U.S. Dep't of State, 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Papua New Guinea

PAPUA NEW GUINEA (Tier 3) The Government of Papua New Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Papua New Guinea remained on Tier 3. Despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including a small number of investigations and ongoing prosecutions. The government reported adding trafficking issues to its training curriculum for investigators and prosecutors and funding an NGO that provided services to victims of crime, which could include trafficking victims.

However, the government did not report convicting any traffickers. Authorities did not report identifying or assisting trafficking victims and due to inadequate screening efforts, 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. The government did not conduct public awareness campaigns or administer systematic anti-trafficking training for its law enforcement officials, and understanding of trafficking remained limited among such officials. The government did not allocate dedicated financial and human resources to anti-trafficking efforts, and government officials remained unaware of the prevalence of trafficking.

Endemic corruption, particularly in the logging and fishing sectors, continued to facilitate human trafficking among foreign and local populations. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Allocate resources, including dedicated staff, to government agencies to update, disseminate, and systematically implement existing victim identification and referral SOPs and widely train stakeholders on their use. Work with civil society, the private sector, and religious and community leaders to develop public awareness campaigns in local languages and on messaging applications, including to raise awareness of and reduce demand for commercial sex acts and forced labor, especially of children. Investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including those involving victims’ family members and possibly complicit officials who facilitate or directly benefit from trafficking, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.

Implement training to enhance effectiveness of village courts to address trafficking crimes. Develop, adopt, and implement an updated anti-trafficking NAP and allocate dedicated funding and resources to its implementation. Amend the criminal code to criminalize child sex trafficking without elements of force, fraud, or coercion, consistent with international law. Institutionalize and implement anti-trafficking training for front-line officials on the indicators of trafficking and victim-centered and trauma-informed trafficking investigations, including evidence collection.

Increase interagency collaboration and information sharing among key agencies, including police, customs, and immigration. Mandate the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Forest Authority, and the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) to investigate and address human trafficking in the logging and fishing sectors. In collaboration with civil society, proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including IDPs, Chinese nationals employed at worksites affiliated with China-based companies and with the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), communities located near commercial forestry operations, children in communities marked by inter-tribal conflict, and individuals – including children – apprehended for illegal fishing, desertion from foreign-registered fishing vessels, illegal logging, illegal gold panning, or immigration crimes, and provide them protection services. Improve victim identification and increase interagency coordination to ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

Increase the availability of protection services – including shelter – for all trafficking victims, including by partnering with civil society. Strengthen the National Anti-Human Trafficking Committee (NAHTC) by regularizing its meetings and functions, designating senior officials to represent their agencies, increasing awareness of and participation in the committee by civil society and protection stakeholders, and allocating resources for its activities. Increase coordination and collaboration between Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) and the Department of Justice and Attorney General to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases. Educate government stakeholders on the process to designate an individual as a trafficking victim and simplify the process for doing so.

Increase oversight and regulation of the logging and fishing sectors, including by dedicating funding and resources to increase manpower and surveillance monitoring equipment and penalizing government officials for taking bribes, which hinder anti-trafficking efforts in these sectors. Take steps to eliminate recruitment or placement fees charged to workers by labor recruiters and ensure any recruitment fees are paid by employers. Accede to the 2000 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the 2000 TIP Protocol.

PROSECUTION

The government reported limited law enforcement efforts. The Criminal Code Amendment of 2013 criminalized most forms of sex trafficking and all forms of labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 20 years’ imprisonment. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. Inconsistent with international law, the law required a demonstration of force, fraud, or coercion to constitute a child sex trafficking offense and therefore did not criminalize all forms of child sex trafficking.

The government reported five investigations of trafficking cases opened during the reporting period. For the third consecutive year, the government did not report any trafficking prosecutions in the national court system and had two cases in the initial committal court stage. The government did not report an update on five prosecutions initiated in previous reporting periods. For the fourth consecutive year, the government did not report any trafficking convictions.

The government did not report any new investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption remained a significant concern, inhibiting law enforcement action. The government did not report an update to previously initiated investigations of six suspended ICA officers, including three from the visa and passports division, who allegedly engaged in misconduct regarding visa applications, which increased foreign nationals’ vulnerability to trafficking. The government also did not report an update to a previously initiated investigation of the alleged involvement of several senior police officials in a sex trafficking syndicate. The government did not report any specific cooperation with foreign counterparts on any law enforcement activities on trafficking cases.

