MARSHALL ISLANDS: Tier 2 Watch List
The Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. These efforts included funding an international organization to provide some anti-trafficking training to officials and an NGO to provide free legal advice and support to victims. However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period. In June 2018, local media alerted police to a brothel with potential child sex trafficking victims and alleged complicity of high-ranking government officials in the brothel’s operation. The police reportedly took no action until after the local newspaper published the story; the police investigation remained ongoing at the end of the reporting period—nine months later. The government did not report efforts to identify these girls as trafficking victims or any other trafficking victims and did not report providing assistance to any potential or confirmed victims during the reporting period. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions or convictions of government officials complicit in trafficking and it had not prosecuted or convicted any traffickers since 2011. Therefore the RMI was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List.