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

MARSHALL ISLANDS (Tier 2 Watch List) The Government of Marshall Islands does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. These efforts included adopting, implementing, and disseminating victim identification and referral SOPs; establishing a case management system for trafficking cases; and providing training to officials on victim services and trafficking investigations. However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period. The government did not identify or provide services to any trafficking victims.

For the fourth consecutive year, the government did not prosecute any traffickers and has not convicted any traffickers since 2011. The government did not provide adequate financial and technical resources for anti-trafficking efforts. Therefore Marshall Islands remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Increase the availability of protection services – including short-term shelter, long-term housing, counseling, and medical care – for all trafficking victims, including men and victims who do not participate in investigations or prosecutions, by partnering with and allocating funding or in-kind support to civil society service providers. * Utilizing the established SOPs, proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, including individuals in commercial sex, undocumented migrant workers, foreign fishermen, People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals, and victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and refer victims to care services. * Investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including those involving victims’ family members and complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. * Expand efforts to raise awareness on all forms of human trafficking, particularly among employers and outer island communities and vulnerable populations, including individuals in commercial sex, foreign migrant workers, and victims of GBV. * Institutionalize and expand anti-trafficking training for front-line officials on the indicators of trafficking, victim identification and referral SOPs, the anti-trafficking law, and victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches to law enforcement efforts and trial, as well as the use of psychological coercion as a means of trafficking. * Ensure a victim-centered and trauma-informed approach to the provision of assistance for all victims identified is used regardless of participation in criminal proceedings. * Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. * Increase access to and knowledge of protection services for outer island community residents and dedicate funding to assisting with travel costs to receive assistance. * Undertake research on human trafficking and make it publicly accessible to the public and utilize research findings to create an evidence base for future policy decisions. * Accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

PROSECUTION

The government maintained inadequate law enforcement efforts. The Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2017 criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000, or both if the victim was an adult and up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to $15,000, or both if the victim was younger than age 18. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with other grave crimes, such as rape. The government investigated one labor trafficking case, the same as in the previous reporting period.

The government continued three investigations initiated in prior years. For the fourth consecutive year, the government did not prosecute any traffickers. The government has not convicted any traffickers since 2011. In August 2023, the government concluded its investigation, begun in 2020, of the former Director of Immigration for alleged complicity in trafficking crimes.

The Attorney General’s Office charged the former official with 49 counts of aiding and abetting a foreign national to obtain fraudulent visas under the Immigration Act and 48 counts of misconduct in public office under the Criminal Code. In January 2024, the Marshall Islands High Court dismissed the charges based on an expired statute of limitations. The government did not report an update to charges filed in 2022 against two immigration officers who allegedly engaged in visa fraud regarding visa applications. The government did not report any other 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.

The government’s Human Trafficking Coordinator, located within the Attorney General’s Office, coordinated the government’s investigative efforts; however, the position was vacated in November 2022 and remained vacant at the end of the reporting period, which hindered the government’s ability to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts. Unlike the previous reporting period, the government, in partnership with a foreign government and a civil society organization, trained prosecutors, service providers, and law enforcement officials on various anti-trafficking topics, including trafficking investigations, victim services, and trafficking prosecutions. Nonetheless, the government lacked sufficient institutionalized law enforcement training, recruitment of officers, and law enforcement facilities to combat trafficking. Government officials’ limited understanding of trafficking indicators and misperception that movement was required for trafficking crimes hindered progress.

An NGO stated officials lacked anti-trafficking training, particularly the police, and required more secure communications to prevent alerting criminals prior to prosecution. The government, in partnership with an international organization, established a case management system to track human trafficking cases. The lack of dedicated funding and technical capacity constrained authorities’ ability to investigate trafficking cases. The government did not report cooperating with foreign counterparts on any law enforcement activities.

PROTECTION

The government marginally increased efforts to identify and protect victims. The government did not identify any trafficking victims, compared with identifying one, with assistance from an NGO tip, in the previous reporting period. However, NGOs reported identifying four labor trafficking victims – three women and one man. The government finalized, adopted, implemented, and widely disseminated victim identification and referral SOPs, developed in partnership with an international organization in the previous reporting period.

As part of the newly implemented SOPs, the government required immigration officials to conduct trafficking screening of all persons entering and exiting the country. The government did not formally identify or assist six women whom multiple government officials recognized as likely being trafficking victims during the previous reporting period; the six trafficking victims remained with the suspected traffickers. Officials also did not take steps to conduct victim assessments of other potential victims known to be connected with the case. Authorities reported continuing to investigate this case but relied heavily on victim testimony to further their case.

Due to a lack of formal identification procedures, authorities likely deported unidentified trafficking victims. The government reported it could provide legal assistance if it charged a victim for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; however, the government did not report providing legal assistance to any victims. The government did not provide services to any victims, compared with providing transportation and protective services to one victim and interpretation to other potential victims in the previous reporting period. The government could partner with a foreign government to coordinate interpretation services.

