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July 12, 2021

NEO SENOKO

6 min read

US warns Lesotho on human trafficking

US warns Lesotho on human trafficking

The US ambassador to Lesotho, Rebecca Gonzales

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DESPITE upgrading from a lower level, Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watchlist in this year’s edition of Trafficking in Person report, Lesotho will have to step up its efforts over the next year in order to remain eligible for further United States of America’s development assistance.

Particularly, the country should focus on investigations into credible allegations of official complicity in human smuggling and human trafficking.  

This was said by the US ambassador to Lesotho, Rebecca Gonzales in a statement marking the 245th Independence Day of the United States of America recently.

Failure to achieve these targets may result in the country, among others, losing out on further US development assistance such as the country’s second Millennium Challenge Corporation compact which is necessary to increase economic growth, reduce poverty and create sustainable opportunities for Basotho.  

This, Ms Gonzales said is critically important not only for the US-Lesotho relationship, but for Lesotho’s own credibility and standing in the world.

An upgrade from Tier 3 according to the report means that the government of Lesotho does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.

 “As your long standing and most resolute partner, one of the United States government’s most important goals is to see the government of Lesotho take sustained action to enforce legislation and implement new initiatives that address the issues of human trafficking in the country. Again, I congratulate you as your upgrade from Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watchlist in this year’s Trafficking in Person report indicates a positive development.

“The Tier 2 Watchlist upgraded ranking indicates that the US Department of State recognises that Lesotho is working to comply with the minimum standards to combat human trafficking more fully. We know there is more work to be done, but we are encouraged by the progress we have seen. I will continue to strongly urge the government to ensure the country’s anti-trafficking laws are faithfully executed. Lesotho’s future is at stake. Justice must be served because no one is above the law,” she said.

The report detailed that the government made key achievements during the reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity and therefore, the country was upgraded to Tier 2 Watchlist.

These achievements included convicting the first trafficker in four years and sentencing him to jail, enacting a new anti-trafficking law that closed key legislative gaps as well as including criminalising all forms of sex trafficking and prescribing penalties commensurate with the penalties for other serious crimes.

The achievements further, according to the report, included commencing criminal investigations into several government officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking offenses as well as devoting, for the first time, modest funding for victim protection and passing a 2021-2026 anti-trafficking national action plan.

Despite these achievements, however, the government did not meet several key minimum standards.

In one case, a senior Ministry of Home Affairs official, responsible for the anti-trafficking portfolio, allegedly assisted third-country nationals from South Asia with illegal entry into South Africa via Lesotho by removing all records of their entry into Lesotho. This allowed the travelers to circumvent South African entrance requirements.

The government investigated the case as a trafficking offence but was unable to establish elements of human trafficking that would allow for prosecution for human trafficking.

Police placed the official on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The government, the report states did not make efforts to address other repeated allegations of complicity. Furthermore, the government was aware of alleged trafficking of Basotho women to South Africa for commercial sex purposes.

For the third consecutive year, the government’s efforts to form a liaison relationship with South Africa officials to investigate these allegations and to target those allegedly involved in these schemes did not yield tangible results.

Law enforcement efforts remained insufficient compared to the problem, in part due to the lack of training and experience necessary to conduct complex multi-jurisdictional investigations. The government did not investigate several credible allegations of trafficking of its citizens in South Africa, nor did it investigate credible allegations of abuse of trafficking victims by South African and Lesotho police officers.

“Victim identification efforts were weak and the government continued to rely on one NGO to provide all victim shelter and care with nascent government funding. For the fifth consecutive year, the government did not finalise standard operating procedures on victim identification or the national referral mechanism.

“And, for the 10th consecutive year, the government did not allocate funding for the Victims of Trafficking Trust Fund. Law enforcement and front line responders continued to lack regular anti-trafficking training, which at times resulted in law enforcement re-traumatising potential victims,” the report revealed.

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The government initiated four trafficking investigations, continued from previous reporting periods, prosecuted four cases, and convicted one trafficker, an increase from zero new investigations, prosecutions or convictions in the previous reporting period.

Two of the new investigations involved Basotho girls allegedly exploited in trafficking in South Africa. In the first case, the victim’s uncle allegedly abducted here and transported her to South Africa for sex trafficking.

In the second case, an alleged trafficker recruited a girl for domestic work in South Africa, smuggled her across the border, and withheld her wages, purportedly to repay travel expenses.

Of the four prosecutions, all of which came from investigations initiated in previous reporting periods, one case involved adult forced labour and three involved adult sex trafficking.

The forced labour prosecution led to the conviction of the perpetrator who was slapped with a 20-year jail term. The sex trafficking prosecutions remained ongoing at the close of the reporting period.  

The report has therefore recommended that the country increase efforts to investigate, prosecute and convict traffickers through independent and fair trials, including officials complicit in trafficking crimes.

The country should further adequately fund the police trafficking and smuggling unit and establish a focal point in all 10 districts of the country to ensure effective responsiveness to all potential trafficking cases.

Lesotho should also increase oversight of labour recruitment agencies licensed in the country to mitigate fraudulent recruitment for mining work in South Africa as well as allocate funds for the Victims of Trafficking Trust Fund and implement procedures for administering the funds.

Among other things, the country has been urged to finalise and implement guidelines for proactive victim identification and standard operating procedures for referring identified victims to care, in line with the anti-trafficking act regulations.

Specific training should be provided to police investigators, prosecutors, judges and social service personnel and also fix jurisdictional issues that prevent Magistrate’s Courts from issuing the maximum penalty for trafficking crimes.

Although serious allegations of official complicity in trafficking remained unaddressed, the country laws criminalised sex and labour trafficking. 

The 2011 Anti-Trafficking in Person Act criminalised all forms of labour trafficking and some form of sex trafficking, but until 2021 remained inconsistent with international law.

The Act required a demonstration of force, fraud, or coercion to constitute a child sex trafficking offence, and therefore the report revealed, did not criminalie all forms of child sex trafficking. The Anti-Trafficking Act prescribed penalties of up to 25 years’ imprisonment or a fine of M1 million ($68,150) for the trafficking of adults and up to a life imprisonment or a fine of M2 million ($136, 300) for the trafficking of children.

The penalties were sufficiently stringent, but, with respect to sex trafficking, by allowing for a fine in lieu of imprisonment, the penalties in the Act were not commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes such as rape.

 However, in January 2021, the government enacted the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Amendment Act of 2021, which amended the definition of trafficking to criminalise all forms of sex trafficking and removed the option of a fine in lieu of imprisonment for trafficking offences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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