• Using the established victim identification and referral SOPs, proactively screen for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations – including migrant workers, individuals involved in commercial sex or drug-related crimes, and women and children from vulnerable communities – and refer all trafficking victims to appropriate services.
• Implement a victim witness program to increase protection for victims participating in criminal justice proceedings and prevent re-traumatization, including receiving victims’ consent to participate in proceedings without fear of reprisal; ensure a victim-centered approach to the provision of assistance for all trafficking victims identified regardless of immigration status or willingness to participate in criminal proceedings.
• Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes under the anti-trafficking law and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
• Expand the availability of shelters and services for all trafficking victims – including men – in coordination with NGOs and allocate adequate resources and staffing for these services.
• Increase anti-trafficking training – including on strong evidence gathering, victim-centered investigations, and victim identification SOPs – to MPF investigators, labor inspectors, prosecutors, and magistrates.
• Increase the MPF TIP Unit’s capacity and resources to directly investigate trafficking crimes; consider appointing designated victim service coordinators within the MPF to oversee victim protection and referral to services.
• Implement and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies and hold fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable.
• Continue strengthening the partnership between police and prosecutors to more efficiently and effectively investigate and prosecute trafficking cases under the anti-trafficking law.
• Allocate funding for anti-trafficking activities, including implementation of the 2022-2026 NAP.
• Improve data collection efforts to accurately track and report the government’s anti-trafficking statistics and improve information sharing among government agencies.

The government increased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, as amended, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking of adults and children and prescribed penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping. The Children’s Act of 2020 also criminalized child sex trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The government initiated eight trafficking investigations (three sex trafficking and five labor trafficking cases), compared with 13 investigations in the previous reporting period. The government continued 15 investigations from previous reporting periods. For the first time in three years, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) initiated prosecutions against seven defendants in two sex trafficking cases. The court convicted a trafficker and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment; this was the first trafficking conviction in three years. The government reported continuing one sex trafficking prosecution from 2020. The government did not report any prosecutions or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking crimes. During the previous reporting period, the government investigated one government official allegedly involved in a sex trafficking case; the government did not report whether it continued the investigation.

The government operationalized its TIP Unit, established during the previous reporting period, in the Central Criminal Investigation Division of the MPF; the unit oversaw human trafficking investigations and comprised eight-specially trained officers. However, due to resource gaps, the TIP Unit often relied on local police without specialized training to carry out trafficking investigations in consultation with the TIP Unit. The police brigade for the protection of families was responsible for investigating child trafficking cases. The TIP Unit referred cases to the Police Prosecution Office for review, which then referred them to the ODPP for prosecution. ODPP had six designated prosecutors responsible for – but not solely dedicated to – trafficking cases. The MPF training schools continued to provide anti-trafficking training to new recruits and mid-level officers. The government also provided training for law enforcement officers on identifying trafficking cases, assisting victims, and collaborating with the TIP Unit on investigations. Unlike the previous year, the government did not report providing specialized anti-trafficking training to prosecutors or magistrates. Mauritian officials cooperated with INTERPOL on law enforcement activities.

Law enforcement and prosecutors regularly coordinated to discuss trafficking cases, recommend charges, and determine evidence requirements. Despite improvements in case consultation, observers reported the ODPP often did not pursue trafficking charges, in part due to lack of sufficient evidence. Law enforcement officers, particularly those outside Port Louis, continued to lack a complete understanding of human trafficking and proper investigative techniques and often relied on victim testimony without gathering corroborating evidence; this contributed to drawn out investigations and unsuccessful prosecutions. Officials prosecuted potential trafficking cases using offenses such as assault or brothel keeping, which had lower burdens of proof and lower penalties. Observers reported magistrates lacked sufficient training and understanding of trafficking crimes. Courts sometimes issued lenient sentences to first-time offenders of many crimes, including trafficking; this approach weakened deterrence and did not adequately address the nature of the crime. The judicial process continued to be prohibitively long – frequently many years – which at times dissuaded victims from seeking legal redress. Although the judiciary was supposed to expedite trafficking cases, magistrates did not always prioritize the cases. Courts continued to experience a pre-existing backlog of cases.

