• Using the SOPs for victim identification and referral to care, systematically and proactively identify trafficking victims, including among vulnerable populations, such as individuals in industries known for bonded labor, including domestic servitude and brick kilns, migrants, refugees, and individuals based on their sexual orientation or identity, and refer them to care.
• At both the federal and provincial levels, further increase prosecutions and convictions of all forms of trafficking under the PTPA, particularly bonded labor, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, including complicit officials, local influential figures, and individuals exploiting victims in domestic servitude, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Ensure labor inspectors have sufficient resources to conduct inspections, including of brick kilns and the agriculture sector, and have the mandate to report potential trafficking cases to law enforcement.
• Continue to train officials, including law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, and labor inspectors at the federal and provincial levels, on the implementation of the PTPA, including recent amendments.
• Train law enforcement, labor inspectors, and social services on SOPs and the NRM; and ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as immigration violations.
• Increase the quality and availability of victim services, including for males.
• Expand services for bonded laborers, including vocational training and job placement support, debt and injury restitution, shelter, provision of identity documents, and legal assistance.
• Ensure bonded laborers are informed through awareness campaigns that the law discharges all bonded laborers from any obligations to render such labor.
• Increase registration of brick kiln and farm workers to ensure their access to services and government relief, especially in response to sudden-onset disasters.
• Expand efforts to raise awareness on all forms of human trafficking, particularly in domestic servitude, forced begging, brick kilns, and agriculture, among the general population, in both urban and rural areas.
• Implement a systemic victim-witness assistance program to increase protective services for victims participating in criminal justice proceedings and train law enforcement and judicial officials to use victim-centered approaches during investigations and court proceedings.
• Train officials at the federal and provincial level on the use of the integrated management information system and ensure the reporting of data by province and type of trafficking, including bonded labor.
• Take steps to eliminate all recruitment fees charged to workers, lift restrictions on female migrants, and increase protections of migrant workers in destination countries.

The government increased law enforcement efforts.

Various Pakistani laws criminalized sex and labor trafficking. The 2018 PTPA, as amended, criminalized sex and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to ten years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 1 million Pakistani rupees (PKR) ($3,560) for trafficking crimes involving adult male victims, and penalties of up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 2 million PKR ($7,121) for those involving adult women or child victims. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those for other grave crimes, such as rape. In 2025, the government adopted amendments that increased previous penalties for trafficking crimes and removed the option for fines in lieu of imprisonment, as well as included “organized beggary” within the definition of trafficking. The government continued to use other sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) that criminalized some forms of human trafficking. For example, Section 371A and 371B criminalized the buying and selling of a person for prostitution and prescribed penalties of up to 25 years’ imprisonment and fines. Section 374 criminalized unlawful compulsory labor and prescribed penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. Section 366A criminalized procuration of a girl younger than 18 and prescribed penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine. Section 370 criminalized buying or disposing of any person as a slave and prescribed penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine, and Section 371 criminalized habitual dealing in slaves and prescribed penalties of up to life imprisonment and a fine if the imprisonment was less than 10 years. The federal Bonded Labor System Abolition Act (BLSA) criminalized bonded labor, with prescribed penalties ranging from two to five years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both; these penalties were sufficiently stringent. Provincial governments have adopted their own labor laws, including anti-bonded labor laws, under a devolution process that began in 2010, and federal laws apply until provinces enact corresponding laws.

