2022 Trafficking in Persons Report: Seychelles

• Using the newly established victim identification and referral procedure, systematically and proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including individuals involved in commercial sex, migrant workers in the international trade zone, and Cuban medical professionals, and referring all trafficking victims to appropriate services.
• Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and sentence convicted traffickers, including complicit officials, to penalties prescribed under the 2014 anti-trafficking law.
• Allocate adequate funding and resources for victim services, including to the Trafficking in Persons Fund and the newly established trafficking shelter.
• Train labor inspectors to identify potential forced labor victims during routine inspections, including in the international trade zone and migrant workers’ work sites, and to report potential trafficking crimes to appropriate officials.
• Finalize, adopt, and implement a national action plan to drive national efforts to combat all forms of trafficking.
• Remove the required fee for migrant workers to file a complaint with the Labor Tribunal.
• Adopt a law prohibiting the retention of passports by employers of migrant workers.
• Conduct anti-trafficking awareness campaigns to increase the understanding of the crime among the local population and the large number of foreign tourists and migrant workers entering the country.

The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2014 criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. The law prescribed penalties of up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine up to 500,000 Seychelles rupee (SR) ($37,510) for offenses involving adult victims, and a maximum of 25 years’ imprisonment and a fine up to 800,000 SR ($60,020) for those involving child victims; these penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape. Although the anti-trafficking law criminalized child sex trafficking, unclear and conflicting statutes in the penal code did not clearly define the ages of consent, causing confusion between the traditionally understood age of consent (15 years of age) and the legal age of majority (18 years of age). In 2017, the government, in collaboration with an international organization, began development of implementing regulations for the 2014 anti-trafficking law to address protective measures for trafficking victims; however, the government did not finalize these regulations for the fourth consecutive year. In 2020, the Child Law Reform Committee drafted new legislation that reportedly expands protections for child sex trafficking victims and increases law enforcement’s obligation to investigate and prosecute cases of child sex crimes, including trafficking; however, the new legislation was not presented to the National Assembly for the second consecutive reporting period.

The government investigated 24 potential trafficking cases—three for sex trafficking, 11 for forced labor, and 10 involving unspecified exploitation—in 2021, compared with three investigations in the previous reporting period. The government did not initiate any prosecutions, compared with 12 prosecutions in 2020 and none in 2019, and reported 18 prosecutions remained ongoing from previous reporting periods. The government convicted two traffickers, which was the same number of convictions as the previous reporting period. Courts sentenced a Seychellois national to 14 years’ imprisonment for sex trafficking under the 2014 anti-trafficking law. Courts also sentenced a Seychellois national to three years’ imprisonment and a fine for labor trafficking involving three Bangladeshi migrant workers; courts also ordered the trafficker to pay each victim 10,000 SR ($750). In response to the pandemic, police officers, including those mandated to investigate trafficking crimes, were diverted from enforcement duties and assigned to oversee pandemic-related guidelines and procedures, such as mask- wearing, curfews, social distancing, and mandatory quarantines, for a portion of the reporting period. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. For the first time in three years, the government, in partnership with international organizations, trained officials on anti-trafficking enforcement, policies, and laws. Despite training efforts, the government did not institutionalize anti- trafficking training, and some police, immigration officers, prosecutors, and judges continued to lack a clear understanding of trafficking, which hampered law enforcement and victim identification efforts. The government reported cooperating with foreign governments on trafficking investigations.

The government increased victim protection efforts. The government reported identifying four trafficking victims, compared with 14 victims identified in 2020 and none in 2019. Of the four victims identified, two were Seychellois girls exploited in sex trafficking and two were adult males, one exploited in forced labor and one Seychellois male whose exploitation was unknown. The government, in partnership with an international organization, developed a new victim identification and referral procedure to replace standard operating procedures established in 2015. In late 2021, the anti-trafficking secretariat disseminated the new procedure to police, social welfare officers, immigration officials, and civil society and trained stakeholders on its use; however, implementation of the new procedure remained inconsistent, and some stakeholders continued to use ad hoc procedures independent from the national SOPs. The government did not proactively screen vulnerable populations, such as migrant workers or individuals in commercial sex, for trafficking indicators and generally relied on victims to self-report. NCCTIP reported spending 148,281 SR ($11,120) for victim care in 2021, a decrease compared with 498,480 SR ($37,400) in 2020. The government reported providing various services, including medical care, shelter, and repatriation for foreign victims, to all four victims identified during the reporting period, and to some victims identified in previous years. The government, in partnership with a religious organization, established the country’s first trafficking-specific shelter in late 2021. Although the shelter had not begun accepting survivors at the end of the reporting period, the government worked with the religious organization to renovate the space to accommodate 15 individuals. As in prior years, the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs provided foreign victims who were waiting to give testimony in court with accommodation in private guesthouses, homeless shelters, or a facility previously used to hold suspected criminals, where they had freedom of movement.