The government decreased victim protection efforts. The government reported identifying 16 trafficking victims (six sex trafficking and 10 forced labor victims) and referring nine victims to services. This compared with identifying 18 victims (13 sex trafficking and five forced labor victims) and referring an unspecified number to services in the previous reporting period. The government had SOPs to identify and refer trafficking victims to services and, in collaboration with an international organization, it trained law enforcement, immigration officers, and labor inspectors on the procedures. However, police were largely responsible for coordinating victim service referrals, limiting the TIP Unit’s capacity. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare’s (MOGEFW) Child Development Unit (CDU) maintained separate identification and referral procedures for child trafficking victims. The government reported it conducted some screening of Malagasy women traveling independently with limited funds for trafficking indicators at the airport and sea ports, but observers reported officials did not consistently screen other vulnerable populations. Experts reported efforts to implement the SOPs to identify adult trafficking victims were minimal.

The government reported spending five million Mauritian rupees ($106,540) for victim protection and assistance services in 2024, an increase compared with spending four million rupees ($85,235) in 2023. Authorities referred adult female trafficking victims to a partially government-funded, NGO-run shelter for trafficking victims, which provided medical assistance, vocational training, and psycho-social services. The NGO shelter could only accept trafficking victims referred by authorities, and there were limited services available for victims who did not interact with the law enforcement system. Observers previously reported the shelter lacked adequate funding and resources. The government again did not operationalize its renovated shelter dedicated for male victims, and it continued accommodating adult male trafficking victims in hotels or hostels without specialized services. The government continued to operate a shelter for child victims of sexual violence, including sex trafficking. The government restricted victims’ freedom of movement at shelters. However, during the reporting period, the government began allowing foreign national children residing in the NGO shelter to attend school. The MLHRDT could grant a special work permit to foreign victims during ongoing trafficking investigations; although more than a dozen applications were pending, the government had not issued any special work permits by the end of the reporting period.

Due to minimal training and application of victim identification SOPs and gaps in understanding of human trafficking among law enforcement and judicial officials, authorities penalized victims of trafficking for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The 2023 anti-trafficking law amendment included a non-punishment provision and granted the Director of Public Prosecutions the authority to decline prosecuting victims of trafficking who committed unlawful acts as a direct result of being trafficked. However, observers reported this provision was not enforced, and authorities inappropriately penalized some trafficking victims. In at least one case, civil society reported the government deported foreign national trafficking victims after the court argued the case could not move forward because the victims were unlawfully in Mauritius. Observers reported law enforcement arrested and detained some trafficking victims while they screened their cases before referring them to shelter services.

The anti-trafficking law enabled victims participating in criminal justice proceedings to receive legal assistance and, subject to approval, witness protection services. Despite these protections, the government continued to lack formal policies and procedures to support trafficking victims’ participation in investigations and prosecutions and sometimes relied on trauma-insensitive tactics, including threats of arrest, prosecution, and deportation, to coerce victims into cooperating with law enforcement proceedings. The lack of a formal victim-witness protection policy, compounded by officials’ lack of victim-centered approaches and inappropriate treatment of victims, increased victims’ risk of re-traumatization and re-trafficking. Observers reported the government often required foreign national victims to stay in the country until investigations and prosecutions were complete by denying requests for repatriation, closely monitoring and restricting victims’ freedom of movement, and, in some cases, withholding the victims’ passports. Some victims reportedly refrained from participating in prosecutions because of improper treatment during investigations, distrust in the judicial system, and lengthy investigations and prosecutions. The law authorized the Ministry of Home Affairs to extend or issue a visitor’s permit to allow foreign trafficking victims who were required as a witness to remain in the country until the end of any criminal proceedings. Court procedures allowed victims to provide testimony via video or written statements; however, in practice, prosecutors expected trafficking victims to testify in-person.

The law allowed victims to obtain up to 500,000 rupees ($10,655) in restitution, but the court did not order restitution during the reporting period. The law also allowed victims to file civil suits against traffickers for compensation for damages exceeding the amount of restitution awarded during criminal proceedings. However, observers reported victims refrained from filing civil suits because of prohibitively lengthy and costly judicial processes, and no victims reportedly filed civil suits during the reporting period.

