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

SOLOMON ISLANDS (Tier 2 Watch List) The Government of Solomon Islands does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. These efforts included investigating more trafficking crimes, initiating a prosecution, identifying more trafficking victims, and conducting awareness campaigns targeting communities near logging or mining operations. However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period. Authorities did not implement formal victim identification SOPs, did not refer any victims to services, and available protection services remained inadequate.

Courts did not convict any traffickers. The government did not administer anti-trafficking training for its police or judicial officials, despite a lack of understanding of trafficking among such officials. For the fifth consecutive year, the Ministry of Commerce’s Labor Division did not conduct systematic monitoring and inspection activities at logging sites or in the fishing or mining sectors, despite clear indicators of trafficking. Therefore Solomon 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 children, adult men, labor trafficking victims, and persons with disabilities, including by partnering with and allocating funding and in-kind support to civil society service providers. * Implement formal SOPs for victim identification and referral to care and train stakeholders on their use. * Increase efforts to 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. * Increase and fund efforts to raise public awareness in Pijin and English on all forms of human trafficking and how to report suspected human trafficking crimes, particularly among business owners of entertainment establishments, motels, and lodges; taxi drivers; health care workers; and vulnerable populations, including children in Honiara and the provinces, migrant workers, LGBTQI+ individuals, individuals in commercial sex, and among remote logging and mining communities in all provinces. * Proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including children who used the streets as a source of livelihood, individuals involved in commercial sex, People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals employed at worksites affiliated with PRC-based companies, communities located near mining and logging camps, workers on fishing vessels, and individuals – including children – apprehended for illegal fishing, desertion from foreignregistered fishing vessels, illegal logging, or immigration crimes and ensure all identified victims are referred to protection services. * Adopt a comprehensive human trafficking law that criminalizes all forms of the crime and prescribes penalties sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, and remove sentencing provisions under current laws that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment for sex trafficking crimes occurring outside of Solomon Islands. * Amend existing forestry laws to include minimum social safeguards and child protection policies. * Eliminate recruitment or placement fees charged to workers by labor recruiters and ensure any recruitment fees are paid by employers. * Develop and maintain a comprehensive and centralized database to accurately track and report the government’s anti-trafficking statistics. * Train immigration officials, police, prosecutors, judicial officials, and social service providers on all relevant trafficking laws, investigative techniques, and victim identification procedures, including at the provincial level. * Implement and allocate dedicated funding to the 2020-2025 NAP. * Accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

PROSECUTION

The government increased its law enforcement efforts. The penal code, together with the Immigration Act, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Article 143 of the penal code criminalized child sex trafficking under its “child commercial sexual exploitation” provision and prescribed penalties of up to 15 or 20 years’ imprisonment, based on the child’s age. Article 145 of the penal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking when the crime occurred within the country.

Article 145(2) applied to trafficking crimes involving an element of force, fraud, or coercion; it prescribed penalties of up to 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes involving adult victims and up to 25 years’ imprisonment for crimes involving child victims. Article 145(3) prescribed penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment for crimes that did not involve an element of force, fraud, or coercion. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping. The Immigration Act criminalized other forms of trafficking, including crimes in which the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of the trafficking victim occurred outside Solomon Islands.

The Immigration Act prescribed penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to 45,000 Solomon Islands dollars (SBD) ($5,580), or both for the trafficking of adults; it prescribed a penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to 90,000 SBD ($11,160), or both for the trafficking of children. These penalties were sufficiently stringent, but with respect to sex trafficking, by allowing for a fine in lieu of imprisonment, they were not commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes. Authorities continued to charge some trafficking cases under criminal statutes carrying lesser penalties. In November 2022, the government completed its review, in coordination with a regional body, of the Immigration Act to identify gaps in trafficking-specific provisions, among others, and drafted a new immigration bill.

