Human trafficking in Papua New Guinea

Women and children were subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude; trafficked men were forced to provide labor in logging and mining camps.

Children, especially young girls from tribal areas, were most vulnerable to being pushed into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor by members of their immediate family or tribe.

Subsequent to their arrival, the smugglers turned many of the women over to traffickers who transport them to logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites where they are exploited in forced prostitution and involuntary domestic servitude.

Foreign and local men are exploited for labor at mines and logging camps, where some receive almost no pay and are compelled to continue working for the company indefinitely through debt bondage schemes.

Wealthy business people, politicians, and police officials who benefit financially from the operation of commercial sex establishments where trafficking victims are reportedly exploited were not prosecuted.

Due to severe resource and capacity constraints, it continued to rely on NGO's to identify and provide most services to potential victims.

The Department of Health, with NGO assistance, continued to set up support centers in hospitals throughout the country to provide trafficking victims with counseling and short-term medical care.

The Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) took the lead in coordinating and communicating on trafficking issues, and established an inter-agency Anti-Trafficking Committee that included foreign government and NGO members.

In partnership with IOM, the CLRC conducted the first National Human Trafficking and Smuggling Conference in March 2009, involving over 120 participants from both the government and NGO groups.

Officials took steps to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts through public awareness campaigns against prostitution, the proliferation of pornographic material, and the country's growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.