US hails Turkey’s progress combating trafficking

“According to the Interior Ministry, the government identified 82 trafficking victims in 2011, an increase from the 58 victims it identified in 2010,” says the report. The report also indicates that the Turkish government demonstrated proactive steps to reform its anti-trafficking prevention efforts during 2011. “Its inter-agency working group on trafficking, established in August 2011, met regularly throughout the year to identify areas of weakness,” says the report. It also adds that the Turkish government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but that it was making significant efforts to do so. “The government stepped up its identification of trafficking victims and increased funding for NGO shelters to remedy a previous funding shortfall and ensure their operation during the year. The government, however, did not secure a sustainable budget for NGOs providing critical care and assistance. It sustained efforts to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders in 2011, though courts continued to acquit a significant number of suspected trafficking offenders,” says the report.

The report also recommends that Turkey continue to develop comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation to explicitly criminalize forced labor and forced prostitution without the precondition of movement and that it should develop a mechanism to identify potential victims of labor and sex trafficking in partnership with NGOs and other stakeholders, such as labor inspectors.