The government did not report an update to the drafted bill. Despite allocating 920,000 SBD ($114,070) in 2020 to develop a comprehensive human trafficking statute and accede to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its supplementary protocols, including the UN TIP Protocol, the government did not adopt this statute or accede to the UN TIP Protocol. The government investigated four trafficking cases – three for sex trafficking and one for labor trafficking – compared with not investigating any trafficking cases in the previous reporting period. Authorities continued two sex trafficking case investigations and one labor trafficking case investigation initiated in prior years.

The government prosecuted one alleged trafficker, compared with not prosecuting any traffickers in the previous reporting period. Authorities continued two prosecutions initiated in prior years. Courts did not convict any traffickers, compared with convicting one sex trafficker in the previous reporting period. Courts acquitted one alleged trafficker in a case initiated in a previous reporting period.

The government administratively penalized a perpetrator for unspecified labor exploitation, which may have been labor trafficking, under the labor laws. Observers ascribed a high likelihood of acquittals and dismissals of trafficking cases to backlogs in court, incomplete investigations, insufficient evidence or lack of testimony, and safety concerns among victims and their families. 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. Unlike the previous reporting period, the government reportedly cooperated with foreign counterparts on law enforcement activities; however, the government did not indicate any outcomes of this cooperation.

The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and Ministry of Commerce’s Immigration Division jointly investigated trafficking crimes. However, geographic challenges, insufficient resources for law enforcement agencies, an absence of technical expertise among police and judges, and a lack of awareness of trafficking indicators and relevant laws among front-line officers, particularly in remote areas of the country, hindered the government’s ability to investigate trafficking crimes. In a 2023 report by an international organization, government officials identified a lack of sufficient evidence collection, witness protection, clarity on whether to prosecute trafficking crimes under the Immigration Act or the Penal Code, and understanding of trafficking by judicial officials, as well as an overreliance on victim testimony, hindered their ability to prosecute and convict traffickers. Traditional justice practices, involving retribution or informal compensation arrangements between victims’ families and traffickers, supplanted formal law enforcement efforts and further stymied victims’ access to justice.

Civil society reported concern that the Penal Code lacked adequate provisions for authorities to prosecute crimes committed at sea and for authorities to conduct labor inspections of fishing vessels, at sea and in port, which hindered authorities’ ability to address forced labor of crewmembers aboard fishing vessels. Unlike the previous reporting period, the government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its law enforcement officials, prosecutors, or judicial officials. Observers noted the government redirected resources, including those related to anti-trafficking efforts, among government agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have continued to adversely affect the government’s ability to detect and address trafficking.

PROTECTION

The government maintained inadequate efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims. The government identified seven adult trafficking victims – two Solomon Islander and four Vietnamese female sex trafficking victims and one Bangladeshi male labor trafficking victim – compared with not identifying any trafficking victims in the previous reporting period. An NGO also reported identifying and assisting eight girl trafficking victims without government support. The government has never implemented its victim identification, referral, and protection SOPs for trafficking victims developed in partnership with an international organization in 2015.

Civil society reported law enforcement officials used a separate guide designed to assist in identifying and interviewing trafficking victims and used a GBV victim referral pathway to refer trafficking victims for services. Due to a lack of implementation of formal identification and referral SOPs, authorities may have detained some unidentified trafficking victims. For example, authorities did not screen for trafficking indicators when detaining or arresting individuals involved in commercial sex. For the second consecutive year, the government did not refer any trafficking victims for services.

The government reported NGOs could provide health care, counseling, food, temporary shelter, and repatriation assistance to trafficking victims; the government did not report providing funding or in-kind resources to NGOs for these services. The government established a multiagency MOU with a civil society organization to increase support service options for trafficking victims. The government did not operate a dedicated trafficking shelter; civil society reported trafficking victims used government-funded accommodations dedicated to victims of gender-based violence (GBV). The government did not provide specialized care for children, shelter for adult men or labor trafficking victims, and some NGO shelter options could not accommodate persons with disabilities.

The limited capacity of shelter options resulted in trafficking victims being forced to remain in the homes of alleged traffickers. Most trafficking victims identified in prior years came from the provinces, making services, which were exclusively located in Honiara, difficult to access. Observers expressed concern the government sometimes removed victims from trafficking situations without arranging access to shelter or adequate protection services, leaving them vulnerable to re-victimization. Trafficking victims reported a lack of assistance after they self-identified to police.

