Amend the 2014 anti-trafficking law to ensure the penalties prescribed for adult sex trafficking are commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape and/or kidnapping. * Implement formal standard operating procedures (SOPs) for victim identification and referral to care and train stakeholders on their use. * Systematically and proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations, including child laborers, women exploited in commercial sex, returning Malagasy migrant workers, and People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals employed at worksites affiliated with the PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and refer all identified trafficking victims to appropriate protection services. * Institutionalize and expand anti-trafficking training to all levels of government, including officials outside of Antananarivo, on the indicators of trafficking, the differences between human trafficking and other crimes, victim-centered and trauma-informed investigation techniques, and the use of SOPs for the identification and referral of victims to appropriate services. * Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including complicit officials and perpetrators of internal trafficking crimes, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. * Significantly increase the availability and quality of protection services – including short-term shelter, long-term housing, counseling, and medical care – for all trafficking victims, including by partnering with and allocating funding or in-kind support to civil society service providers. * Disburse the full funding amount allocated for anti-trafficking activities, including for BNLTEH operations and implementation of the 2023-2025 NAP. * Implement a systematic victim-witness assistance program to increase protective services for victims participating in the criminal justice process. * Implement and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including by eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers and holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable. * Improve the national identification system, including establishing a database and anti-fraud features, to prevent child sex trafficking and reduce trafficking vulnerabilities of overseas Malagasy workers due to issuance of fraudulent documentation. * Improve nationwide data collection on anti-trafficking law enforcement and victim identification efforts, including information sharing among relevant government agencies.

The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Law No. 2014-040 criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties ranging from two to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 1 million to 10 million Malagasy Ariary (MGA) ($220 to $2,190) for crimes involving an adult victim, and five to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 2 million to 20 million MGA ($440 to $4,380) for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent. For crimes involving children, with respect to sex trafficking, these penalties were commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape; however, offenses involving adult sex trafficking were not commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes. The law defined trafficking broadly to include “the sale of persons” and illegal adoption without the purpose of exploitation. The government partnered with an international organization to draft an amendment to the anti-trafficking law that reportedly would increase the penalties prescribed in the 2014 anti-trafficking law; the draft amendment was pending the Ministry of Justice’s review at the end of the reporting period.

BNLTEH maintained access to a national database for the collection of trafficking-related information; however, not all relevant ministries regularly contributed to the database, causing national law enforcement statistics to remain difficult to obtain and verify and likely resulting in underreporting. The government reported investigating 71 trafficking cases – four for sex trafficking, 33 for labor trafficking, and 34 for unspecified forms of trafficking – compared with 13 investigations in the previous reporting period. The government reported prosecuting at least 26 alleged traffickers in 26 cases – six for sex trafficking and 20 for unspecified forms of trafficking – under the 2014 anti-trafficking law and at least 33 alleged traffickers in 33 cases prosecuted under various non-trafficking laws. The government also reported 41 prosecutions initiated in previous reporting periods remained ongoing. This compared with no reported prosecutions in the previous two reporting periods. The government did not disaggregate prosecution data and therefore it was unclear how many of these prosecutions involved sex trafficking or labor trafficking; it was possible some of the cases involved crimes that go beyond the scope of the international definition of trafficking, like illegal adoption without the purpose of exploitation. The government did not convict any suspected traffickers for the third consecutive year.

Severe resource and capacity limitations continued to impede officials’ ability to proactively and comprehensively investigate trafficking crimes. Due to the lack of resources to conduct in-depth investigations, law enforcement officials routinely filed charges as sexual abuse, child abuse, or “pimping,” instead of as human trafficking, which often resulted in less severe penalties. For example, officials reported prosecutors did not try any of the 33 cases of labor trafficking investigated human trafficking, despite law enforcement identifying trafficking indicators during the investigations. Officials also reported judges regularly dismissed most cases referred as human trafficking due to a lack of evidence. Due to lengthy judicial processes and a lack of victim-witness assistance during criminal proceedings, families, at times with encouragement from authorities, often chose to settle conflicts – including trafficking crimes – through traditional means involving informal payment or conflict resolution arrangements known as dinas, without recourse to the formal court system. Observers reported victims were often reluctant to file charges due to fear of reprisals and lack of awareness of options to anonymously report.

