R 160623Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9361

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000155 
 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP (MARK TAYLOR) 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PGOV PHUM PREF SMIG MV
SUBJECT: MALDIVES: THE NINTH ANNUAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 132759 
 
¶1. (U) Post's submission for the ninth annual Anti-Trafficking in 
Persons (TIP) Report for the Maldives follows.  Responses are keyed 
to questions in reftel.  Post point of contact is ConOff Joel T. 
Wiegert, telephone +94-11-249-8635, fax +94-11-249-8590.  One 
officer, FS-04, spent 24 hours in the preparation of this report. 
 
 
SECTION 23 - MALDIVES TIP SITUATION: 
 
¶2. (SBU) A -- Sources of information on trafficking in persons in 
the Maldives were the Maldivian Government and NGOs.  The Human 
Rights Commission (HRCM) of the Maldives (a publically funded 
agency), in conjunction with the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM), will be conducting a survey of trafficking in the 
Maldives in preparation for the upcoming 2009 annual South Asian 
Association for Regional Cooperation summit.  The aim of this survey 
is to find out the extent of the problem of the trafficking of 
migrant workers in the Maldives and then recommend changes to 
Maldivian law, as well as the SAARC convention against trafficking. 
The review panel will be composed of an HRCM Commissioner and a 
senior member of the Human Resources Ministry.  All sources were 
considered reliable. 
 
¶3. (SBU) B -- The Maldives was a destination country for a number of 
migrant workers, predominantly from Bangladesh and India, who came 
to work in the construction and tourism sectors.  It was unknown how 
many of these workers were actually trafficking victims, but of the 
80,000 expatriate workers in the Maldives, an estimated 20,000 were 
there illegally.  These illegal workers were most at risk of 
becoming trafficking victims, although some legal workers could also 
be classified as trafficking victims.  Most illegal migrant workers 
in the Maldives were in the capital, Male. 
 
¶4. (SBU) B Cont'd -- A small number of foreign women, predominantly 
from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and China, were trafficked to the 
Maldives for sexual exploitation.  They were only known to have been 
trafficked into Male.  There were two indentified cases of sexual 
exploitation in the Maldives, and although there are no precise 
figures on the total number of victims, it is believed to be small. 
 
¶5. (SBU) B Cont'd -- A small number of Maldivian girls, under the 
age of 18, were trafficked to Male from other islands in the 
Maldives to work as domestics in exchange for room and board so that 
they could receive a better education than was available on their 
home islands.  No one has ever tracked this phenomenon, so other 
than knowing that it has occurred there was no information on how 
many people were affected. 
 
¶6. (SBU) B Cont'd -- A new trend that was observed by the Department 
of Immigration and Emigration was the use of the Maldives as a 
transit country for smuggling/trafficking.  Officials in the 
Department have not sought to differentiate how many of the people 
smuggled may actually have been trafficking victims, but each week 
10-15 people (primarily from China and Iran) were intercepted at the 
country's only international airport.  Most were bound for Europe. 
 
¶7. (SBU) B Cont'd -- The Maldives was not a source country for the 
international trafficking of persons. 
 
¶8. (SBU) C --International trafficking victims were predominately 
trafficked to Male.  For male trafficking victims, they were 
trafficked into what has been described by local NGOs as "slave like 
conditions." Workers had to sleep in shifts in extremely crowded 
rooms, received little food, and were forced to work long hours. 
Employers and the employment agencies that brought them into the 
country commonly held their passports.  Frequently, these workers 
were paid significantly less salary than they were promised.  In 
addition, some workers thought they were going to the U.A.E., but 
ended up in Male. Some workers did not actually have jobs after they 
arrived in the country.  Women trafficked for sexual exploitation 
were usually held in rooms in apartment buildings or guest houses in 
equally poor conditions.  Domestic trafficking victims were kept in 
private households on Male.  No other information was available on 
their living conditions. 
 
¶9. (SBU) D -- As indicated in the preceding paragraphs, young 
Maldivian girls from the outlying islands were most at risk of being 
internal trafficking victims.  For international trafficking, it was 
predominantly men, especially from Bangladesh and India, who were at 
risk. 
 
¶10. (SBU) E -- Traffickers in the Maldives fell into at least two 
different categories depending on their victims.  For internal 
trafficking, Maldivian girls were generally sent by their parents 
from the outer islands to Male, so that they could receive a better 
education.  The traffickers in these cases were affluent families in 
Male.  The girls were identified and brought to Male based on 
personal relationships.  If the two families did not know each 
other, a third party who was known to both families would act as an 
intermediary.  There was no formal process or agents used in this. 
 
Once the girls were in Male, there was the chance that they might 
become trafficking victims.  There were allegations that some ended 
up working full time as domestics and never attended school.  There 
were allegations that girls were also sexually abused by the 
families with whom they stayed. No source had information on the 
possible number of exploited girls. Although this phenomenon was 
part of Maldivian culture, with the increase in education 
opportunities on the other islands, it has been decreasing. 
 
