Human Trafficking in Sri Lanka - Prosecution

Prosecution

Sri Lanka made little progress on its law enforcement efforts this reporting period. The Sri Lankan government prohibits all forms of trafficking through an April 2006 amendment to its penal code. Trafficking offenses are punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment; these penalties are commensurate with those assigned for other grave crimes. While the government took administrative action against 350 labor recruiters engaging in fraudulent recruitment practices, it did not criminally prosecute, convict, or sentence recruiters for practices that amounted to trafficking. The government initiated one investigation of a recruitment agent involved in a case where three females were to be trafficked to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants. Sri Lanka similarly failed to report any prosecutions or convictions for trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, including trafficking of children. Sri Lanka, in cooperation with the United Nations, launched an investigation into allegations of the complicity in sexual misconduct of Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti, including sexual exploitation of minors. The government investigated 47 cases of child abduction for forced labor as child soldiers, resulting in 37 being returned home. No arrests, prosecutions, or convictions were made in relation to these cases, however. There were no public officials arrested for facilitating trafficking, nor were there substantiated reports that any officials were involved in trafficking.