The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. Furthermore, procedures stating a government official cannot be arrested without authorization from the official’s supervisor impeded holding complicit officials accountable for trafficking crimes. Observers continued to report government officials accepted bribes to produce false identity documents used to facilitate child sex trafficking and fraudulent travel documentation for Malagasies seeking to circumvent the 2013 travel ban to certain Middle Eastern countries where they may become vulnerable to trafficking. Anecdotal reports indicate local officials were at times among the perpetrators in child sex trafficking, both as traffickers and purchasers of commercial sex. In addition to low-level corruption, several anecdotal reports alleged high-level corruption, including permitting or facilitating child sex trafficking and forced labor in mining sector activities that result in potential benefit for government officials.

The government, in partnership with civil society organizations and foreign donors, provided training to law enforcement officials on the identification of trafficking cases and investigation techniques. The government did not institutionalize anti-trafficking training, and some officials continued to lack a clear understanding of human trafficking and victim-centered approaches, which hampered law enforcement and victim identification efforts. Officials continued to frequently conflate human trafficking with other crimes including rape, gender-based violence, sexual abuse, and labor exploitation. The government reported cooperating with INTERPOL and the Government of France on potential trafficking investigations. In previous years, Malagasy law enforcement cooperated with the Government of the United States on a case involving online child sex trafficking; a U.S. court convicted the trafficker in November 2023.

The government decreased victim protection efforts. Due to a lack of coordinated data collection at the national level, the government did not report comprehensive data. The government reported identifying 189 trafficking victims, compared with 223 victims identified in the previous reporting period. Of the 189 victims identified, traffickers exploited 114 in sex trafficking and 75 in labor trafficking (all 75 were child domestic servitude); 47 were adults (all women), and 142 were children (eight boys, 29 girls, and 105 children whose gender was not reported); all 189 victims were Malagasy nationals. Due to officials’ propensity to conflate human trafficking with other crimes, this figure may have included victims of crimes not involving forced labor or sex trafficking. In addition to victims identified by the government, NGOs and international organizations reported identifying and assisting at least 3,087 potential victims, providing them with services, including medical care, social reintegration, education, and repatriation assistance for Malagasy nationals exploited in domestic servitude abroad. The government remained without official SOPs to proactively identify trafficking victims and refer them to care; instead, there were disparate SOPs across different ministries that officials used to varying degrees. Government officials continued to have access to a victim identification and referral manual previously developed by an international organization; however, the government did not actively distribute the manual and use of the procedures remained minimal. Officials at Ivato International Airport reported consistently screening Malagasies departing the country for work and returning Malagasy women, many of whom were repatriated or arrested and deported from Mauritius and Mayotte, a French Department, for trafficking indicators. The government did not proactively screen vulnerable populations, including child laborers, women exploited in commercial sex, and foreign workers, for trafficking indicators.

The government provided assistance to 79 victims, compared with 178 victims assisted with services in 2022. The Mitsinjo Center, a temporary shelter for vulnerable adults run by the Ministry of Population (MOP), continued to operate with a capacity to house 30 occupants; however, the shelter did not have an operational budget to purchase basic resources, including food for beneficiaries, and did not provide any additional victim services. The government assisted seven adults, including at least one trafficking victim, at the shelter, compared with 178 victims assisted at the shelter in the previous reporting period. The MOP in collaboration with an international organization, continued to coordinate approximately 765 child protection networks across the country to assist child victims of abuse, including trafficking, and ensure victims’ access to medical and psychological services. Due to lack of resources, only about 455 child protection networks provided basic assistance through public hospitals and health units and most of the networks referred victims to international organizations and NGOs for additional assistance. Through referral from the child protection networks, an international organization assisted 3,452 children (1,221 girls and 2,231 boys), including victims of sexual exploitation and the worst forms of child labor, both including potential child trafficking crimes. Six government hospitals, in partnership with an international organization, maintained “one-stop” victim support centers that offered assistance to child victims of various abuses, including sex trafficking; the one-stop support centers – located in Antananarivo, Mahajanga, Nosy Be, Toamasina, Tolagnaro, and Toliara – offered victims medical assistance and psychological support through social workers and provided victims access to police to file complaints. The government reported assisting 1,489 children (including 15 boys) at these facilities; while, the government did not report screening these children for trafficking indicators, an international organization reported at least 35 were victims of child domestic servitude. The government continued to operate and fund the Manjary Soa Center in Antananarivo, which had the capacity to assist 35 children removed from situations of exploitation; however, shelter staff did not report screening children for trafficking indicators. This center provided vocational training or reintegration into the public school system and allowed victims to stay at the center for one school year. The city of Antananarivo continued to manage an emergency center for child victims of crime, including domestic servitude and forced begging victims. The city government, in partnership with an international organization, reported providing food, lodging, psychological and medical aid, and educational services to 43 victims of child domestic servitude. The government, in partnership with an international organization, operated two specialized centers for gender-based violence victims, including potential trafficking victims.

