The government slightly increased inadequate protection efforts. CNLTP identified 11 adult female sex trafficking victims; CNLTP did not report identifying any victims in the previous reporting period. The 11 victims included eight Colombians, two Peruvians, and one Cuban. From October 2021 through December 2022, POLIFRONT reported identifying 195 potential victims – 47 adults and 148 children – and confirming 13 adult and 73 child victims, but did not disaggregate the data for the current reporting period. In the previous reporting period, BPM identified 190 child labor trafficking victims, although these may have included non-trafficking victims of child exploitation and abuse. The government did not provide information on efforts in 2022 to identify victims among children in restavek situations or care provided to such previously identified victims.
The government referred all 11 CNLTP confirmed adult victims to care; nine declined assistance and refused to participate in the prosecution of the trafficker, while the other two received short-term medical and psychological support. The law required the government to provide protection, medical, legal, and psychosocial services to victims and create a government-regulated fund to assist victims, but in the continued absence of a national budget for CNLTP for part of the reporting period, the government remained reliant on international organizations and NGOs to provide most adult care. CNLTP facilitated one victim’s travel to another country to receive longer-term care at her request and repatriated one victim at her request. While the government provided legal support to some victims, CNLTP also referred these two victims to a civil society organization for legal support services. One victim provided testimony for eventual use in the case. The government reported other adult and child victims received government and NGO services, including medical and psychosocial support, security, temporary shelter or accommodation, resettlement, family reunification, school reintegration for children under age 15, and legal support. POLIFRONT reported referring 62 victims, 27 adults and 35 children, to care between October 2021 and December 2022, but did not disaggregate the data for the current reporting period. IBESR reported referring 562 adults and 404 children, of which 201 were in situations of restavek, to care between 2021 and 2023, but did not disaggregate the data for the current reporting period. In the previous reporting period, the government reported referring all 190 victims to services, including medical, psychosocial, and legal assistance.
The anti-trafficking law stipulated money and other assets seized during trafficking investigations should fund services for trafficking victims and the CNLTP; however, there was no evidence this occurred. There was no government agency with overall responsibility for providing care for adult trafficking victims, and the lack of resources and a tracking system meant the government likely failed to identify some victims. Observers noted IBESR was the only government agency that regularly provided victim care services, though the government reported other agencies also provided victim services during the reporting period.
The government continued to use SOPs finalized in the previous reporting period, which created the first national protocol for victim identification, referral, and care. The SOPs were adequate tools and observers noted the government and civil society actively implemented them. Mechanisms existed in the SOPs to administer victim referrals equitably. Under the SOPs, POLIFRONT and civil society organizations referred adult trafficking victims to the National Office of Migration (ONM); the SOPs directed authorities to allow adult victims to decline services and not to detain victims in shelters. POLIFRONT and civil society organizations referred child trafficking victims to IBESR and HNP-BPM; HNP-BPM and an NGO reported HNP-BPM coordinated with CNLTP and IBESR to provide child victim services. IBESR funded all child trafficking victim services. Children were typically in this facility until placed with a family member, foster family, or a registered and accredited private orphanage. IBESR reported children did not live in this facility for more than 90 days. IBESR had specific protocols for assessing child victims’ needs and for mediating discussions with victims. The CNLTP indicated the police provided victims physical security and IBESR assisted with family tracing and pre-return assessments before reintegration of children with their families. IBESR also provided medical, psychosocial, and legal support services. IBESR reported their facilities had limited capacities and were overburdened. IBESR reported long term orphanages and foster care homes – typically operated by NGOs or religious communities – had highly variable conditions, and IBESR had inadequate oversight of them.
The government required all privately run orphanages to be licensed, but in practice some were not. IBESR reported insecurity limited its ability to enforce closures of orphanages and foster care homes not in compliance with the 2014 anti-trafficking law. IBESR officially registered 129 of an estimated 754 institutions – the most it had ever registered – by the end of the previous reporting period; while these registrations remained valid, the government did not report new data on registrations or closures during the current reporting period. NGOs funded the only shelter and social services organization for transgender youth, which could assist those at risk of abuse or crime among this population; it housed 10 individuals during the reporting period, the same as in the previous reporting period, including some potential trafficking victims. However, the government did not contribute to the shelter.
The government continued collaboration with an international organization receiving funding from a foreign donor, NGOs, and other civil society organizations to safely repatriate and provide support to all returned Haitian migrants. Authorities worked with other countries’ maritime and airline services to receive and screen some returned Haitians for trafficking indicators and facilitated their reintegration with family members; however, the government did not report identifying any trafficking victims among this population over this reporting period. Under a project funded by two foreign donors, an international organization also provided support at official border crossing points to Haitians – possibly including trafficking victims – expelled by the Dominican Republic; the government did not report screening everyone in this vulnerable population for trafficking indicators or identifying any trafficking victims. The government, supported by an international organization, also screened and provided services to potential trafficking victims identified during migrant interdictions at sea. The SOPs included special considerations for screening foreign potential trafficking victims, but the government did not report conducting any such screenings. An estimated 186 Cuban medical personnel were active in Haiti in January 2023, down from 700 in 2018. The government did not oversee the contractual agreements between workers and the Cuban government, screen Cuban medical workers for trafficking indicators, or provide protection services for potential victims, despite recognized trafficking risks among this population and the inclusion of medical personnel as another special screening category in the SOPs.
Authorities did not require victims to participate in the investigation or prosecution of traffickers in order to access protection services. Victims had alternatives to speaking to law enforcement; victims provided testimony to an HNP investigator and through an attorney. HNP-BPM reported previously it would take steps to avoid the re-traumatization of child trafficking victims by offering to refer them to medical and psychosocial care after interventions. HNP-BPM retained one social worker on staff, who served as an alternative to speaking to law enforcement. NGOs reported victim protections codified within the law were extensive and robust. For foreign victims, the law included provisions for voluntary repatriation, temporary residency during legal proceedings, and permanent residency if the country of origin could not ensure victims’ safety or well-being. The law also provided protections for victims from penalization for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; observers noted the government did not charge the 11 adult victims during the current reporting period with commercial sex or drug-related crimes, despite evidence of both commercial sex and drugs at the scene. However, in prior reporting periods, the government may have penalized some victims during judicial proceedings. The law allowed prosecutors to pursue cases even if victims withdrew their complaints or refused to cooperate with an investigation or prosecution. Judges could mandate compensation for related crimes under Haiti’s civil code without a separate civil process, but there were no awards for restitution or compensation during the reporting period. There were no facilities for video deposition or child-friendly facilities during legal proceedings. Experts noted the lack of government-run child shelter facilities impeded prosecution because the government’s policy of returning child victims to their families made it difficult to locate witnesses to testify against the accused.
CNLTP trained Haitian government agencies and authorities from the Dominican Republic on victim protection. Haitian authorities participated in binational protection workshops and a dialogue with Dominican colleagues. CNLTP, IBESR, and BPM trained: departmental anti-trafficking taskforces; local youth, women’s rights, and social protection civil society organizations; and local civil society organizations on victim identification and support. CNLTP provided forced labor-focused anti-trafficking training and the SOPs to Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MAST) inspectors, Haitian social security institution employees, magistrates, a Justice of the Peace, and two regional anti-trafficking taskforces.