Observers ascribed poor prosecutorial efforts to limited prosecutorial capacity; widespread observance of customary justice practices; fear of retribution; distrust of law enforcement among victims; and insufficient resources and political will among law enforcement to conduct investigations, particularly in rural areas. Civil society reported the government lacked sufficient financial resources to adequately prepare prosecutors and bring witnesses to national courts, hindering prosecutorial efforts across all cases, including trafficking. The government collaborated with an NGO to develop a nationwide plan to train village court officials in the detection, identification, and referral of both trafficking victims and potential trafficking victims. Customs officials previously reported lack of manpower, monitoring and surveillance equipment, and funding impaired anti-trafficking monitoring efforts for labor or sex trafficking on vessels in Papua New Guinea waters.

Observers reported an underfunded and undertrained police force limited police services and exacerbated the country’s pervasive threat of violence and lawlessness. Law enforcement agencies and most government offices remained weak as a result of underfunding, corruption, cronyism, lack of accountability, lack of human resources, and a patronage-based promotion system – limiting the government’s ability to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes. The majority of the government’s limited resources were allocated to addressing law and order needs such as inter-tribal fighting in the Highlands region and the urban centers, domestic violence and violence against women and children, homicide, and robbery. Informal justice systems often handled criminal cases due to the formal justice system’s lack of capacity and the remoteness of some communities, which stymied victims’ access to justice.

The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC), Papua New Guinea Customs Service, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Office of Public Prosecutor, NFA, national court system, and ICA shared responsibility to combat human trafficking. Observers reported the RPNGC did not prioritize efforts to combat trafficking. National and provincial officials’ limited understanding of trafficking – including anti-trafficking laws, trafficking indicators, and investigative techniques – continued to hinder effective law enforcement activity. Senior government officials remained unaware of trafficking, including of their respective agencies’ own anti-trafficking efforts, and regularly conflated migrant smuggling and human trafficking.

In addition, observers previously reported judicial sector officials lacked awareness of trafficking, that authorities did not recognize domestic trafficking, and a need for training, particularly on case writing for effective prosecution, evidence collection, and victim-centered approaches to investigating and prosecuting trafficking cases. The government reported RPNGC added trafficking issues to its training curriculum for investigators and prosecutors; however, the government did not report how many officials, if any, received this training. Additionally, the government reported law enforcement officials attended training conducted by international organizations, particularly on identifying and referring victims of trafficking and labor exploitation in the fishing industry.

PROTECTION

The government did not report any efforts to identify or assist victims. For the third consecutive year, the government did not report identifying any trafficking victims. RPNGC noted a limited number of investigations opened during the reporting period but did not provide details on how police became aware of the victims. The government had victim identification and referral SOPs but did not report implementing them and continued to lack a written procedural guide for implementation as previously recommended in its expired NAP; general awareness of the SOPs among front-line officers remained limited.

In addition, the SOPs did not contain adequate measures to screen for trafficking indicators among individuals or adults who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual arrested for commercial sex. The government did not report directly assisting any trafficking victims or funding victim protection services for trafficking victims and relied heavily on civil society to provide services. The government reported funding an NGO to support general victims of violence and abuse, including potential trafficking victims; with support from RPNGC, the NGO removed an unreported number of victims from their trafficking situations. Other civil society organizations, without financial or in-kind support from the government, could provide limited psycho-social services and short-term shelter services to victims.

Women and child victims could receive services through NGO-run programs that focused on violence against women and girls, and while male victims could receive ad hoc services through NGOs, there were no government or NGO services specifically tailored to the needs of trafficking victims. Observers reported minimal to no services available for victims of crime, including trafficking victims, and a lack of meaningful engagement with civil society to address gaps in services. Observers previously reported cases involving violence against women and girls and child protection referred to RPNGC’s Family and Sexual Violence Units (FSVU) potentially involved unidentified trafficking victims due to a lack of resources and awareness of trafficking indicators among police. The FSVUs worked with social service providers to support victims of crime but reportedly only did so for victims of violent assault.

Civil society reported a widespread reluctance for victims to report exploitation due to a lack of witness protection, including concern safehouses lacked adequate protection following instances in which police shared victims’ addresses publicly. The government lacked a structured plan to identify or refer victims among vulnerable communities or among communities displaced as a result of conflict or natural disasters. Logging and mining sites primarily operated in remote regions with limited or no government oversight. ICA previously reported allegations of mistreatment and pay discrepancies among workers while conducting immigration enforcement spot checks at logging camps; however, the government did not report acting against illegal logging sites or report any efforts to identify sex or labor trafficking victims at such sites.

