• Using the SOPs and NRM, systematically screen for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including Cuban regime-affiliated workers, and refer all identified trafficking victims to appropriate protection services.
• Increase efforts to vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Institutionalize annual anti-trafficking training for all front-line officials, including police, immigration officers, labor inspectors, social workers, and prosecutors.
• Increase the availability of protection services – including short-term shelter, long-term housing, counseling, and medical care – for all trafficking victims, including by partnering with civil society service providers.
• Implement and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies and hold fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable.
• Bolster anti-trafficking law enforcement cooperation with other governments in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes.

The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Act, as amended, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and defined trafficking broadly to include all child labor. The law prescribed penalties of between 15 and 30 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 pula ($36,000); if the convicted trafficker is unable to pay the fine, the law prescribed an additional penalty of between three and five years’ imprisonment. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for other grave crimes, such as rape. The government implemented the 2014 Anti-Trafficking Act regulations for judges’ and prosecutors’ use.

The government investigated five trafficking cases (three for labor trafficking and two for unspecified forms of trafficking) and continued four investigations from the previous reported period, compared with initiating five investigations in the previous reporting period. The government initiated prosecutions of two suspects, compared with one prosecution initiated in the previous reporting period. The government reported eight prosecutions initiated in previous reporting periods remained ongoing. The government did not convict any traffickers for the third consecutive year. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes.

The Botswana Police Service (BPS) and Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) designated specific officers who investigate and prosecute trafficking cases. In collaboration with international organizations, the government provided anti-trafficking training for police, immigration officers, security officers, prosecutors, social protection officers, transport inspectors, and labor inspectors. The government included anti-trafficking training in new prosecutors’ curriculum. Observers reported years-long delays in prosecuting trafficking cases. Officials reported cooperating with the governments of Namibia and Zimbabwe on human trafficking investigations and prosecutions. Officials reported some South African officials’ corruption and limited capacity hindered cross-border trafficking investigations.

The government slightly increased victim protection efforts.

The government identified three trafficking victims, the same as in the previous reporting period. Of the three victims identified, traffickers exploited one victim in labor trafficking and two victims in sex trafficking. The government adopted comprehensive new SOPs for victim identification and an NRM to refer victims to care. The government trained officials on implementation of the SOPs and NRM and screened vulnerable persons for trafficking indicators.

The government reported referring two victims to NGO-run shelters, compared with three identified and nine potential victims referred to care in the previous reporting period. The government provided shelter, basic needs, counseling, medical care, and other services to trafficking victims through government-supported NGO shelters. Victims were not allowed to leave the shelters unaccompanied for security reasons. Protection services available to trafficking victims remained limited and short-term. The government supported NGOs to provide care for trafficking victims by allocating 3.6 million pula ($260,000), compared to 3.69 million pula ($264,000) in the previous reporting period. The government repatriated three foreign trafficking victims. The Department of Social Protection continued to provide counseling services to foreign victims prior to repatriation. The government could provide victim-witnesses participating in criminal proceedings with various forms of assistance, including psychological support, education about court procedures, transportation, meals, and security. The government did not have legal alternatives to removal to countries in which foreign trafficking victims would face retribution or hardship. The law allowed courts to order convicted traffickers to pay restitution to trafficking victims.

The government slightly increased prevention efforts.

The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Service’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit chaired the Human Trafficking Prohibition Committee, which coordinated the government’s anti-trafficking efforts and met regularly. The government allocated 2.57 million pula ($184,000) for trafficking prevention activities during the reporting period. The government continued to implement its 2023-2028 NAP. The government adopted a train-the-trainer guide to use in anti-trafficking training of government officials. The government conducted awareness-raising campaigns, including in schools and rural areas, and among individuals in commercial sex, in collaboration with NGOs and an international organization. The government adopted a new communications strategy to raise awareness of trafficking crimes. The BPS continued to operate a crime hotline, which could receive calls related to human trafficking cases; however, no trafficking cases were reported through it.

The government employed 50 labor inspectors; however, observers reported the number was insufficient to conduct inspections, including in sectors with workers vulnerable to trafficking. Inspectors received anti-trafficking training and identified two potential trafficking crimes. Police also began to participate in labor inspections during the reporting period. The Labor Inspectorate could issue citations for labor law violations and refer cases to BPS for enforcement of penalties or prosecution. The Labor Inspectorate reported identifying two cases of child labor.

The Employment Act prohibited labor recruiters from charging recruitment fees. The law also required labor recruiter licensing; however, the government did not screen for potential trafficking indicators in the labor recruitment process. During the reporting period, the government began drafting new legislation to expand protections for workers.

Enrollment in school required an identity document, usually a birth certificate or national identity card. The government conducted mass registration drives, reducing the vulnerability of children and adults to trafficking. Children not enrolled in school remained vulnerable to trafficking. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomats. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Botswana, and traffickers exploit Batswana abroad. Traffickers exploit agricultural workers, ethnic and racial minorities, migrants, asylum seekers, and stateless persons in sex and labor trafficking. Traffickers post false employment opportunities online to recruit and exploit girls in sex trafficking. Extended family members may subject young Batswana domestic workers to conditions indicative of forced labor, including denial of education and basic necessities, delayed or non-payment of salaries, confinement, and verbal, physical, or sexual abuse. Cattle ranchers, particularly in Ghanzi district, exploit children in labor trafficking.

The 760 refugees and asylum-seekers (including from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia) in Botswana are primarily located in Dukwi Refugee Camp, where movement restrictions and limited access to education and livelihood opportunities increase their vulnerability to sex and labor trafficking. Traffickers exploit child refugees in sex trafficking around the camp with foreign truck drivers transiting Botswana often as the customers. Traffickers target, intercept, and exploit Central African economic migrants transiting Botswana to South Africa. Traffickers, including organized networks, transport some child sex trafficking victims from neighboring countries, including Zimbabwe and the DRC, as well as Nigeria and East African countries, through Botswana en route to exploitation in South Africa. Traffickers exploit foreign nationals, including children, from other African countries and South Asia, in sex and labor trafficking in Botswana. The Cuban regime may have forced approximately 80 Cuban regime-affiliated medical professionals in Botswana to work.

Media and NGOs report unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and illicit recruiters, fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from Africa – including Botswana – South Asia, and South America for vocational training programs and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites. Media report workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching, and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which are indicators of human trafficking.