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Tuesday, June 28, 2011 - 4.00GMT |
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Sri Lanka's progress in preventing human
trafficking - US Trafficking in
Persons Report |
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The Government of Sri Lanka made progress in its efforts to prevent human trafficking, stated The 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report released yesterday (27) by the US Department of State.
The government convicted three traffickers, in the first case under its anti-trafficking legislation, and rejuvenated its inter-agency task force, it added.
The report also stated that the Sri Lankan government increased law enforcement efforts in addressing human trafficking cases over the reporting period. Sri Lanka prohibits all forms of trafficking through an April 2006 amendment to its penal code, which prescribes punishments of up to 20 years' imprisonment. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious offenses, such as rape, the report added.
Amendments passed in 2009 to the Foreign Employment Act expanded the powers of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) to prosecute recruitment agents who engage in fraudulent recruitment, prescribing a maximum penalty of four years' imprisonment and fines of $1,000, and restricting the amount that employment agents can charge. In March 2011, three traffickers were convicted and sentenced to nine years each for forcing women into prostitution, in one case. This is the first recorded convicted case under Sri Lanka's counter-trafficking amendment, the report said.
It also said the government formed an inter-ministerial anti-trafficking task force in October 2010, led by a coordinator from the Ministry of Justice, and developed a terms of reference on how government agencies will work together to combat trafficking.
Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapaksa inaugurating the 50th annual sessions of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) in Colombo yesterday (27) said that it is vital to ensure greater effectiveness with regard to regulatory mechanisms at the international level, in respect of issues which are of immediate concern to many of our countries.
"Money laundering, gun running, drug trafficking, people smuggling, and economic crime in general – many of which have an intimate connection with international terrorism – continue to pose serious challenges, which call for a prompt and vigorous response by the international community," President Rajapaksa said.
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