¶11. (SBU) E Cont'd - The second group of traffickers were employment 
agents within the Maldives.  As of 2009, all employers in the 
Maldives were required to use employment agents to bring workers to 
the Maldives.  There were about 200 registered employment agents in 
the country.  In order to operate, agents needed to be registered 
with the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports so that they 
could receive quotas and work permits to bring in workers.  However, 
labor exploitation occurred not just with employment agents, but 
with employers as well. 
 
 
SECTION 24 - SETTING THE SCENE FOR THE MALDIVES' ANTI-TIP EFFORTS: 
 
¶12. (SBU) A -- The Maldivian government does acknowledge that 
trafficking of migrant workers was a problem. 
 
¶13. (SBU) B -- The Maldivian Police Service, the Department of 
Immigration and Emigration, the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth 
and Sports, and the Prosecutor General's Office were all involved to 
varying degrees with anti-trafficking efforts.  There was no one 
agency which had the lead. 
 
¶14. (SBU) C -- The impediments to addressing the problem of 
trafficking within the Maldives were primarily the migrant workers 
themselves.  Neither legal nor illegal migrant workers came forward 
to make formal complaints to the Maldivian government.  Migrant 
workers often paid up to USD 4000 for a valid work permit to work in 
the Maldives.  Even when an exploitive situation was resolved, 
workers were often reluctant to leave the Maldives until they could 
make enough money to at least cover their expenses.  There was a 
lively market for casual day laborers, especially in the 
construction sector on Male.  If a worker could find steady 
employment this way, he could make more money than he could as a 
regular contract worker.  This was believed to be the reason so many 
migrant workers stayed illegally and did not object when the 
promised job did not materialize or the amount of money promised was 
different.  In addition, if an employer or agents in the Maldives 
held an employee's passport, the worker could obtain a new one 
through his country's high commission (both India and Bangladesh 
have diplomatic missions in Male).  Often though, this was not done 
right away.  Only when a worker decided to leave Male would he apply 
for a new passport and a ticket home.  The Maldivian government 
required that employment agents pay a bond on migrant workers equal 
to the cost of a plane ticket home.  As a result, there was money to 
send people back to their home countries.  As for other resources to 
support trafficking victims, the Maldives is a developing country 
that is lacking in resources, so having money set aside to help a 
small number of trafficking victims was not a priority. 
 
¶15. (SBU) D -- The Maldivian government did not systematically 
monitor its anti-trafficking efforts.  The Police and Department of 
Immigration and Emigration did track information on 
trafficking/smuggling, but this data was not made public. 
 
 
SECTION 25 - INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS: 
 
¶16. (SBU) A -- The Maldives did not have laws that definitively 
defined and prohibited trafficking.  However, there were three 
separate laws that covered trafficking offences.  The Constitution, 
adopted in August 2008, prohibits forced labor and slavery.  The 
Employment Act of 2008, which came into force in October 2008, 
regulates all aspects of employment and covers exploitive labor. 
The Protection of Children Act covers labor exploitation of 
children.  There were no laws that specifically outlawed sexual 
exploitation or even assault, but these crimes could be tried under 
section 173 of the Rules of Procedure adopted in February 2008. 
 
¶17. (SBU) D -- Sexual offenses were punishable by 3 to 15 years 
imprisonment. 
 
¶18. (SBU) C -- The only prescribed penalty for labor trafficking was 
a fine.  However, even this was not carried out in practice. 
Generally, if there was a violation of the Employment Act, the 
Ministry of Human Resources would blacklist the company, preventing 
it from bringing in new workers until it had rectified the 
violation.  The Labor Tribunal that the 2008 Employment Act called 
for had not yet been setup. 
 
¶19. (SBU) D -- Sexual offenses were punishable by 3 to 15 years 
imprisonment. 
 
¶20. (SBU) E - In early 2008, the Prosecutor General's Office 
prosecuted and received a conviction in one case of forced labor. 
The migrant worker was chained in a small room for days and let out 
only for work.  The convicted person was sentenced to four months 
imprisonment.  No details were available about which law the person 
was convicted under.  There was one case of possible external 
trafficking for sexual purposes, but the case was dropped due to 
lack of evidence against the trafficker. 
 
¶21. (SBU) E Cont'd -- There were no prosecutions or investigations 
against employers or labor agents for labor exploitation. 
 
¶22. (SBU) F -- Officers with the Maldivian Police and the Department 
of Immigration and Emigration had training in the recognition of 
trafficking victims.  No NGOs were known to be involved in the 
training.  There was no training, however, for investigating and 
prosecuting trafficking crimes. 
 
¶23. (SBU) G -- There were no known examples or requests for the 
Maldivian government to cooperate with other governments in the 
investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. 
 
¶24. (SBU) H -- There were no known requests for the Maldivian 
government to extradite anyone charged with trafficking. 
 
¶25. (SBU) I -- There was no known involvement of Maldivian 
government officials in or tolerance of trafficking at any level. 
 
