Malta’s fight against human trafficking and forced labour still sluggish

The Maltese government remains lagging in the fight against human trafficking, without even increasing prosecutions over 2019, the United States’ Trafficking In Persons report says.

Still stuck as its Tier 2 level of countries, Malta has increased efforts on victim care funding, public awareness, and convictions – which included significant prison sentences – but the US Department of State said both investigations and prosecutions had decreased, and fewer victims were identified due to a lack of coordination among ministries.

Nor were labour recruitment regulations or massage parlours controlled, where vulnerability to trafficking was high.

“The government made uneven law enforcement efforts,” the TIP report said. While penalties of penalties of four to 12 years’ imprisonment were sufficiently stringent, fewer investigations were initiated by police.

In 2019, the police vice squad initiated five investigations into eight suspects for sex trafficking and one investigation into one suspect for labour trafficking. It also continued the investigation of five cases involving eight suspects ongoing from prior years. This compared with 10 investigations in 2018.

Additionally, the government did not prosecute any suspected traffickers in 2019, compared with 10 prosecutions in 2018.

Prosecutions of 20 suspects, all of whom were released on bail, from prior reporting periods remained ongoing. Three traffickers were convicted in 2019 – one man and one woman got 12 years’ imprisonment; another man got two years’ jail for forced labour.

But the United States report found the perennial issues with rule of law, corruption, slow court proceedings, and an understaffed police force hampering prosecutions and convictions.

“While there were no new investigations or prosecutions of government employees complicit in trafficking offences, an investigation, initiated in 2004, of a former police officer who allegedly acted as an accomplice to a convicted trafficker, remained ongoing during the reporting period. A court hearing for the former police officer was scheduled for April 2019, but the government reported the case was deferred for final submissions; if guilty of complicity in trafficking, the prolonged court proceedings and lack of a court judgement contributed to impunity and inhibited justice for victims.”

Identification and protection

Despite its first year of a public awareness campaign against human trafficking, police identified 11 foreign trafficking victims in 2019 compared with 24 and 30 victims, respectively, in the two prior reporting periods.

There were nine victims of labour trafficking and two victims of sex trafficking, four of whom were male and seven female. The majority of victims were from the Philippines, but there were also victims from Bangladesh, Colombia, The Gambia, and India.

Police continued to screen for sex trafficking victims among individuals in commercial sex. In 2019, the government spent €83,400 on victim care, including salaries for two social workers, training, and safe housing for victims; this amount was an increase compared with €53,000 in 2018.

Foreign victims who decided to assist police in prosecuting trafficking cases were entitled to a renewable six-month temporary residence permit free of charge, police protection, legal assistance, and the right to work.

The government could grant compensation to victims from state funding; unlike in previous years, the government did not issue compensation to any victims during the reporting period because it received no such requests. Additionally, prosecutors could file for restitution from traffickers in criminal cases; unlike in previous years, the government did not award restitution to any victims during the reporting period.

The TIP report also said an inter-ministerial anti-trafficking monitoring committee did not meet during 2019, and its national action plan remains a draft plan for 2020-2023.

“Authorities and NGOs continued to report a lack of effective inter-agency coordination on trafficking issues. The government reduced its anti-trafficking training budget from €20,000 in 2018 to €16,000 in 2019.”

Forced labour and trafficking profile

Fraudulent labour recruitment remained a significant concern during the reporting period: traffickers would sometimes replace the originally signed contract with a less favourable one upon arrival, or force victims to perform a different job than what was agreed upon.

“NGOs continued to report a lack of oversight and regulation on the licensing for massage parlours, which remained places of high concern for sex trafficking. Traffickers would sometimes confiscate the passports of victims upon arrival…

“Labour trafficking victims originate from China, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, with increasing numbers from the Philippines. Women from Southeast Asia working as domestic workers, Chinese nationals working in massage parlours, and women from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Ukraine working in nightclubs represent populations vulnerable to trafficking.”

The US embassy estimates approximately 5,000 irregular migrants from African countries reside in Malta. These remain vulnerable to trafficking through the black labour market of jobs, including within the construction, hospitality, and domestic sectors. “Co-nationals and Maltese citizens frequently work together to exploit trafficking victims.”