Due to a lack of formal identification procedures, authorities may have detained unidentified victims. Police sometimes arrested or detained child sex trafficking victims without screening or identifying them as victims; in previous years, police sometimes temporarily held potential transnational labor trafficking victims in police stations due to a lack of alternative accommodations. Observers reported employers often sued former child domestic workers to avoid paying accumulated unpaid salaries in cases where victims reported their abuse; despite documenting cases where employers sued child victims of domestic servitude, the government did not report investigating these incidents for potential trafficking crimes or screening the children for trafficking indicators. The 2014 anti-trafficking law mandated trafficking trials be held in private, with the option for video-conferencing, to ensure witness confidentiality and privacy; however, most courts did not have adequate equipment to accommodate these procedures. The government remained without a systematic victim-witness assistance program, deterring some victims from participating in criminal proceedings. Observers reported victims often decided not to participate in criminal proceedings due to the lack of assistance available. The 2014 anti-trafficking law allowed courts to order restitution to victims. The 2014 anti-trafficking law required authorities to consider legal alternatives for foreign trafficking victims who believed they may face hardship or retribution if returned to their country of origin.

The government maintained efforts to prevent trafficking. BNLTEH, under the prime minister’s office, led the government’s national anti-trafficking efforts and met three times; however, BNLTEH continued to lack adequate funding or equipment, hindering its overall effectiveness. The 2023 federal budget legislation provided a dedicated budget of 410 million MGA ($94,215) for anti-trafficking programs led by BNLTEH, the same amount as in previous years. After three years of the government not disbursing any of BNLTEH’s allocated funding, BNLTEH received a portion of its funding, approximately 244.5 million MGA ($53,580), in 2023. The government maintained its 2023-2025 anti-trafficking NAP and conducted some prevention-related activities; however, limited funding and resources hindered overall implementation of activities. The government, in partnership with civil society and foreign donors, held awareness campaigns targeting local officials and the general public on trafficking indicators and reporting cases of child trafficking. BNLTEH maintained a hotline to report human trafficking and dedicated staff to receive incoming calls; however, calling the hotline was not free of charge, and its publicization was limited. BNLTEH reported the hotline did not receive any calls for the second consecutive year, likely because the hotline was not free of charge. In partnership with an international organization, the police and MOP social workers continued to operate a national toll-free hotline to report violence against children, including trafficking crimes. The government reported identifying and referring to law enforcement 17 potential trafficking cases via the hotline, compared with 12 cases identified in the previous reporting period.

The Ministry of Labor, Employment, Civil Service, and Social Laws continued to oversee the process of migrant workers traveling to authorized destinations by coordinating with local recruiters, requiring contract approval by the relevant Malagasy embassy, and sensitizing migrant workers of their rights and potential trafficking risks prior to their departure. A 2013 ban on migrant worker travel, particularly of domestic workers to Middle Eastern countries the government considered high-risk, remained in place; however, illicit recruitment agencies circumvented the ban by sending workers through other African countries. In an attempt to address this issue and identify agencies involved in fraudulent recruitment, the government continued its suspension of most existing accreditations for recruitment agencies and, thus, its prohibition of recruitment of workers for employment in Gulf states or the Middle East. These prohibitions on migrant workers continued to leave Malagasies with no legal means to travel to Gulf states or the Middle East for work and, therefore, without access to protection mechanisms available through authorized travel, subsequently increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Suspending accreditation of placement agencies has led to employers and traffickers increasingly targeting migrant workers for blackmail or solicitation of bribes to facilitate irregular travel to Gulf states or the Middle East. Observers reported illicit recruitment agencies often required migrant workers to pay fees as high as the worker’s first six months’ salary to cover hiring and travel costs. The government began drafting a bilateral labor agreement with the Government of Mauritius to enhance protections for migrant workers.

