A US State Department report into the trafficking of persons has found that Malta does not “fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” but is making “significant efforts” to do so.
“The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity.
“However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas," the report for 2020 says in a repetition of remarks made in previous years.
The government identified the fewest victims since 2016 and continued to lack coordination among ministries, it adds.
It did not effectively enforce labour recruitment regulations or monitor massage parlours where there was a higher incidence of trafficking indicators.
The government also continued to delay the resolution of a 2004 case of a former police officer allegedly complicit in trafficking and did not report any new investigations of other officials or additional efforts to prevent complicity.
The report notes that the Malta police launched 16 human trafficking probes in 2020, the highest number in years. Eight involved sex trafficking and another eight labour trafficking.
The figure is significantly higher than in recent years: in 2019, five investigations were carried out, down from 10 in 2018.
According to the US report, the Maltese government reported initiating new prosecutions of two suspected sex traffickers last year, compared with none in 2019 and 10 in 2018.
Prosecutions of 16 suspects from previous years, most of whom were released on bail, remained ongoing.
On convictions, the US department found there were three traffickers convicted for sex trafficking in 2020, the same as in 2019.
Of the convicted traffickers, two were female Chinese nationals, sentenced to five and seven years imprisonment, respectively, and one was a Maltese male sentenced to seven years in jail.
The courts also re-sentenced two traffickers from an overturned court decision dating back to 2019 and, though the original conviction was upheld, the jail sentences were lowered from 12 to nine years.
While the number of investigations was highest in 2020, the police and social workers identified the lowest number of trafficking victims.
Fewer victims identified
The report found just six victims were identified last year, compared to 11 in 2019, 24 in 2018, 30 in 2017 and 35 in 2016.
According to the report, while the government’s identification of victims steadily decreased over several years, NGOs noted that pandemic-related restrictions in 2020 may have made it more difficult for trafficking victims to become known.
Of those identified, five were victims of labour trafficking, including two of domestic servitude and three Maltese child victims of forced criminality, and one was a combination of both sex and labour trafficking.
Government reported initiating new prosecutions of two suspected sex traffickers
The foreign trafficking victims were all from the Philippines, and all six victims were female.
While acknowledging the Maltese government had “demonstrated overall increasing efforts” in 2020, when compared to the previous year, the US report also highlighted that “perennial issues with rule of law, corruption, slow court proceedings and an understaffed police force continued to hamper prosecutions and convictions”.
The US report also noted the government does not “fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” but is making “significant efforts” to do so.
Action required
The State Department listed a series of actions it said the Malta government needs to prioritise.
These include:
• Increasing efforts to vigorously and expeditiously investigate and prosecute trafficking offences;
•Increasing efforts to convict traffickers, including complicit officials, and sentence convicted traffickers to significant prison terms;
• Ensuring relevant staff and officials proactively identify trafficking victims, including Maltese nationals, among vulnerable populations, particularly children, migrant workers and individuals in commercial sex;
• Improving effective leadership and prioritisation of human trafficking, as well as streamline anti-trafficking coordination and communication efforts among ministries;
• Increasing migrant worker protections by implementing strong regulations and oversight of recruitment companies that are consistently enforced, including prosecuting for fraudulent labour recruitment;
• Implementing licence controls for massage parlours, including oversight and screening for trafficking victims;
• Increasing collaboration between the police and other stakeholders during investigations to shorten the duration of investigations and prosecutions and enhance the likelihood of successful convictions;
• Institutionalising victim-centred and trauma-informed anti-trafficking training for frontline officials, police officers, prosecutors, and judges; and
• Adopting a national victim identification mechanism available to all entities involved in victim identification.