ZAMBIA: Tier 2
The Government of Zambia 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 Zambia was upgraded to Tier 2. The government demonstrated increasing efforts by initiating more prosecutions and securing more convictions than in the previous year. The government integrated modules on human trafficking into the training curricula for law enforcement and immigration officials and trained such officials. The government identified more victims and referred all identified victims to protective services; it refurbished a shelter for women and girls and increased its anti-trafficking budget for the second consecutive year. The government revived the national secretariat as well as its inter-ministerial committee, which met on December 1, 2017, and cooperated with neighboring governments to share expertise as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional cooperation initiative. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Officials continued to conflate cases of migrant smuggling and trafficking, particularly with an influx of refugees fleeing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and did not adequately screen potential Zambian victims of forced labor who returned from Namibia. The government reviewed and updated the 2012-2015 national action plan to combat trafficking, but it remained pending at the close of the reporting period.