In 2024, the government reported investigating 1,607 trafficking cases under the PTPA (523 for sex trafficking, 915 for forced labor, and 169 for unspecified forms of trafficking), compared with 1,588 trafficking cases in the previous year (282 for sex trafficking, 1,035 for forced labor, and 271 for unspecified forms of trafficking). Authorities prosecuted 1,310 suspects for trafficking under the PTPA (347 for sex trafficking, 727 for forced labor, and 236 for unspecified forms of trafficking), compared with 1,432 suspects in the previous year (231 for sex trafficking, 1,093 for forced labor, and 108 for unspecified forms of trafficking). Authorities convicted 495 traffickers under the PTPA (60 for sex trafficking, 434 for forced labor, and one for an unspecified form of trafficking), compared with 351 traffickers convicted in the previous reporting period (four for sex trafficking, 337 for forced labor, and 10 for unspecified forms of trafficking). The government also reported investigating 23,629 cases (22,199 for sex trafficking and 1,430 for forced labor), prosecuting 22,027 suspects (21,386 for sex trafficking and 641 for forced labor), and convicting 263 traffickers (119 for sex trafficking and 144 for unspecified forms of trafficking) under the PPC. However, the government did not report which provisions were used, resulting in the possibility some cases contained elements inconsistent with the international law definition of trafficking.

Despite government efforts to combat forced labor, investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of bonded labor and domestic servitude remained insufficient compared to the scale of the problem. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions under the BLSA. Unlike the previous year, the government did not report how many inspections were conducted by Labor Departments or how many cases of suspected forced labor were referred to the police for criminal investigation; this compared with 42,348 inspections and 478 referrals in 2023. District Vigilance Committees (DVCs), which operated in each province to ensure implementation of the BLSA including reporting and filing cases, met regularly. Observers reported many of the district commissioners on the DVCs are brick kiln owners, resulting in a potential conflict of interest to fulfill their mandate. Observers reported victims often did not trust law enforcement, report trafficking crimes, or participate in investigations due to fear of retaliation. Observers reported several factors stymied law enforcement efforts, including continued conflation of human trafficking with migrant smuggling, significant gaps in evidence collection, the need for better collaboration between investigators and prosecutors, and rotational assignments in law enforcement institutions that resulted in a lack of institutional knowledge of trafficking crimes. Unlike the previous year, the government did not provide information on funding for law enforcement efforts. The government cooperated with INTERPOL on transnational trafficking investigations.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) remained the government’s lead reporting and coordinating entity on human trafficking and had field offices dedicated to trafficking in each of its provincial headquarters. The agency focused on transnational crimes, while provincial police generally investigated domestic human trafficking cases. Law enforcement officials were required to file First Information Reports (FIR) to launch a criminal investigation, including for trafficking crimes. The FIA had a national trafficking unit to coordinate efforts across the country and 20 Anti-Human Smuggling and Trafficking Circles (AHTCs) in seven provincial zones. The FIA and provincial police continued providing anti-trafficking training, including in collaboration with international organizations and NGOs, to officials, including police. Despite training efforts, NGOs noted a continued lack of capacity to address trafficking crimes, and more training was needed for law enforcement, including in understanding human trafficking and the anti-trafficking law, evidence gathering, and on completing FIRs. The FIA reported close collaboration with border officials in combating transnational crime, including trafficking.

Corruption and official complicity remained significant concerns. The government reported investigating eight officials for alleged complicity in potential trafficking-related crimes and dismissed at least 80 other officials for potential trafficking-related offenses. In the previous reporting period, the government charged the wife of a civil judge in Islamabad for forced labor under the PTPA; the government did not report updates on the case. Police often reportedly acted against trafficking cases only when pressured by media and activists, often in cases with severe physical abuse or loss of life. Punjab is the only province that has banned children from working in private homes. However, child domestic work, at times involving forced labor, continued with impunity, according to experts. Civil society reported many children became victims of forced labor as a result of their parent’s debt bondage to landlords. In Sindh province, a feudal system persisted, where bonded laborers experienced exploitation and traffickers continued to act with impunity as many landlords had political connections. Observers previously alleged some police and influential landlords harassed civil society organizations and journalists attempting to protect victims and raise awareness of bonded labor crimes. Observers noted police and labor officers sometimes accepted bribes from perpetrators. Observers previously reported some officials were reluctant to investigate cases of potential bonded labor when wealthy and influential individuals were the alleged perpetrators due to pressure from politicians and landowners.