Labor inspectors overseeing working conditions in the country received training on trafficking indicators; however, labor inspectors did not identify or report potential trafficking crimes to law enforcement. The government reported it approved an amendment to the mining code to prohibit human trafficking in the mining sector. The government made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, including child sex trafficking in the tourism sector. The Ministry of Tourism (MOT), in partnership with international organizations, continued to monitor the commitment of the approximately 1,000 tourism operators in 12 regions who had previously acceded to the tourism code of conduct against commercial sexual exploitation of children, including child sex trafficking, in the tourism sector. The MOT, in partnership with international organizations and NGOs, trained stakeholders on and raised awareness of the December 2022 updated code of conduct to increase requirements for tourist operators to proactively combat child sex trafficking in the tourism sector and established a committee to train tourism operators on the code of conduct and monitor such efforts. The MOT conducted an unreported number of hotel compliance inspections to remind hotels of their obligation to display posters in their reception areas publicizing the prohibition of commercial sexual exploitation of children, including child sex trafficking; the government also maintained such billboards at airports and construction sites. The MOT, in partnership with NGOs and an international donor, continued to disseminate pamphlets to tourists to discourage child sex trafficking in the tourism sector and provide steps on how to report a trafficking crime. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.

As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Madagascar, and traffickers exploit victims from Madagascar abroad. Traffickers exploit Malagasy children, mostly from rural and coastal regions and from impoverished families in urban areas, in labor trafficking in domestic servitude in homes and businesses, mining, street vending, agriculture, textile factories, and fishing across the country. Traffickers force children, including those with disabilities, to beg for long hours and in dangerous conditions, frequently at the behest of their parents due to acute poverty and food insecurity. Most child sex trafficking occurs in tourist destinations, urban cities, vanilla-growing regions, and around formal and informal mining sites with the involvement and encouragement of family members. Tourist operators, hotel employees, taxi drivers, massage parlor owners, and local adults involved in commercial sex also facilitate child sex trafficking. Traffickers continue to exploit girls and boys as young as 12 years old in child sex trafficking in the tourism sector in coastal areas and major cities, such as Antananarivo, Antsirabe, Fianarantsoa, Mahajanga, Manakara, Nosy Be, Toamasina, Toliara, and Tolagnaro, often openly in bars, nightclubs, massage parlors, hotels, and private homes. Increasingly, traffickers exploit children in sex trafficking in karaoke bars in Antananarivo often using alcohol and drugs to maintain control and as means of coercion. Malagasy men exploit the majority of child sex trafficking victims; however, foreign tourists, historically from France and Italy, and, to a lesser extent, other Western European countries and Comoros, exploit children in extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse. Parents often encourage girls as young as 15 years old to become financially independent by dating, marrying, or engaging in commercial sex with foreign tourists; traffickers use this cultural norm as an opportunity to exploit girls in child sex trafficking. Traffickers continue to abuse traditional practices of arranged and early marriage, bride purchasing, and girl markets to exploit girls in child sex trafficking. Government officials are reportedly complicit in providing falsified national identity cards and birth certificates to girls that depict them as adults; traffickers then use the falsified documents to facilitate child sex trafficking in Madagascar. Traffickers increasingly exploit women and children in sex trafficking using online platforms. Traffickers lure women and girls from rural provinces to Antananarivo with the promise of employment, often via false job advertisements on social media, but then force them to perform online sex acts for foreign customers. Traffickers sometimes use centralized locations known as “call centers” to simultaneously exploit multiple women and girls online and regularly change the “call center” locations to avoid law enforcement detection. Reports indicate climate change, including sudden-onset disasters such as cyclones and slow-onset events like drought and rising temperatures, increased poverty, food insecurity, and loss of work in southern Madagascar; families in these vulnerable situations may exploit their children in domestic servitude or sex trafficking to supplement lost income. Labor trafficking persisted in dina judgments, primarily in agricultural work. Officials previously alleged village leaders in northwest Madagascar compel men ages 18 to 45 years to join local vigilante groups that combat village banditry.

Malagasy individuals recruited under fraudulent conditions for work abroad, particularly in Gulf states and the Middle East, are vulnerable to labor trafficking. Reports indicate traffickers and employers exploit Malagasy workers in Gulf states and the Middle East, particularly Lebanon, in domestic servitude using various forms of abuse, such as physical violence, salary withholding, and confiscation of passports. Increasingly, Malagasy women, particularly from Mahajanga, travel without legal status to Mayotte, a French Department, seeking economic opportunity; many of these individuals become involved in commercial sex and are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking. Traffickers exploit Malagasy women in sex trafficking in Mauritius. Fraudulent labor recruitment agencies send Malagasy women to the PRC with falsified identity cards, where traffickers exploit them in forced labor in agriculture or domestic servitude. Increasingly, parents force their children, including girls and young women, to marry PRC nationals; these children and women are vulnerable to sex trafficking and domestic servitude. PRC nationals employed in Madagascar at worksites affiliated with the PRC’s BRI are vulnerable to forced labor, particularly in construction.