To a lesser extent, Malawi was a transit point for foreign victims and a destination country for men, women, and children from Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe subjected to conditions of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.
Within the country, some children were forced into domestic servitude, cattle herding, agricultural labor, and menial work in various small businesses.
South African and Tanzanian long-distance truck drivers and mini-bus operators moved victims across porous borders by avoiding immigration checkpoints.
Also for a second year, the Malawi Law Commission did not complete drafting comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation specifically outlawing all forms of human trafficking.
The Mchinji court convicted a trafficker caught while transporting 59 children to Zambia to be exploited in forced labor, and sentenced him to five years in prison.
Police, child protection, social welfare, and other officials received training in how to recognize, investigate, and prosecute instances of trafficking either directly from the government or in partnership with NGOs.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau's investigation, begun in 2007, into two complaints of government corruption relating to trafficking was ongoing at the end of the reporting period.
Malawi continued to depend heavily on foreign donors and NGOs to fund and operate most of the country's anti-trafficking programs.
These units provided limited counseling and, in some places, temporary shelter, though the capacity to identify and assist victims varied greatly among stations.
The Malawi Defense Force provided training on human rights, child protection, and the elimination of sexual exploitation to its nationals deployed abroad as part of peacekeeping missions.