Civil society reported law enforcement officers turned off the government-issued phone numbers for service providers which inhibited trafficking victims from contacting them for assistance. The government allocated 60,000 SBD ($7,440) to anti-trafficking activities, including victim protection and assistance from the Immigration Division’s budget, the same as the prior two reporting periods. Prior to the pandemic, the government allocated 380,000 SBD ($47,120) from the Immigration Division’s budget for anti-trafficking efforts. The government did not require victims to participate in investigations or prosecutions to access protection services.

The government could provide legal assistance and interpretation services to victims who participated in investigations or prosecutions and victims could obtain employment while participating, but the government did not report doing so. The government could not provide witness protection to victims if necessary. The government did not require interpreters to sign confidentiality agreements, increasing victims’ vulnerability to retaliation. The government allowed victims to speak with social welfare service providers rather than law enforcement officials during investigations.

The Immigration Act granted the government authority to provide temporary residence permits for foreign victims to assist police with investigations, and it insulated foreign victims against prosecution for immigration offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked. However, the government did not report if it extended these protections to foreign victims whose cases authorities investigated under the penal code. The government did not report providing these or other services to any foreign victims. Some unidentified foreign victims may have opted to return to their home countries due to lengthy legal processes, fear of retaliation by traffickers or prosecution by police, and a lack of incentives to remain and participate in cases.

Observers noted insufficiencies in protection services likely discouraged some victims from testifying in court proceedings, thereby hindering prosecutorial progress. The government reported trafficking victims could seek compensation from traffickers through civil suits, although it reported no victims had ever filed such suits. The government did not maintain a victim compensation fund. The government did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign trafficking victims to countries where they might face retribution or hardship.

PREVENTION

The government maintained efforts to prevent trafficking. The Anti-Human Trafficking Advisory Committee, which included government agencies and members of civil society, led the country’s anti-trafficking efforts and met quarterly. However, government officials reported a lack of information sharing among stakeholders hindered anti-trafficking efforts. The government did not report dedicating resources or updating a strategy to implement its NAP against Human Trafficking and People Smuggling 2020-2025.

In partnership with international organizations and NGOs, the government conducted awareness campaigns targeting communities near logging or mining operations for the first time. However, the government did not conduct any nationwide awareness raising activities or targeted awareness raising activities on labor trafficking in the fishing industry. The government provided technical support to a research study examining child protection issues, including child trafficking. The government lacked a centralized data collection system which reportedly hindered its ability to combat human trafficking.

In partnership with an international organization, the government developed and launched a national policy focused on child protection issues including combating child trafficking. The government, in partnership with an international organization, also initiated development of its first national employment policy to strengthen social protection programs around child labor in the country; the policy was not finalized at the end of the reporting period. The government did not report implementing an existing policy framework setting minimum terms and conditions for crewmembers working on licensed foreign and domestic-flagged fishing vessels operating in Solomon Islands’ waters, to address trafficking risks among crewmembers. The government did not enforce labor laws in the informal economy, where 75 percent of workers in Solomon Islands worked, increasing vulnerability to trafficking.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Labor Division did not report conducting any monitoring or inspection activities at logging operations or in the fishing or mining sectors despite continued reports of trafficking indicators in these sectors. The government did not prohibit worker-paid recruitment fees, which contributed to debt-based coercion among foreign workers. In prior years, forestry officials reported the lack of industry regulation and laws outlining child protection and social safeguards prevented them from detecting and investigating potential abuses, including trafficking, related to logging operations’ impact on local communities. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.

The government did not operate or support an anti-trafficking hotline. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Solomon Islands was not a party to the UN TIP Protocol. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Solomon Islands, and traffickers exploit victims from Solomon Islands abroad.

