The United States State Department has stated that displaced persons and war widows are more likely to be victims of human trafficking in Sri Lanka, with young boys being forced into prostitution, in their annual report on human trafficking.
The report, released on Tuesday, stated that,
The report acknowledged government complicity in running prostitution rings, noting,
See our earlier post: Sri Lanka’s leaders complicit in forced prostitution and child sex trafficking (22 Dec 2010)
It was also stated,
The report, released on Tuesday, stated that,
"Within the country, women and children are subjected to sex trafficking in brothels. Boys are more likely than girls to be forced into prostitution in coastal areas for domestic child sex tourism."It also went on to say that,
"Internally-displaced persons, war widows, and unregistered female migrants remained particularly vulnerable to human trafficking."Earlier reports have stated that war widows were being forced into prostitution in the North-East, with rackets taking children from the North-East into tourists resorts in the South being uncovered.
The report acknowledged government complicity in running prostitution rings, noting,
"Government employees’ complicity in trafficking remained a problem. There were allegations that police and other officials accepted bribes to permit brothels to operate; some of the brothels exploited trafficking victims.A leaked US embassy cable from 2007 stated that Tamil paramilitary groups ran prostitution rings to “take care” of Sri Lankan soldiers, as well as kidnapping and trafficking minors to prostitution rings throughout India and Malaysia. It was reported that some women were forced to have sex with between 5 and 10 soldiers every night.
Many recruitment agencies were run by politicians or were politically connected. Some sub-agents cooperated with Sri Lankan officials to procure forged or modified documents, or real documents with false data, to facilitate travel abroad. There were no reported law enforcement actions taken against officials complicit in human trafficking."
See our earlier post: Sri Lanka’s leaders complicit in forced prostitution and child sex trafficking (22 Dec 2010)
It was also stated,
"In addition, there are reports of children being subjected to bonded labor and forced labor in dry-zone farming areas on plantations, and in the fireworks and fish-drying industries. Some child domestic workers in Colombo, generally from the Tamil tea-estate sector of the country, are subjected to physical, sexual, and mental abuse, non-payment of wages, and restrictions of their movement."Government abuse of trafficked people abroad was also recognised, with the report noting,
"Serious problems remain, particularly in protecting victims of trafficking in Sri Lanka and abroad, and not addressing official complicity in human trafficking."
"There have been some reports of abuse by Sri Lankan embassy officials in shelters abroad, and one official in a Sri Lankan embassy reportedly condoned passport withholding – a sign of human trafficking – by employees in that country."
