The government minimally increased efforts to prevent trafficking. The government allocated more funding for ATS, the working-level national anti-trafficking coordinating body, from 100.5 million TZS ($43,430) in 2019 to 120.3 million TZS ($51,990) in 2020. Observers reported the increased funding was beneficial, but insufficient for ATS to undertake all of its anti-trafficking activities. ATC, the government entity responsible for the oversight and direction of ATS, had a mandate to meet quarterly but only met once during the reporting period due to insufficient funds. The government did not report continuing to implement efforts, begun in the previous reporting period, to restructure ATS and ATC and to expand the anti-trafficking roles of other government agencies to more effectively combat trafficking. In 2020, the Department of Social Welfare created a new position to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts among social welfare officers. In collaboration with the Government of Japan and an international organization, the government dedicated resources to immigration commissioners to monitor known traffickers, including labor traffickers in the fishing industry. Additionally, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and the Office of the Prime Minister allocated 2.1 billion TZS ($907,520) to counter illegal fishing and drug and human trafficking in the Indian Ocean and the country’s lakes. The Department of Social Welfare, ATS, the Mwanza Police Gender Desk, and NGOs developed and mobilized a task force in Mwanza to identify child trafficking victims among street children. Local governments in Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Tabora, and Zanzibar formed task forces to increase local information-sharing on trafficking cases.
The government implemented some aspects of its 2018-2021 national action plan. The government collaborated with international organizations, NGOs, and civil society to draft a new national action plan; however, it remained pending at the end of the reporting period. The government collaborated with an international organization to organize three high-profile awareness raising events on human trafficking in Dodoma and Zanzibar. Activities included media campaigns on radio and television, a national dialogue on human trafficking, and high-level meetings with relevant stakeholders to discuss collaboration to combat human trafficking. ATS continued to partner with NGOs to facilitate and provide in-kind support for trainings for 400 teachers, community development officers, police officers, social welfare officers, immigration officers, religious leaders, and representatives from local government on trafficking trends in the region and victim identification in refugee camps. The Department of Social Welfare collaborated with the Ministry of Education to include human trafficking awareness modules in school clubs nationwide. The government continued to fund and publicize a national hotline operated by a local NGO to report child abuse, including child trafficking. In 2020, the government expanded the hotline to receive calls on sexual exploitation and accommodated both Kiswahili and English. The hotline identified 35 victims of human trafficking and 49 child forced labor cases.
Government agencies in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar performed periodic inspections of large employers in an effort to detect cases of forced labor, but they did not report identifying any such cases during the reporting period. During the reporting period, the government did not report pursuing any investigations or prosecutions for fraudulent labor recruitment. To reduce the vulnerability of street children to traffickers, the government set aside 2 million TZS ($864) to facilitate the identification of potential child victims and their referral to assistance. In 2020, the government identified, referred to assistance, and reintegrated 67 children with their families; however, the government did not report the number of children that were identified as child trafficking victims.
The government did not report efforts to implement migrant worker protections, such as additional bilateral labor agreements with destination countries, a comprehensive labor migration law, pre-departure and vocational skills training, and funding for labor attachés at diplomatic missions abroad. The government reportedly had a bilateral labor agreement with Qatar but did not report implementing the agreement or signing any new agreements with other destination countries. The government continued to require Tanzanians to have valid passports and labor contracts with salary, leave, and health care provisions to obtain the necessary training certificate, a letter of permission, and an exit permit to migrate for work. The government continued to suspend the issuance of travel documents to departing Tanzanian migrant workers who could not provide a relevant training certificate for the overseas job; this step may have increased their vulnerability to trafficking when some subsequently chose to migrate through unregulated ways. The Companies Act of 2002 required recruitment agencies to be registered and licensed, and the government required recruitment agencies to provide migrant workers with training on worker rights and destination countries’ laws prior to departure. Tanzanian embassies abroad continued to require employers to submit security deposits to the embassy to ensure that the employer would present the migrant worker upon arrival, so the embassy could verify that the worker arrived and possessed the proper documentation, including contract and passport. However, the government continued to report that in practice, recruitment agencies were not providing pre-departure training to migrant workers and an NGO previously argued the deposit amount was too small and an insufficient incentive for employers to present migrant workers upon arrival to the Tanzanian embassy. Observers continued to report ongoing challenges faced by migrant workers, including that Tanzanian contracts were often different from the destination country contract and usually not enforceable, sometimes migrant workers paid recruitment fees, there was no “blacklist” available for migrant workers to avoid previously abusive employers, and recruitment agencies operating in Tanzania would sometimes use “sub-agents,” thereby skirting the registration requirements. The government continued to lack a complaint mechanism for returning migrant workers. While the government continued to provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel, it did not always train the staff at foreign embassies to identify and assist trafficking victims. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.