The government increased protection efforts.

The government reported identifying 37,303 trafficking victims, compared with 29,113 trafficking victims in 2023. These included 26,613 sex trafficking victims (3,498 men, 21,069 women, and 1,046 children), 9,917 forced labor victims (3,975 men, 4,761 women, and 1,181 children), and 773 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking (321 men, 357 women, and 95 children). Civil society organizations reported identifying an additional 1,159 victims, including 368 sex trafficking victims (270 women and 157 children) and 791 child forced labor victims. While the government did not have uniform SOPs for victim identification and referral, federal and provincial departments, including law enforcement, labor inspectors, child protection bureaus, and social welfare departments had SOPs to identify and assist victims of human trafficking and coordinate with relevant government departments, NGOs, and other stakeholders. The government reported training law enforcement on the SOPs, including in collaboration with international organizations. However, observers reported more training was needed. The FIA also had an NRM to coordinate referrals to care and enhance interagency coordination. Experts noted some forms of forced labor, particularly domestic servitude, were often not reported to law enforcement due to their normalization within society and those involving sexual exploitation were not reported due to social stigma.

The government referred 35,055 trafficking victims, including 24,911 sex trafficking victims, 9,825 forced labor victims, and 319 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking to government or NGO services, compared with 25,617 trafficking victims the previous year. The government reported 31,050 victims received services, including 22,300 sex trafficking victims (1,877 men, 19,465 women, and 958 children), 8,476 forced labor victims (2,664 men, 4,697 women, and 1,115 children), and 274 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking (93 men, 138 women, and 43 children). The government reported foreign victims were legally entitled to the same benefits as Pakistani citizens. Trafficking victims were referred to both government-run shelters and NGO shelters for services. The government reported victims received psychological services, legal assistance, financial aid, and educational training. The government reported 105 shelters, welfare homes, and child protection units operated across the country that could assist trafficking victims. The government continued to operate a center for victim services, including trafficking, in Balochistan with support from a foreign government and an international organization. Observers previously reported the government often relied on NGOs for the majority of victim assistance due to a lack of shelter and services in many regions, particularly for male victims. Child trafficking cases in which parents might have been complicit were of particular concern because authorities often returned potential child trafficking victims to their families immediately following identification without effective methods to ensure families would not subject their children to trafficking again. Both government and NGO contacts previously noted that, due to cultural norms, male victims did not always seek or accept assistance. Observers noted minority communities, including Christians and Hindu Dalits as well as persons more vulnerable to trafficking based on their sexual orientation or identity, often faced difficulties when seeking assistance from law enforcement or government services. Although Section 6 of the PTPA provides trafficking victims with some protection from criminal liability for trafficking crimes, due to inconsistent screening among vulnerable populations, the government did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The provincial governments allocated 709.2 million PKR ($2.52 million) for victim protection and assistance, an increase compared with 433.5 million PKR (1.57 million) in the previous reporting period. Specifically, Punjab allocated 290.7 million PKR ($1 million), Sindh allocated 101.1 million PKR ($359,911), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) allocated 136.2 million PKR ($484,878), and Balochistan allocated 53.5 million PKR ($190,462), compared with Punjab – 132.3 million PKR ($479,000), Sindh – 50 million PKR ($181,030), KP – 114.1 million PKR ($413,110); and Balochistan – 137 million PKR ($496,020) previously.

Observers previously reported limited government oversight of brick kilns, coupled with their remote locations, allowed landlords to prevent workers from formally registering with the government, which restricted their access to social welfare benefits guaranteed under provincial laws. NGOs noted most cases of bonded labor ended with financial settlement in lieu of criminal prosecution or were dropped, often due to pressure from traffickers. Civil society organizations reported a large number of trafficking victims, including in bonded labor, did not have a National Identity Card; many were illiterate and lacked the ability to register and subsequently receive government resources. Those who lacked identity documents were even more vulnerable since they could not access government services. Observers noted landlords restricted the movement of brick kiln workers with accumulated debts, furthering their lack of access to humanitarian assistance and their dependence on continued accrual of debt.

