Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - United Republic of Tanzania (Ratification: 1962)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It is therefore bound to repeat its previous comments.

Repetition

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons. Penalties and law enforcement. The Committee previously noted the adoption of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (No. 6 of 2008). Pursuant to section 4 of the Act, trafficking in persons is an offence, punishable with a fine of between 5 million Tanzanian shillings (TZS) and TZS100 million (approximately US$3,172–$63,577), or to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years and not more than ten years, or both. Pursuant to section 5 of the Act, a person who promotes, procures or facilitates the commission of trafficking in persons commits an offence, and is liable to a fine of between TZS2 million and TZS50 million (approximately $1,272–$31,083), or to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year, but not more than seven years, or both. The Government stated that training on human trafficking was conducted for officers of command districts as well as criminal investigation officers responsible for human trafficking. The Committee therefore requested the Government to provide information on the application of the Act in practice.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that, in 2016, around 100 human trafficking cases were investigated, of which 23 offenders were prosecuted in the courts of law, and 19 traffickers were convicted. Among them, one perpetrator was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment, two to seven years’ imprisonment and three to five years’ imprisonment. However, the Committee notes that, according to the Government’s replies to the list of issues of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in February 2015, an Indian man involved in the trafficking of eight Nepalese girls was convicted and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment or to pay a fine of TZS15 million. The perpetrator paid the fine and was released (CEDAW/C/TZA/Q/7-8/Add.1, paragraph 84). Referring to paragraph 319 of the 2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, the Committee recalls that, when the sanction consists only of a fine or a very short prison sentence, it does not constitute an effective sanction in light of the seriousness of the violation and the fact that the sanctions need to be dissuasive. The Committee also notes that, in its concluding observations of 2016, the CEDAW expressed its concern at the persistence of trafficking in, and sexual exploitation of, women and girls in the country and reports of trafficking in girls for domestic work and sexual exploitation (CEDAW/C/TZA/CO/7-8, paragraph 24). The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act is applied so that sufficiently effective and dissuasive penalties of imprisonment are imposed and enforced in practice in all cases. The Committee also requests the Government to continue providing information on the application of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, including the number of investigations and prosecutions, as well as the penalties applied.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the near future.