are often at variance with what the victims are told.
It is a report published by the US Department of State last month, where it places Tanzania in the second tier, implying middle ranking countries in observance of human rights or international law in relation to traffic in persons. It is a good score.
The report says that “the Government of Tanzania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Tanzania was upgraded to Tier 2. The government demonstrated increasing efforts by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting more traffickers than in the previous reporting period.
“The government sentenced several convicted traffickers to significant time in prison; however, many traffickers continued to receive sentences including only fines. The government conducted an anti-trafficking awareness raising campaign for school students. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas.
The implementing regulations for the protection provisions of the 2008 anti-trafficking law were not widely applied and protection services for trafficking victims remained limited. The government did not report identifying any victims or fund any services for victims, but did provide in-kind assistance. The government did not allocate sufficient funding for nationwide public awareness campaigns and did not fund the victims’ assistance fund.” These are areas that can be improved upon but relate to general drawbacks of the Budget.
In its recommendations for the government or for the country the report urges that it fully implement the protection provisions of the anti-trafficking act, as outlined in the implementing regulations and the updated national action plan, including by allocating resources to the victim assistance fund. It also urges increased funding and training to law enforcement authorities for proactive victim identification and the implementation of standardized policies and procedures related to victim identification and referral to protective services. There are also other measures.
One of them is to amend the anti-trafficking act to remove the provision of fines as an alternative to incarceration, enforce the 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act by investigating and prosecuting trafficking offenses. It urged focus on convicting trafficking offenders and imposing adequate penalties, “continue to train judges and prosecutors to identify trafficking crimes and delineate differences between trafficking and smuggling,” it appealed. All this can also be mainstreamed within the law reform process, or incorporated as part of miscellaneous amendment acts.
It is also possible to increase budget allocation for anti-trafficking activities including the relevant anti-trafficking agency or its secretariat to implement the national action plan to combat trafficking, as the US report intones. It also urges the government to develop and use a trafficking-specific law enforcement and victim protection database at the national level that differentiates between forced labor and sex trafficking. It is a technical innovation of disaggregation of data at the level of the Criminal Investigations Department and the Judiciary as well.
When it comes to prosecution, the report says that the government increased its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, noting that the 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act prohibits all forms of trafficking and prescribes punishments of one to 10 years imprisonment or a fine between one and 150 million Tanzanian shillings or both.
The anti-trafficking secretariat has since accepted that the fine provision be removed, and it is thus a matter of time before the relevant changes are made.
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