did not receive anti-trafficking training, the inspectors implemented the use of a checklist developed in the previous reporting period to identify trafficking indicators, and there were three cases of child labor identified. NGOs reported a lack of training hindered overall inspection efforts. During the previous reporting period, the government continued the development of standard guidelines for migrant recruitment from Lesotho to foreign countries to enhance protections for migrant workers; however, the guidelines did not eliminate recruitment fees elicited from workers.

The guidelines were still pending approval by the end of the reporting period. The government continued to implement its labor migration policy focused on recruitment malpractice and incorporated screening for trafficking indicators into labor inspectors’ interviews with migrants. In collaboration with an international organization, the government provided training on ethical recruitment to law enforcement, NGOs, and other organizations. The government also continued to discuss trafficking in persons in pre-departure sessions for migrant workers and conducted inspections to confirm licensure of recruitment agencies and their compliance with labor code provisions.

Law enforcement operated a hotline for reporting all crimes, including human trafficking. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Lesotho, and traffickers exploit victims from Lesotho abroad. Limited economic opportunities, exacerbated by the pandemic and inflation, resulted in vulnerable populations – including women and orphaned children, enticed by traffickers with false promises of legitimate employment or educational opportunities – to migrate from rural into urban areas and to South Africa or the Middle East.

Traffickers, including in religious institutions, fraudulently advertise scholarships or lucrative jobs in hospitality on social media to recruit victims into forced labor and sex trafficking, increasingly in the Middle East. In Lesotho, traffickers exploit Basotho children, especially orphans, in forced labor in domestic servitude and animal herding and in sex trafficking. Young girls employed in domestic work in exchange for room and board are vulnerable to forced labor and abuse. In previous years, there were anecdotal reports that “workshop masters” force children to produce and sell arts and crafts in market vending.

There were reports of sexual harassment in Taiwan-, People’s Republic of China- (PRC), and South Asian-owned textile factories in Lesotho, including widespread reports managers and supervisors coerced female workers into sexual relationships in exchange for maintaining employment, receiving better working conditions, and avoiding further harassment. Pandemic-induced layoffs increased vulnerabilities of the predominantly female textile workforce, resulting in some engaging in commercial sex. Basotho women and girls seeking work migrate to South Africa, where traffickers detain some in prison-like conditions and exploit others in sex trafficking, notably in Welkom and Klerksdorp. Some parents send children to South Africa to work as domestic workers, and they are exploited in forced labor.

Basotho traffickers target factory workers in Maseru, with offers of lucrative employment in South Africa, and force them to work in factories in Newcastle and Mandeni, South Africa. In 2022, the Government of South Africa did not renew work permits for some Basotho migrant workers employed in South Africa’s agricultural sector, which increased their vulnerability to trafficking. Traffickers exploit some Basotho men who migrate voluntarily, although unauthorized and often without identity documents, to South Africa for work in agriculture and mining in forced labor; many of these men work for weeks or months before their employers report them to South African authorities for deportation on immigration violations to avoid paying earned wages. Traffickers connected to organized crime syndicates operating in South Africa allegedly exploit Basotho men in derelict and unregulated gold mines.

Some of these miners, known as “zama zamas,” recruit young girls in Lesotho to exploit in sex trafficking in South Africa. Traffickers also compel Basotho to commit crimes in South Africa, including theft, drug trafficking, and smuggling under threat of violence. Climate change, including slow-onset climate events, such as flooding and droughts, impacted agricultural production and food security, increasing vulnerabilities to trafficking. Increased unemployment due to the closure of factories drives some Lesotho citizens to enter South Africa while undocumented in search of work, which may increase their vulnerability to trafficking.

Foreign nationals, including PRC nationals, Pakistanis, and Nigerians, subject their compatriots to sex trafficking in Lesotho. Government-affiliated Cuban medical professionals that worked in Lesotho may have been forced to work by the Cuban government. On This Page search > < LESOTHO (Tier 2) PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Bureau of African Affairs Human Trafficking Lesotho Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Reports