Traffickers also use Solomon Islands as a transit point to exploit victims in other countries. Widespread social stigma against LGBTQI+ individuals increases their vulnerability to trafficking. Natural disasters significantly increase Solomon Islanders’ vulnerability to trafficking; Solomon Islanders affected by a cyclone in 2020 may be at higher risk of trafficking due to economic hardships the destruction caused. Traffickers exploit Solomon Islander adults through forced labor in the logging, fishing, and mining industries.

Following the government’s decision to cease issuance of new logging licenses, a decline in the industry has contributed to an increase in internal economic migration of communities located in former logging areas; these displaced communities may be at higher risk of labor trafficking. Official corruption – especially in relation to facilitating irregular migration and involvement in the fishing and forestry sectors – facilitates trafficking. Traffickers exploit Solomon Islander children in labor and sex trafficking within the country, sometimes in exchange for money or goods, particularly near foreign logging camps, on foreign and local commercial fishing vessels, and at hotels, casinos, nightclubs, and other entertainment establishments. Traffickers exploit Solomon Islander children in labor trafficking in the agricultural sector, mining sector, logging sector, harvesting of seafood, street vending, and begging, as well as forced criminality in pickpocketing and the manufacturing and transportation of drugs.

Mining and logging camp leadership reportedly force boys to serve as “solairs” – illicit brokers procuring girls for commercial sex and domestic service in worker lodging facilities – and logging camp personnel force young men to work as domestic servants and cooks. Some boys, girls, and young women are recruited for domestic work and subsequently exploited in commercial sex at logging camps. The inflow of a cash economic system, coupled with the continuation of an unregulated logging industry, has increased vulnerability to trafficking in remote communities, specifically for women and children. Certain economic changes in recent years increased the prevalence of commercial sex – and a concomitant uptick in sex trafficking.

Family members are often the facilitators of such transactional agreements. Under informal or traditional justice practices, parents frequently receive payments for sending young women and girls into forced marriages with foreign workers at logging and mining companies, where many of them are exploited in domestic servitude or sex trafficking. Often these payments are rendered after the victims escape or are returned home as informal compensation that local leadership broker. In this way, local community leaders may also benefit financially from these arrangements.

Anecdotal reporting showed an increase in the sexual exploitation of girls, some of whom may have been sex trafficking victims, as many returned to remote villages because of the pandemic. Women and girls may be at risk of debt-based coercion in sex trafficking and domestic servitude via the customary practice of “bride-price,” money or chattel the husband’s family pays to the wife’s family. Economic instability and barriers to education faced by children in Solomon Islands significantly increases their vulnerability to trafficking. According to an international organization’s 2024 study, two-thirds of child respondents who used the streets as a source of livelihood were unaware of available service providers.

Parents send children to live with extended family members in Honiara to access better opportunities but, upon the child’s arrival, they are subsequently exploited in forced labor. Adopted Solomon Islander children face an increased risk of abuse and vulnerability to trafficking. To pay off debts, some parents reportedly sell their children to other families via “informal adoption” that often involves forced labor or sexual servitude. The growth of Solomon Islands’ tourism industry, coupled with economic disparities and insufficient protective measures, increases children’s vulnerability to trafficking.

Taxi drivers transport Solomon Islander child sex trafficking victims to traffickers at motels, rest houses, and beaches. Health care workers, particularly in maternity and gynecological offices, encounter and treat trafficking victims. Traffickers exploit local, South Asian, and Southeast Asian men and women in labor and sex trafficking in Solomon Islands. Women from the PRC, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines often pay large recruitment fees for jobs in Solomon Islands and upon arrival are forced or coerced into commercial sex.

Labor traffickers exploit men from Indonesia and Malaysia in the logging, fishing, palm oil, and mining industries. Fishermen from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and Fiji report situations indicative of labor trafficking, including non-payment of wages, dire living conditions, violence, and limited food supply, on Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels in Solomon Islands’ territorial waters and ports. Individuals from the PRC may have been forced to work in Solomon Islands at projects run by PRCbased companies and at businesses owned by PRC nationals. Traffickers exploit Solomon Islanders in conditions indicative of forced labor under the auspices of seasonal worker programs in Australia and New Zealand.

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