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[ Country-by-Country Reports ] MONGOLIA (TIER 2)
[Extracted from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2008] Mongolia is a source
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual
exploitation and forced labor. Although it remains difficult to quantify,
trafficking continues to be a problem in Mongolia. One NGO reported that its
hotline received many more reports of trafficking this year than in the
previous year. Mongolian women and girls are trafficked to China, Macau,
Malaysia, and South Korea for both forced labor and sexual exploitation.
Mongolian men are trafficked to Kazakhstan for labor exploitation. There is
also concern about child labor in the construction, mining, and industrial
sectors, where they are vulnerable to injury and face severe health hazards,
such as exposure to mercury. Some Mongolian women who enter into marriages
with foreign husbands—mainly South Koreans—were subjected to
conditions of involuntary servitude after moving to their husbands’
homeland. Mongolia continues to face the problem of children trafficked
internally for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, reportedly
organized by criminal networks. There have been several reports of Mongolian
girls and women being kidnapped and forced to work in the country’s
commercial sex trade. Some travel agents and tour guides who took part in an
anti-trafficking workshop expressed concern that child sex tourism might be
increasing; they noted that South Korean sex tourists were arriving in
greater numbers and frequenting nightspots where girls and women were in
prostitution. Around 150 North Koreans are currently employed in Mongolia as
contract laborers. On February 5, 2008, the Mongolian government signed an
agreement with North Korea that could bring as many as 5,300 North Korean
laborers to Mongolia over the next five years. Although there is no evidence
of force, fraud, or coercion on the part of the North Korean government in
the recruitment of North Koreans for these positions, once overseas North
Korean workers do not appear to be free to leave their employment, and it is
unclear whether the workers in Mongolia receive their full wages. The Government
of Mongolia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do
so. The government made clear progress in its efforts to address trafficking
over the past year, particularly in the areas of legislative reforms and the
prosecution of trafficking offenders. Insufficient assistance to victims was
provided by the government, and there were some indications of complicity in
severe forms of trafficking by government officials. However, the government
took major legislative steps to fight trafficking, including expanding the
scope of the anti-trafficking law to outlaw the recruitment, harboring, and
transportation of victims. The government convicted 18 trafficking offenders,
up from zero in the previous 12-month period, and initiated prosecutions of
many others. The government embraced anti-trafficking training provided by
NGOs for police, immigration officials, Border Force officials, and other
civil servants. The government started distributing one million NGO-sponsored
trafficking awareness passport and train ticket inserts, which led to the
rescue of four Mongolian trafficking victims in Malaysia. The government also
raised the salaries of judges to make them less susceptible to bribery. While
the government lacked the resources to combat trafficking effectively on its
own, it cooperated with NGOs and regional and international organizations on
anti-trafficking measures. However, NGOs report that cooperation varied
considerably by government ministry. |