Too little funding for enforcement by Malta to combat human trafficking, US warns

The United States has once again flagged Malta’s poor funding and enforcement efforts to combat human trafficking on the island. 

In its annual report for 2015 released earlier this week, the US State Department warned that Malta is a source and destination country for sex and labour trafficking and that the government fails to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

In fact, only €20,000 was allocated to the anti-human trafficking budget, significantly slashed from the €105,000 that was allocated in 2012. 

Chinese women working in massage parlours that have mushroomed across the island, and Eastern European women working in nightclubs were identified as the most vulnerable to sex trafficking, while African, Chinese, Indonesian, Filipino and Vietnamese migrants were deemed the most vulnerable to labour trafficking. 

“The government of Malta does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so,” the State Department said. “During [2015], the government provided trafficking victims with shelter and services and funded training for police officers, community centre employees and diplomats, while its inter-ministerial anti-trafficking committee continue to implement the national action plan. 

“However, the government investigated and prosecuted fewer trafficking cases, identified fewer trafficking victims, did not adequately fund anti-trafficking efforts, and did not conduct national awareness campaigns.”

Earlier this year, home affairs minister Carmelo Abela told the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Human Trafficking that Malta is “committed” to fight the crime, citing the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to implement an action plan. 

The committee is chaired by the home affairs ministry’s permanent secretary, Kevin Mahoney, and includes Attorney General Peter Grech, acting police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, Caritas director Leonid McKay, and Mark Musu – permanent secretary within the parliamentary secretariat for the rights of people with disability. Its secretary is Glenn Bedingfield, the Prime Minister’s aide, who runs an online blog that targets critics of the Labour government.

The committee’s action plan for last year included focused training for detention centre workers and for diplomatic and consular personnel, and informing potential victims about their rights as workers to a minimum wage, vacation leave and sick leave. Its targets for this year include research on the lives of immigrant women and children in open reception centres. 

However, the USSD said that the committee was stymied by a lack of funding and that the government in fact failed to conduct any anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. 

“Although the authorities conducted 19 labour inspections last year, the government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labour,” it said. 

Moreover, the USSD flagged the slow pace of court proceedings, with nobody convicted of human trafficking since early 2012 when pimp Raymond Mifsud was jailed for 11 years for locking up Eastern European women in his farmhouse and forcing them to have sex with men for €35. The case took seven years to conclude. 

The police conducted two human trafficking investigations and initiated two prosecutions during 2015, a decrease from the previous years when five investigations and seven prosecutions took place. 

“The government, in collaboration with an international organisation, provided training for 10 police officers and 35 community centre employees on victim identification, but did not offer specialized training for prosecutors or judges. Frequent turnover of vice-unit investigators, who also served as prosecutors, presented a challenge to authorities working to ensure all stakeholders receive specialized training.” 

Recent high-profile human trafficking cases that have ended in court include those against the directors of Bulebel textile factory Leisure Clothing, and against the directors of cleaning company Mr Clean.