Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

is principally a destination and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation

Sexual slavery

Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...

 and forced labor. It is also a source country for underage Surinamese girls, and increasingly boys, trafficked internally for sexual exploitation. Some of these children are trafficked into the sex trade surrounding gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 mining camps in the country’s interior. Foreign girls and women from Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, and Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 are trafficked into Suriname for commercial sexual exploitation; some transit Suriname en route to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 men are subjected to possible debt bondage in Suriname, and are subject to forced labor in supermarkets and the construction sector. Chinese women reportedly are exploited sexually in massage parlors and brothels. Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an migrants, typically en route to French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

, sometimes are forced to work in Surinamese agriculture. The Government of Suriname does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government sustained a moderate level of law enforcement action against trafficking crimes, and modestly improved victim assistance and prevention efforts. However, official complicity with suspected trafficking activity is an area for concern.

Prosecution

The Surinamese government sustained moderate anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts over the last year. Suriname prohibits all forms of human trafficking through its criminal code, prescribing punishment from five to 20 years’ imprisonment. These punishments are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

. An interagency anti-trafficking in persons working group leads government efforts to investigate and prosecute traffickers. During the reporting period, the government convicted a defendant charged with trafficking Brazilian women into prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

, and sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison. A trial against four brothel owners charged with trafficking women from the Dominican Republic for sexual exploitation continued. In February 2008, police arrested two brothel owners for trafficking Brazilian women into the country; these cases are pending. An anti-trafficking police unit randomly checked brothels for children as well as adults in forced or coerced conditions. Police cooperated with authorities in Guyana and the Dominican Republic on transnational trafficking cases, and sought improved cooperation with Colombia, the Netherlands Antilles

Netherlands Antilles

The Netherlands Antilles , also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao , in Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint...

, and French Guiana. There were reports that some Surinamese immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 and customs officials facilitated trafficking into the country by accepting bribes. No prosecutions of such trafficking complicity have been initiated, although investigations of these allegations continue.

Protection

The government made modest improvements to protect victims of trafficking during the year. Police and prosecutors relied chiefly on civil society partners, particularly a recently established NGO, the Trafficking-in-Persons Foundation, to shelter and assist victims. The government assisted these NGOs with finding safe houses to shelter victims, and worked closely with consular representatives from other countries on repatriation efforts. The government also extended services provided to domestic violence victims to trafficking victims, and widely distributed among key personnel an operations manual on how to identify and treat trafficking victims. Surinamese authorities encourage victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. There were reports that some foreign victims were incarcerated and deported for immigration violations. Suriname does not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they face hardship or retribution. The government’s anti-trafficking in persons working group is finalizing draft legislation to provide trafficking victims with temporary residency status. Suriname continued discussions with governments in neighboring Guyana, French Guiana, and Brazil on modalities for repatriating trafficking victims.

Prevention

The government improved prevention efforts during the reporting period. Senior officials continued to condemn and draw public attention to the problem of human trafficking in Suriname. The government’s anti-trafficking in persons working group worked with the International Organization for Migration

International Organization for Migration

The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization. It was initially established in 1951 as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration to help resettle people displaced by World War II....

to implement awareness-raising campaigns across the country, reaching approximately 40,000 people. Outreach activities also were directed to the nation’s border area with Guyana, where many trafficking victims enter the country. Military police, who man ports of entry in this area, were trained on identifying potential trafficking victims. The anti-trafficking in persons working group also issued widespread media warnings about potential trafficking activity after suspicious advertisements were placed in local newspapers recruiting young people to work abroad. However, no discernible government campaigns to reduce demand for commercial sex acts took place during the reporting period. Suriname has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.