The 2014 anti-trafficking law allowed the government to place witnesses under protection and, if the court found it necessary, to hold trafficking trials in private to protect witness confidentiality and privacy; the law also ensured witnesses could testify through closed circuit television and that courtroom accommodations could be made for the psychological comfort of the witness. The 2014 anti-trafficking law also allowed for limited legal alternatives to victim removal to countries in which they would face hardship; the law permitted the Minister of Home Affairs to decide whether to allow a foreign victim to stay in the country for 30 days, issue a permit allowing the victim to stay in the country for a set period until the completion of legal proceedings, or deport the victim. The government provided 11 victims of forced labor with new work permits, allowing them to begin working with a new employer, compared with five in the previous reporting period. The anti-trafficking law allowed the government to provide restitution to victims from the fine imposed on the accused or from the Trafficking in Persons Fund; however, the government has never allotted resources to the Trafficking in Persons Fund or provided restitution to any victims. The law protected trafficking victims from detention or prosecution for unauthorized entry into Seychelles, but it did not protect victims from prosecution for other unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit. Due to limited implementation of the government’s new formal identification procedures, authorities likely arrested or deported some unidentified trafficking victims for prostitution or immigration violations.

The government slightly increased efforts to prevent trafficking. NCCTIP met regularly to direct anti-trafficking efforts across government agencies and drive national policy. During the reporting period, the government hired two personnel to establish an anti-trafficking secretariat, as required under section IV of the 2014 anti-trafficking act, to support NCCTIP; observers reported the establishment of the secretariat enhanced inter-ministerial coordination of anti-trafficking efforts. The government allocated 148,281 SR ($11,120) for committee operations and programming, such as victim assistance and prevention efforts, compared with 1.18 million SR ($88,620) in the previous reporting period. The government remained without a national action plan (NAP); however, NCCTIP, in partnership with an international organization, drafted an updated 2022-2025 NAP, which was awaiting final approval by the Cabinet of Ministers at the end of the reporting period. The government held awareness campaigns targeting frontline officials, journalists, and populations vulnerable to trafficking, including migrant workers and individuals from low-income communities. The anti- trafficking secretariat began operating the country’s first trafficking- specific hotline. The secretariat reported the hotline was available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide referrals for services, and at least one case reported to the hotline resulted in an investigation. The Ministry of Employment (MOE) maintained a hotline to address concerns about forced labor; the government did not report identifying any trafficking victims via the employment hotline.

Trafficking vulnerabilities in labor recruitment and monitoring persisted throughout the country. The MOE and the inter-ministerial Special Task Force, which had a mandate to address the living and working conditions of migrant workers, regularly inspected work sites for indications of trafficking; however, the government did not report identifying any forced labor victims or referring any potential trafficking crimes to law enforcement as a result of the inspections, likely due to lack of training on trafficking indicators. The MOE continued to lack jurisdiction in the Seychelles International Trade Zone (SITZ), where migrant workers were especially vulnerable to forced labor, as it was considered ex- territorial and managed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA); this limited its ability to screen migrant workers for trafficking. The government did not report conducting inspections in the SITZ during the reporting period, despite the FSA no longer requiring special permission to visit businesses in the SITZ. The MOE reported delaying or canceling some planned inspections due to pandemic-related movement restrictions during the reporting period. In accordance with the Employment Act, the MOE reviewed all contracts for migrant workers to ensure compliance with its provisions, including acceptable accommodations; however, the government did not have effective policies or laws regulating or providing oversight for labor recruiters. Seizure and retention of passports by employers remained legal under Seychellois law, unless proven it was specifically for the purpose of further trafficking a person; however, in 2019, the government drafted an amendment to the immigration bill that reportedly prohibits passport retention of foreign workers. The government did not report sending the bill to parliament for the third consecutive reporting period. The government continued to utilize the labor tribunal for labor-related complaints and continued to require a fee for migrant workers to file a complaint. In 2021, the government amended the immigration act to reportedly require the provision of work permit cards for all citizens and foreign workers that includes anti-trafficking information and contact information for assistance; however, the government did not report providing updated work permit cards during the reporting period. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel or make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Seychelles. Traffickers exploit Seychellois girls and boys in child sex trafficking, particularly on the main island of Mahé; in some cases, peers and family members exploit children in bars, guest houses, hotels, brothels, private homes, and on the street. Traffickers also exploit Seychellois addicted to substances or from low-income households in sex trafficking. Traffickers exploit Malagasy women who transit Seychelles in forced labor, primarily in domestic servitude, and sex trafficking in the Middle East. Nearly 17,000 migrant workers—including individuals from Bangladesh, India, China, Kenya, Madagascar, and other countries in South Asia—make up approximately 20 percent of the working population in Seychelles and are primarily employed in fishing, farming, and construction; credible reports indicate traffickers subject migrant workers to forced labor in these sectors. Labor recruitment agents based in Seychelles exploit migrant workers in labor trafficking, often with the assistance of a local Seychellois accomplice. Migrant workers often sign their employment contracts upon arrival in the Seychelles and frequently cannot read the language, which traffickers exploit in fraudulent recruitment tactics. There were reports of employers routinely retaining migrant workers’ passports to prevent them from changing jobs prior to the expiration of their two-year contracts, increasing their vulnerability to forced labor. Observers report some employers in the SITZ may not allow migrant workers to leave their residential premise outside of working hours, creating further vulnerabilities to trafficking. Traffickers exploit migrant workers aboard foreign-flagged fishing vessels in Seychelles’ territorial waters and ports using abuses indicative of forced labor, including nonpayment of wages and physical abuse. Cuban medical professionals working in Seychelles may have been forced to work by the Cuban government.