Malta remains a destination country for women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, according to the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 for Malta.

The annual report cites evidence that women from Russia, the Ukraine, Romania and other Eastern European countries “may be trafficked to Malta for forced prostitution”. It places Malta in the second of three tiers, categorising it as a mid-risk country. Other EU states placed in the second tier are Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal and Romania.

The rest of the EU is categorised as Tier 1, according to classifications drawn up by the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The State Department submits a yearly report to the US Congress on the efforts of foreign governments to eliminate severe forms of human trafficking.

While pointing out that the Maltese government does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, the report notes it is making “significant” efforts to do so.

Along these lines, the State Department acknowledges the fact that last year, Malta took “initial steps” towards formalising a victim referral mechanism and providing training for law enforcement officials but has “not yet conducted any trafficking prevention activities”.

The State Department has urged Malta to target awareness-raising activities towards sex trade clients, continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute human trafficking, convict and sentence trafficking offenders – including public officials complicit in trafficking, and to formalise legal alternatives to the removal of victims to countries where they would face retribution or hardship.

The report also advised Malta to demonstrate a “sustained implementation” of a formal trafficking victim identification and referral mechanism, increase the advertising of its hotline for trafficking prevention and increase the distribution of prevention publications to potentially vulnerable people, including migrants rescued at sea.

While, according to the report, towards the end of the year Malta initiated efforts to prevent human trafficking, the government “did not conduct an anti-trafficking awareness campaign or a campaign to reduce demand for commercial sex acts”.

On the positive side, the report notes how, in March 2008, the government agreed to extend its existing hotline to serve trafficking victims, increase training for hotline personnel to improve their ability to respond to trafficking issues and publicise the existence of the hotline.

The report observes that Malta has taken positive steps to protect victims of trafficking over the last year.

In March 2008, a Memorandum of Understanding was finalised by the Social Policy Ministry and the Police that expands cooperation on identifying potential trafficking victims and referring them to available services.

While there was no evidence that trafficking victims were punished for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of their being trafficked, there were, the report states, no formal measures to proactively identify victims.

Malta encourages victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking crimes and foreign trafficking victims are assisted by Malta through temporary shelter in government-funded homes used primarily for domestic violence victims.

Government officials provide legal alternatives to the deportation of foreign victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution on a case-by-case basis and, the report notes, all trafficking victims have voluntarily returned to their country of origin.

The report also notes that Malta has demonstrated increased efforts to prosecute trafficking offences over the last year.

Malta’s criminal code currently prohibits trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude, and prescribes punishments of two to nine years’ imprisonment.

In 2002, the government enacted Chapter Nine of the penal code to replace the White Slave Traffic Ordinance, an antiquated British statute, while last year it altered the penal code with Act XXXI to increase penalties for the rape or prostitution of a minor, now prescribing a three to nine year sentence. The report finds the penalties “sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes”.

According to police feedback, two separate investigations in 2007 led to the arrest of seven Maltese nationals for the trafficking of eight Russian and Ukrainian women for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

In one case, the victims told police they were recruited in Russia by Maltese nationals.

The Malta police had conveyed the information to Russian authorities, and the perpetrators were apprehended in Moscow. Those arrested are now awaiting trial in Malta.

In March last year, the government prosecuted four people for trafficking a Romanian woman into commercial sexual exploitation.

A police officer convicted for complicity in trafficking in 2005 received a three-year sentence following an appeal in 2006, and in 2007 was released after serving a total of two years in prison.

Another police officer, convicted in 2005, remains out of jail on bail, pending his appeal.