According to media reports, the government apprehended a foreign fishing vessel for allegedly operating illegally in 2024; despite officials stating they suspected the vessel’s crew included trafficking victims, the government did not report screening crewmembers for trafficking indicators or identifying any as victims. Civil society reported relevant agencies lacked a mandate to investigate potential trafficking crimes in the logging and fishing sectors. The criminal code identified human trafficking as a crime but did not give the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Forest Authority, or the NFA the mandate to address human trafficking in these sectors. The criminal code provided guidance to protect foreign victims from punishment for immigration offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked, and the government reported there were no cases of potential victims of trafficking being incarcerated, fined, or penalized.

However, due to ineffective victim identification, poor interagency coordination, and the requirement for a court to formally identify an individual as a trafficking victim, the government did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential trafficking victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority had witness protection for some migrants. Observers reported authorities lacked training and general awareness of human trafficking and the SOPs and routinely deported potential victims, including individuals in commercial sex, without screening for trafficking indicators. Fears of arrest for desertion contributed to some potential forced labor victims being deterred from reporting abuses faced on fishing vessels.

The law provided legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution, but the government did not report offering this protection to any victims. The law lacked provisions for victims to seek compensation through civil suits.

PREVENTION

The government did not report any efforts to prevent trafficking beyond training provided by government partners. For the third consecutive year, the NAHTC did not report meeting and continued to lack sufficient resources and commitment from the government. The government did not appoint specific committee members to represent relevant agencies. The government effectively excluded non-governmental stakeholders from the NAHTC.

Government officials reported a lack of interagency coordination hindered anti-trafficking efforts. The government did not report allocating dedicated funding or resources to implement or update its expired NAP. The government partnered with an international organization to implement 44 mobile enrollment kits to raise birth registrations by more than 500,000 per year, potentially reducing the vulnerability to trafficking faced by unregistered children. For the fourth consecutive year, the government did not report conducting any anti-trafficking awareness campaigns.

Civil society reported the lack of a local language translation of “human trafficking” as a concept hindered the government’s ability to effectively spread awareness of the crime. The government lacked effective policies to regulate foreign labor recruiters or hold them liable for fraudulent recruitment practices. The government did not report providing anti-trafficking training to its labor inspectors. Additionally, with no more than two labor inspectors per province, inadequate resources, and endemic corruption, the government did not take adequate steps to prevent forced labor in the logging industry.

Authorities reportedly issued forestry permits in violation of pre-existing land ownership rights and, without further oversight, led to the displacement and heightened vulnerability of Indigenous communities and an increased risk of labor trafficking among forestry workers. The government did not allow migrant workers to change employers without a new work permit. The government acknowledged the absence of a legal framework to effectively regulate recruitment fees, which continued to contribute to debt-based coercion among foreign workers. The government had a general tollfree hotline for crime victims but did not operate a dedicated anti-trafficking hotline.

Reports of suspected trafficking crimes had to be made either in person at a police station or emailed to the NAHTC and the Department of Justice and Attorney General; therefore, the ability to report trafficking cases for law enforcement action was limited. The government did not report providing anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Papua New Guinea was not a party to the 2000 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime nor the subsequent TIP Protocol.

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 Papua New Guinea, and traffickers exploit victims from Papua New Guinea abroad. A 2023 report documented approximately 15 percent of Papua New Guinean children had their birth officially registered, leaving unregistered children more vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation.

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual face cultural stigmas and an increased vulnerability to violence and exploitation in larger cities, including trafficking. Traffickers exploit foreign national and local women and children in sex trafficking and in forced labor in domestic service, the tourism sector, manual labor, forced begging, and street vending. Children and people brought in from the rural/remote areas into urban centers are particularly at risk for forced labor due to low literacy rates. Traffickers exploit Papua New Guinean children to forced criminality in illegal gold panning.

Boys as young as 12 reportedly experience conditions indicative of forced labor as porters. Traffickers exploit women and girls in sex trafficking by means of making threats via online messaging applications to coerce them into sex trafficking; lodges, motels, and hotels in Port Moresby reportedly knowingly facilitate exploitation. Within the country, traffickers lure women and children with promises of legitimate work or education to travel to different provinces, where they are exploited in sex trafficking or domestic servitude, including in nightclubs. Traffickers provide fraudulent identification documents to victims with older ages listed to evade detection of child sex trafficking during law enforcement actions.

Men reportedly exploit girls as young as 15 in sex trafficking, exchanging money, gifts, or mobile phone credits for sex acts. Traffickers exploit children in sex trafficking in logging camps. Traffickers exploit children in the production of online child sexual exploitation material. Anecdotal reports show heightened risks of sexual exploitation in commercial sex – including heightened risks of child sex trafficking.