Government policy included witness protection for those cooperating in trafficking-related investigations; the government did not report if any victims participated in trafficking investigations and prosecutions. Victims were not obligated to participate in investigations in order to receive protective services. The FIA operated a system for witnesses to provide video statements. The PTPA and sections of the PPC allowed courts to provide trafficking victims with restitution; no restitution orders were reported. The provincial governments allocated funding to provide free legal aid for victims. The national and provincial governments provided lawyers to assist victims with free legal assistance; 8,356 victims received legal services in 2024.

The government maintained efforts to prevent trafficking.

National and provincial stakeholders, comprised of the National Coordination Committee on Trafficking in Persons and led by the Minister of the Interior, convened regularly throughout the reporting period. Provincial and district Anti-Human Trafficking and Anti-Bonded Labor Monitoring Committees had responsibility to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts, increase general public awareness, collect data on law enforcement efforts and victims identified, and provide recommendations to inform future legislation. The government maintained implementation of the 2021-2025 NAP and every province had a designated point of contact to work with the FIA on implementation. The FIA maintained its integrated management information system to collect national anti-trafficking data. However, observers reported continued challenges in coordination and data collection across provincial governments and between provincial and federal agencies. The government, including at the provincial level, continued to conduct awareness campaigns and hold capacity building and sensitization sessions for stakeholders in collaboration with international organizations and NGOs. The FIA continued to operate a national anti-trafficking hotline with support from an international organization and foreign donors and received 33 potential trafficking calls in 2024. The government, including provincial governments, operated several additional hotlines to assist with trafficking inquiries. During the reporting period, the FIA established a new Risk Analysis Unit to improve the government’s responsiveness to human trafficking cases through conducting risk assessments, strengthening border security capabilities, and facilitating collaboration with international bodies. Additionally, the Punjab Assembly launched its Special Committee to Combat Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling to advocate in part for improved provincial-level legislation and increased coordination amongst the FIA, provincial authorities, and district police entities.

Labor inspectors remained the front-line officials to inspect and identify forced labor – including bonded labor – in several sectors, including brick kilns, farms, and factories. In the absence of policy guidance regarding agricultural inspections, officials often did not inspect farms. Labor departments had SOPs to carry out inspections under the PTPA; however, observers reported labor inspectors received inadequate training to identify trafficking indicators and had insufficient funding and resources to conduct inspections. Additionally, access to worksites was often limited. Observers reported the agriculture, brick kiln, fisheries, poultry, mining, construction, domestic labor, and carpet making industries often did not follow labor laws and had little to non-existent government oversight. Small and medium size businesses, where child labor often occurred, were not subject to inspections; additionally, observers emphasized the critical need for unannounced inspections. Observers reported inspectors often used their own personal resources to carry out inspections and factory owners often denied inspectors access to facilities. Moreover, inspectors did not have the authority to remove children or bonded laborers from exploitative situations. Inspectors were not authorized to assess labor law infraction penalties – they were responsible for taking note of the infractions, and labor courts assessed the penalties. Provincial labor laws and protections did not extend to adult or child domestic workers.

Provinces continued to use labor laws to investigate, prosecute, and convict offenders for child labor and trafficking crimes at brick kilns. However, because such laws only prescribed fines and authorities often did not refer these cases to police for criminal investigations, suspected traffickers were not held accountable. The federal and provincial governments continued their nationwide child labor survey that will reach approximately 250,000 households.

The Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment Issued licenses to private employment promoters and monitored workers who migrated through licensed agencies. The government allowed licensed employment promoters to charge migrant workers fees for all costs associated with overseas employment, as well as a service fee of 2,500 PKR ($8.90) for a welfare fund to compensate workers’ families in case of the workers’ death abroad. While the government stipulated employers should provide workers with a receipt for these costs, the government did not specify any cost limit and did not consistently review migrant workers’ receipts. The government continued to ban women migrant workers younger than 35 years old from migrating for domestic work. Such bans on the lawful migration of women both increased the likelihood such women would migrate illegally and their vulnerability to trafficking.

The government continued to host approximately 1.35 million registered Afghan refugees and an estimated 2.5 million Afghans in total. Observers reported Afghans faced abuse and harassment by Pakistani authorities, including the destruction of identity documents before expelling them back to Afghanistan. International organizations reported hundreds of thousands of Afghans, including thousands of registered refugees and those awaiting resettlement in other countries, returned or were deported to Afghanistan as a result of the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan; many of these returnees were vulnerable to trafficking and the government did not report if these individuals, including unaccompanied children, were screened for trafficking indicators. The government did not report any efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. The government reported providing pre-departure briefings on human trafficking to all its peacekeeping officers. The government reported providing anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.

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 Pakistan, and traffickers exploit victims from Pakistan abroad. The country’s largest human trafficking problem is bonded labor, in which traffickers exploit an initial debt assumed by a worker as part of the terms of employment and ultimately entrap other family members, sometimes for generations; bonded labor disproportionately affects religious and ethnic minorities. Experts estimate 4.5 million workers nationwide are trapped in bonded labor, primarily in Sindh and Punjab provinces. Traffickers, including local government officials, force men, women, and children to work primarily in bonded labor in Sindh in agriculture and in both Sindh and Punjab in brick kilns, and also in forced begging and the coal and carpet industries. Traffickers also force men, women, and children to work to pay off exaggerated debts in other sectors in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and KP in agriculture and brick kilns and, to a lesser extent, in fisheries, mining, and the manufacturing of textiles, bangles, and carpets. In agriculture, traffickers force workers to labor in the agricultural sectors of wheat, cotton, and sugarcane, among other areas. Traffickers often do not provide workers with access to their expenditure and earnings receipts, so traffickers control how much money they earn, the accrual of interest on their debt, and when they have repaid the debt. Landlords exploit widespread illiteracy among workers and manipulate accounting records to continue the cycle of bonded labor. Many feudal landlords and brick kiln owners employing bonded laborers are local government officials or use their affiliation with political parties to protect their involvement in bonded labor. Some landlords use armed guards to restrict bonded laborers’ movements, and others buy and sell workers among one another. Some impoverished families allow their employing kiln owners to hold their children as bonded laborers until loans are repaid. Observers reported employers in Sindh are moving carpet- and bangle-making productions into private homes to further increase the difficulty in monitoring labor conditions. Reports estimate more than 70 percent of bonded laborers in Pakistan are children, predominately working in brick kilns and agriculture, with some children forced into domestic work in landowners’ houses. According to NGO estimates, there are 700,000 children in bonded labor in Sindh’s agricultural sector. Many families take loans from their employers and subject their children to bonded labor until the debt is paid back. Traffickers also target lower-caste Hindus, Christians, and Muslims specifically for forced and bonded labor. Observers reported natural disasters such as floods increase poverty, displacement, food insecurity, and loss of work in Pakistan.

