The government made limited efforts to protect trafficking victims. The government identified 34 trafficking victims—including Indian and Kenyan forced labor victims—a decrease from 65 victims identified in the previous reporting period. Among the victims identified, at least fifteen were subjected to forced labor, five to sex trafficking, and two to both domestic servitude and sex trafficking; the type of exploitation of the other victims was not reported. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs operated a temporary shelter for victims of gender-based violence that trafficking victims could access. The government referred an unknown number of trafficking victims to this shelter during the reporting period, and it was unclear how much government support the shelter received. The government reported referring all identified trafficking victims to NGOs for care, and government social workers and prosecutors provided psycho-social services and legal representation to victims residing in NGO-run shelters. The government allocated approximately 119 million leones ($15,970) to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs to support an NGO shelter that cared for trafficking victims; however, it did not actually disburse the funding during the reporting period and did not provide any other financial support to NGOs that rendered all victim shelter and nearly all victim care. NGOs reported identifying and providing services to an additional 11 victims. One NGO operated a shelter specifically for trafficking victims and offered medical, psycho-social, legal, and reintegration support. The center cared for both foreign and domestic victims; however, the victims were not permitted to leave the shelter unchaperoned. Two additional NGOs operated shelters that cared for vulnerable children, including trafficking victims. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs and an NGO trained 42 social workers on identifying and assisting trafficking victims. The government had a national mechanism to refer trafficking victims to services, but a lack of training on the mechanism caused delays; in some cases, victims slept at police stations because authorities had not referred them for care. In October 2015, the government requested the government of Lebanon repatriate two Sierra Leonean female domestic workers it believed had been subjected to trafficking in Lebanon; however, the women remained in Lebanon at the end of the reporting period. During the reporting period, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation disbursed approximately 149 million leones ($20,000) to support Sierra Leonean trafficking victims identified abroad. The Sierra Leonean embassy in Kuwait provided food, shelter, and trauma counseling and subsequently repatriated 20 female labor trafficking victims. The embassy in Guinea provided food, shelter, and repatriation for five Sierra Leonean child trafficking victims. This is compared with repatriating 49 victims the previous reporting period. The government did not report whether it systematically encouraged victims to participate in investigations and prosecutions of their traffickers. The anti-trafficking law does not provide for restitution, and while victims could file civil suits against their traffickers, none did so during the reporting period. The law provides alternatives to removal to countries in which victims would face retribution or hardship, including temporary residency. There were no reports the government detained, fined, or jailed victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to trafficking, but inadequate screening for trafficking indicators may have resulted in some victims remaining unidentified in the system.