The government, in partnership with NGOs, could provide protection services to victims who participated in investigations and prosecutions, including translation, food, transportation, repatriation assistance, first aid, counseling, and temporary accommodations; the government did not provide funding to NGOs for such services. The government referred one victim to an NGO for counseling and temporary shelter services, the same as in the previous reporting period. In addition, the government referred two potential labor trafficking victims identified by NGOs for protection services; however, authorities did not initiate an investigation of their employers for allegations of forced labor and instead approved the termination of the potential victims’ labor contracts and repatriated them. The government did not report if the potential trafficking victims received any services prior to repatriation.

The government did not have a dedicated trafficking shelter for victims but relied on an NGO to provide temporary accommodations or temporarily accommodate victims in a hotel. Victims could leave these accommodations unchaperoned unless authorities determined that doing so might put them in danger. Unlike the previous reporting period, the government provided funding to an NGO to provide free legal assistance to victims of crime, including trafficking victims. Authorities could only provide protection services in urban centers, which hindered the ability for residents of outer island communities to receive assistance.

The government required victims to participate in investigations to be officially classified as trafficking victims and access protection services. However, the government reportedly provided counseling to victims before they agreed to participate in investigations. The government required victims receiving services to testify if the case went to trial. The government reported victims could testify via written or video-recorded statements, and victims could obtain employment during the investigation or trial.

The government reported two victims – one previously identified and one identified by NGOs – participated in investigations and provided one with a work visa. The government reported it could allow foreign victims to remain in the country temporarily, but did not provide long-term alternatives to removal to countries where victims may face hardship or retribution.

PREVENTION

The government maintained inadequate efforts to prevent trafficking. The National Task Force on Human Trafficking (NTHT), which included government agencies and members of civil society, led the government’s anti-trafficking efforts and met four times. The NTHT working group, which was responsible for implementing the NAP and providing quarterly implementation updates to the NTHT, met 10 times. The government reported drafting a new NAP to replace its existing NAP; the government did not report finalizing it before the end of the reporting period.

The government, in partnership with an international organization, conducted awareness raising activities for the public. The government reported translating awareness materials into Marshallese, English, Mandarin, and Tagalog. In February 2024, the government provided logistical support to an NGO to conduct an awareness raising activity on the outer island of Wotje. In February 2024, the government established an MOU with Taiwan to improve information sharing and strengthen cooperation on anti-trafficking efforts.

Unlike the previous reporting period, the government did not report supporting research to assess the scope of trafficking in Marshall Islands. The government operated a police hotline number that could receive information on potential trafficking crimes; authorities did not report receiving any trafficking information from the hotline. The government lacked a dedicated anti-trafficking hotline and relied on an NGO hotline, funded by a foreign government, for trafficking reports to identify victims; the hotline identified three victims and led to one investigation. The government reported its labor law prohibited worker-paid recruitment fees for non-resident workers.

The government did not allow migrant workers to change employers in a timely manner without obtaining special permission. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel. The government did not take steps to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Marshall Islands was not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Marshall Islands, and traffickers exploit Marshallese victims abroad. Marshallese residents of outer island communities may experience increased vulnerability to trafficking because of limited economic opportunities, geographic location, and the cost to travel to urban centers to seek assistance. Some wealthier or more powerful family members use traditional cultural practices to exploit impoverished Marshallese from outer islands to serve as indentured labor on their property. Traffickers, including hotel and bar staff and family members, recruit and transport Marshallese and East Asian women and girls and exploit them in sex trafficking in Marshall Islands with foreign construction workers and crewmembers of foreign fishing and transshipping vessels that dock in Majuro; some of these women and girls have also been confined and subjected to forced childbearing as part of international fraudulent adoption schemes.

Observers report commercial sexual activity involving foreign fishermen has increasingly moved from fishing vessels to local bars, hotels, and suspected commercial sex establishments. Traffickers also exploit some foreign fishermen in conditions indicative of forced labor on ships in Marshallese waters. Traffickers compel foreign women, most of whom are long-term residents of Marshall Islands, into commercial sex in establishments frequented by crewmembers of PRC-affiliated and other foreign fishing vessels; some traffickers recruit PRC national women with the promise of other work and, after paying large recruitment fees, force them into commercial sex. Traffickers recruit and exploit Filipino nationals in forced labor in Filipino-owned businesses.

Traffickers exploit some foreign workers in conditions indicative of forced labor in construction. Traffickers exploit PRC nationals in PRC-owned businesses, including small businesses, restaurants, and apartment buildings. Limited reports indicate some Marshallese searching for work in the United States experience indicators of trafficking, such as passport confiscation, excessive work hours, and fraudulent recruitment. On This Page search > < MARSHALL ISLANDS (Tier 2 Watch List) PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Human Trafficking Marshall Islands Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Reports