Traffickers buy, sell, rent, and kidnap children for forced labor in begging, domestic work, work in small shops, agriculture, cotton, brickmaking, fishing, and child sex trafficking, and some children are at risk of trafficking in food stalls, restaurants, construction, street vending, the coal industry, and scavenging at garbage dumpsites. According to an international report, there are 8.5 million domestic workers in Pakistan, including many children, and a 2022 report notes one in every four households employs a child in domestic work. According to civil society, the majority of children working in the streets of Pakistan are subjected to forced begging, including children with disabilities, and are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking. According to media estimates, there are 1.5 million children who are homeless in Pakistan, with a third of those in Sindh province, that are often forced to beg by organized criminal groups. The high rate of out-of-school children and the lack of access to schools leave many children vulnerable to trafficking throughout the country. Due to the consistent lack of law enforcement efforts against those who exploit children who are homeless, traffickers operate openly and with impunity. Traffickers subject children to sex trafficking around hotels, truck stops, bus stations, and shrines. Observers reported online child exploitation for the purpose of child pornography, including potential child sex trafficking crimes. Traffickers force Afghan, Iranian, and Pakistani children into drug trafficking, drug production, contraband production, and smuggling of goods in border areas and in urban centers. An NGO previously reported it found multiple cases of school-age students exploited in domestic servitude. Some observers reported non-state armed groups recruit children, both forcefully and through radicalization.

Some factories pay monthly bribes to labor department officials to avoid inspections. Illegal labor agents charge high recruitment fees to parents in return for employing their children, some of whom are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Some police accept bribes to ignore prostitution crimes, including sex trafficking.. Some traffickers force sex trafficking victims to take drugs and exploit the addiction to maintain control. Some Pakistani traffickers lure women and girls away from their families with promises of marriage, create fraudulent marriage certificates, and exploit women and girls in sex trafficking, including in Iran and Afghanistan. Traffickers target impoverished Christian communities to send women and girls to China for arranged marriages. Upon arrival in China, hundreds of Pakistani women reported their “husbands” forced them into commercial sex. Chinese nationals employed in Pakistan at worksites affiliated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative are vulnerable to forced labor.

Pakistani men and women migrate overseas voluntarily, particularly to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, other Gulf states, and Europe for employment – often through illegal channels, increasing their vulnerabilities to exploitation. The majority of Pakistani migrants seek employment in agriculture, domestic service, transportation, and construction work. Traffickers exploit some of them in labor trafficking, including via false or misleading job offers, through sham recruitment agencies, falsely advertised terms or conditions of employment, fake modeling advertisements, and high recruitment fees charged by illegal labor agents or sub-agents of licensed Pakistani overseas employment promoters, who in several instances have entrapped Pakistanis in bonded labor or sex trafficking, including in Gulf countries. Pakistani nationals are recruited via false offers to work in Thailand and are then subjected to forced criminality in online scams in Burma. Traffickers have exploited Pakistani girls in sex trafficking in Kenya and have forced Pakistani adults, including those with disabilities, to beg in the UAE. Pakistani boys are vulnerable to sex traffickers in Greece. Some traffickers, including organized criminal groups, subject Pakistani adults and children to forced labor in domestic work, construction, and begging in Iran; some traffickers target Pakistanis with disabilities for forced begging.

Media and NGOs report unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and illicit recruiters, fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from South Asia – including Pakistan – Africa, 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.

Pakistan is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, particularly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Traffickers exploit women and girls – and, to a lesser extent, boys – from Afghanistan, Iran, and other Asian countries in sex trafficking in Pakistan. Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual face violence and discrimination, as the law criminalizes same-sex conduct, and are at high risk of trafficking. Civil society reported largescale discrimination and violence against women and girls, including “honor killing,” which makes them more vulnerable to trafficking. Refugees from Afghanistan and stateless persons, particularly of Bengali, Bihari, and Rohingya ethnicities, as well as religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians, Hindu Dalits, and Hazaras, are particularly vulnerable to traffickers in Pakistan, particularly in bonded labor. Afghans without formal documentation often rely on informal networks for basic needs and have limited access to legal protections; many seek work in the informal economy, increasing vulnerabilities to trafficking. Afghans, including undocumented migrants and registered refugees, face increased vulnerabilities due to harassment from authorities and fear of deportation. The government does not have a working definition of “statelessness,” despite international organization estimates of hundreds of thousands of stateless persons facing increased vulnerabilities due to their lack of access to identity documents and services in the country. Traffickers exploit Rohingya ethnicity stateless persons and Afghans in forced labor in Pakistan.