The government maintained efforts to prevent trafficking. The National Steering Committee on Trafficking in Persons (NSCTIP) continued to lead the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, and it convened nine times during the reporting period. NSCTIP was chaired by the Secretary for Home Affairs and composed of working-level officials. The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Trafficking in Persons, chaired by the Minister of Labor, Human Resource Development and Training, maintained oversight of NSCTIP. The MOGEFW, including the National Children’s Council and the CDU, led government efforts to combat child trafficking. The Prime Minister’s Office was the lead office responsible for addressing adult trafficking; however, government agencies remained unclear regarding which entity was responsible for adult trafficking cases. The government maintained a 2022-2026 NAP to combat trafficking. The government reported allocating at least 800,000 rupees ($17,045) to prevention efforts, including the NAP’s implementation, compared with one million rupees ($21,310) in the previous reporting period. The government conducted public awareness raising campaigns targeting local communities, schools, front-line workers, businesses, and migrant workers. The MOGEFW continued to operate a 24-hour hotline to report child abuse and violence against women and girls, including potential trafficking crimes. The government did not report identifying any trafficking cases from hotline calls, compared with identifying five potential cases in 2023.

The MLHRDT’s SMWU, composed of eight inspectors, maintained responsibility for monitoring and protecting all migrant workers and coordinated with police on potential trafficking cases. The MLHRDT was tasked with issuing migrant work permits, approving all employment contracts before they were sent to migrant workers in their home countries, and reexamining contracts once workers arrived in country to ensure there were no fraudulent changes. The SMWU conducted individual sessions with foreign workers within three months of their arrival to Mauritius to inform them of their rights, including producing relevant documents in their native language, and conducted follow-up workplace inspections. However, officials reported some migrant workers arrived on tourist visas, increasing vulnerability to trafficking and making cases harder to detect. Labor inspectors conducted routine inspections of employment sites, particularly in key sectors such as textiles and garment manufacturing; inspectors interviewed migrant workers and their employers using routine checklists that included forced labor indicators. MLHRDT officials reported identifying and referring at least one potential trafficking case to ODPP. Observers reported some employers retaliated against migrant workers who filed complaints and directed immigration officials to deport them. However, the government began requiring authorities to notify the MLHRDT before terminating employment contacts and returning migrant workers to their countries of origin. The 2024 Private Recruitment Agencies Act banned all worker-paid recruitment fees and prescribed penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine from 500,000 to one million rupees ($10,655 to $21,310). The government maintained an MOU with the Government of India to improve the recruitment process for Indian migrant workers and ensure safe and ethical working conditions.

The government made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by raising public awareness of laws against commercial sex and extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and abuse in Mauritius in the tourism sector. The government did not provide 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 Mauritius. Traffickers exploit girls from across the country – particularly from low-income communities – in child sex trafficking, including through online platforms. Children on Rodrigues Island, an autonomous territory of Mauritius, are vulnerable to sex trafficking. Vulnerable populations, including individuals in commercial sex, women and children of African descent (Creoles), and persons who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, are vulnerable to sex trafficking, particularly in urban areas such as Port Louis, Rose Hill, and Quatre Bornes. Increasingly, traffickers, including gang members, force Mauritian children and foreign migrants to carry drugs; traffickers commonly exploit victims’ substance use to maintain control and as a means of coercion. Taxi drivers, sometimes involved in commercial sex networks, knowingly transport child sex traffickers to victims. Traffickers exploit foreign migrants, particularly Malagasy women, recruited under false pretenses of employment or tourism in sex trafficking and domestic servitude in guesthouses, hotels, and massage parlors. Previous reports indicate traffickers, in partnership with criminal networks in Russia and Kazakhstan, recruit Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian women to move to Mauritius, under the guise of a marriage agency, then subsequently exploit them in sex trafficking.

Approximately 48,450 foreign migrant workers – primarily from Bangladesh, India, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and Nepal – are employed in Mauritius’ garment, textile, manufacturing, and construction industries; traffickers exploit migrants in labor trafficking in these sectors. Employers operating small- and medium-sized businesses employ migrant workers who have been recruited through private recruitment intermediaries, usually former migrant workers now operating as recruiting agents in Mauritius; labor trafficking cases are more common in these enterprises than in larger businesses, which recruit directly without the use of intermediaries. In these cases, employers often confiscate migrant workers’ passports to prevent them from changing jobs, enhancing vulnerability to forced labor. Traffickers exploit migrant workers, including North Korean overseas workers, in forced labor aboard foreign-owned fishing vessels in Mauritius’ territorial waters and ports.