¶26. (SBU) J -- N/A 
 
¶27. (SBU) K -- Prostitution was illegal in the Maldives, as were the 
activities of prostitutes, brothel owners/operators, clients, pimps 
and enforcers.  These laws were enforced. 
 
¶28. (SBU) L -- N/A 
 
¶29. (SBU) M -- The Maldives did not have an identified problem of 
child sex tourists coming to the Maldives nor have any Maldivians 
been implicated in engaging in child sex tourism. 
 
 
SECTION 26 - PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS: 
 
¶30. (SBU) A -- There was no special protection provided for victims 
and witnesses under Maldivian law. 
 
¶31. (SBU) B -- The Maldives did not have any victim care facilities 
specifically for trafficking victims. 
 
¶32. (SBU) C -- The Maldivian government did not provide trafficking 
victims with any special legal, medical or psychological services 
that regular Maldivians were not entitled to. 
 
¶33. (SBU) D -- The Maldivian government's policy was to get foreign 
national trafficking victims out of the Maldives as quickly as 
possible.  As a result, there were no provisions for granting 
residency status. 
 
¶34. (SBU E -- The Maldivian government did not provide shelter or 
housing benefits to victims, except on a very short-term basis. 
 
¶35. (SBU) F -- There were no institutions that provided victim 
assistance to trafficking victims in the Maldives. 
 
¶36. (SBU) G -- There were two confirmed cases of international 
sexual trafficking to Male in 2008.  Both victims were identified as 
trafficking victims by the Police.  There were no care facilities or 
other assistance programs for the victims, but the Maldivian 
government did provide a location for them to stay until their high 
commissions assisted them in returning home.  There were no cases of 
international labor trafficking or internal trafficking victims 
identified within the reporting period. 
 
¶37. (SBU) H -- Officers with the Maldivian Police and the Department 
of Immigration and Emigration had training in the proactive 
identification of trafficking victims.  Whether or not this could be 
considered a formal system was not clear. 
 
¶38. (SBU) I -- The rights of trafficking victims, both sexual and 
labor, were respected.  There were no known instances in which 
trafficking victims were fined or prosecuted.  Instead, they were 
sent out of the country as soon as possible. 
 
¶39. (SBU) J -- The Maldivian government neither encouraged nor 
discouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution 
of labor trafficking.  There were two confirmed cases of sexual 
exploitation in 2008.  After it was confirmed by the Police that 
they were not in fact prostitutes, they were both assisted in 
leaving the country by their high commissions.  The Maldivian 
Government's policy was to get victims out of the country as quickly 
as possible.  However, this did have the result that the victims 
were not available to testify in any prosecutions.  In both of these 
cases, the traffickers were also foreign nationals and they were 
deported soon after it was determined that a crime had been 
committed.  The government said that deportation was preferable to 
imprisonment because of the high cost of incarceration, 
approximately $100 per day per prisoner. 
 
¶40. (SBU) K -- Officials in the Police and the Department of 
Immigration and Emigration had received training in the 
identification of trafficking victims; however, none were trained on 
the provision of assistance.  Because there were no instances of 
Maldivians being trafficked abroad, there was no special training on 
protection and assistance to Maldivian embassies and consulates. 
 
¶41. (SBU) L -- The Maldivian government did not have a policy to 
provide assistance to Maldivian trafficking victims; however, there 
were also no instances of Maldivians being repatriated as victims of 
trafficking. 
 
¶42. (SBU) M -- There were no international organizations or NGOs 
that worked with trafficking victims in the Maldives. 
 
 
SECTION 27 - PREVENTION: 
 
¶43. (SBU) A -- The Maldivian government conducted one 
anti-trafficking information campaign in January 2008.  The aim of 
the campaign was to educate the public on the content of the 2008 
Employment Law. 
 
¶44. (SBU) B -- The Department of Immigration and Emigration did 
monitor immigration and emigration patterns for evidence of 
trafficking.  Each week it intercepted approximately 10-15 
smuggling/trafficking attempts at its one international airport. 
When identified, the person being smuggled/trafficked was returned 
to his point of origin. 
 
¶45. (SBU) C -- There was no formal mechanism for coordination and/or 
communication between Maldivian government agencies on 
trafficking-related matters.  However, the Ministry of Human 
Resources, Youth and Sports, which issues work permits for migrant 
workers, and the Department of Immigration and Emigration, which 
overseas visas and border control, were in frequent contact 
regarding migrant workers.  Other government personnel in different 
agencies also talked with one another, but this was based more on 
personal relationships rather than any formal mechanism. 
 
¶46. (SBU) D -- The Maldivian government did not have a national plan 
to address trafficking in persons. 
 
¶47. (SBU) E -- The Maldivian government did not report any efforts 
to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts during the reporting 
period.  However, the demand for commercial sex did not appear to be 
significant in the Maldives. 
 
¶48. (SBU) F -- The Maldivian government did not take any steps to 
reduce participation of its nationals in international child sex 
tourism; however, there was no known involvement by Maldivians in 
international child sex tourism. 
 
¶49. (SBU) G -- N/A