Traffickers, including immediate family or tribe members, reportedly exploit children in sex trafficking or forced labor. Some city-dwelling families compel relatives to live with them and then exploit the relatives in domestic servitude. Some parents force children to beg or sell goods on the street, and some put their daughters into marriages or child sex trafficking to settle debts, resolve disputes between communities, or support their families. Marriages in Papua New Guinea commonly involve a “bride price” of money or chattel paid to the wife’s family by the husband’s family, which may sometimes be used as debt to compel the woman to remain in an abusive or servile marriage.

Some parents reportedly transfer their children – some as young as 12 – to other families via informal paid adoption arrangements that, absent monitoring or registration practices, increase their risk of trafficking; this is particularly prevalent among girls, whom adoptive families often seek out as potential sources of future bride-price income. Young girls sold into polygamous marriages may be forced into domestic service for their husband’s extended families or exploited in sex trafficking. Children whose homes are located far away from schools, sometimes a four- to five-hour walk, commonly sleep near the school during the week increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Children whose families are unable to pay for their educational fees to attend school are forced to work to pay off the fee.

Individuals – particularly women and girls – displaced as a result of frequent natural disasters, such as drought, flooding, and volcanic eruption alongside communal conflict, are at higher risk of trafficking due to poor or nonexistent IDP camp security and loss of livelihoods. Tribal leaders reportedly subject girls and women to labor and sex trafficking in exchange for guns, to forge political alliances and to settle disputes with one another. Adolescent boys are also involved in inter-tribal and intercommunal armed conflict possibly via forcible recruitment by local leadership; media has reported boys as young as 10 years old are involved in inter-tribal armed conflict in Enga Province. International observers report increasing intercommunal tensions resulting from displacement have led to more Papua New Guinean women and girls facing “sorcery” accusations from men in an attempt to psychologically coerce them into forced labor or sex trafficking.

In addition, the cultural tendency in the highlands to attribute untimely deaths to “sorcery,” rather than illness or other natural causes increases Papua New Guineans’ vulnerability – often women and girls, individuals living in poverty, and family members of men who die of HIV/AIDS – as traffickers threaten them with accusations of “sorcery” as a means of extorting them or coercing them into forced labor or sex trafficking. Traffickers use Papua New Guinea as a transit point to exploit foreign individuals in other countries. In prior years, the closing of traditional travel routes due to pandemic-related border control restrictions and the imposition of new and complex requirements for entry contributed to increased vulnerabilities to trafficking among foreign workers. Asylum-seekers detained in Papua New Guinea for attempting to reach Australia by boat potentially faced increased vulnerability to forced labor or sex trafficking due to displacement, economic instability, and lack of access to basic resources and community support networks.

Malaysian and China-based logging companies arrange for some foreign women to enter the country voluntarily with fraudulently issued tourist or business visas; this practice may also be present at other foreign-owned logging sites. After their arrival, many of these women – from countries including China, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand – are turned over to traffickers who transport them to logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites and exploit them in sex trafficking and domestic servitude. Sex traffickers also reportedly exploit foreign children in Papua New Guinea. Men from China and Malaysia may be forced to work in Papua New Guinea at projects run by Malaysian, Filipino, and China-based companies.

Chinese nationals employed in Papua New Guinea affiliated with the BRI are vulnerable to forced labor, particularly in construction and mining. Traffickers force Chinese national, Malaysian, Filipino, and local men to work at commercial mines and logging camps. Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese national, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and local men and boys seeking work on fishing vessels go into debt to pay recruitment fees, which vessel owners and senior crew manipulate to coerce them to continue working indefinitely through debt bondage in Papua New Guinea’s exclusive economic zone and in other maritime territories, particularly in tuna fishing. These fishermen may face little to no pay, contract switching, wage garnishing or withholding, harsh working and living conditions, restricted communication, and threats of physical violence as coercive tactics to retain their labor.

Companies reportedly compel these workers to carry out illegal logging and fishing activities, making them vulnerable to forced criminality. Police reportedly accept bribes to facilitate illegal migration or to ignore trafficking situations. Corruption among forestry officials may abet forced labor among loggers and sex trafficking in communities situated near logging sites; some of these officials reportedly accept bribes to issue logging permits in violation of environmental standards and land ownership rights, leading to displacement and concomitant loss of livelihood that make some communities more vulnerable to exploitation. In addition, logging companies bribe officials to bypass inspections and not take law enforcement action against employees accused of crimes, such as sexual abuse and exploitation, including potential trafficking crimes.

Government officials previously reported law enforcement officials had accepted bribes from incoming vessels in Papua New Guinea waters and logging companies, which greatly hindered anti-trafficking efforts in those industries. On This Page search > < PAPUA NEW GUINEA (Tier 3) PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Human Trafficking Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Papua New Guinea Reports