The U.S Department of State has upgraded the Maldives to Tier 2 in the 2021 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report.
The latest TIP Report by the U.S State Department stated the Government of the Maldives does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. As such, the government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity. Therefore, the report stated the Maldives has been upgraded to Tier 2 from Tier 2: Watchlist.
The TIP report highlighted several efforts undertaken by the Maldives to tackle the issue of human trafficking during the reported period. As such, the report highlighted opening two investigations into cases allegedly involving government officials in trafficking or trafficking-related corruption, establishing the Office of Anti-Human Trafficking (ATO) headed by a Director in the Ministry of Defence, dedicating funding for the office and the national action plan (NAP) in the official budget for the first time and passing amendments to the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act to bring the definition of human trafficking in line with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
The report also noted the efforts of the government in completing the construction of a trafficking victims shelter, elevating the human trafficking unit in the Maldives Police Service (MPS) to an anti trafficking department and holding its first ever social media awareness campaign on International Migrant’s Day to raise awareness on human trafficking, as well as drafting several standard operating procedures (SOPs) for victim identification, shelter operations, and referral to victim services.
Maldives had been on Tier 2: Watchlist since 2017 before the upgrade to Tier 2 this year. If the Maldives had failed to achieve an upgrade this year, the country would have been automatically demoted to Tier 3.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated demotion to Tier 3 could have led to a cut-off of non-humanitarian aid supplied by the U.S government to the Maldives.