Trafficking in persons Maldives, in 11 editions.

current situation:
Maldives is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for Maldivian women and children subjected to human trafficking within the country; labor and sex trafficking; primarily Bangladeshi and Indian migrants working both legally and illegally in the construction and service sectors face conditions of forced labor, including fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, nonpayment and withholding of wages, and debt bondage; a small number of women from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Asia, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet states are trafficked to Maldives for sexual exploitation; Maldivian women may be subjected to sex trafficking domestically or in Sri Lanka; some Maldivian children are transported to the capital for forced domestic service, where they may also be sexually abused victims of sexual abuse and forced labor
tier rating:
Tier 2 Watch List - – Maldives does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; the government does not have laws prohibiting all human trafficking offenses but introduced an anti-trafficking law however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the legislature in December 2012, approved an anti-trafficking government adopted a national action plan for 2012-13, 2015-2019 and formed an anti-trafficking steering committee in May 2012; the government reported that it prosecuted some sex trafficking cases is continuing to develop victim identification, protection, and referral procedures, but overall its anti-trafficking efforts did not take concrete actions to protect increase; only five trafficking victims and prevent trafficking; the government continues to lack systematic procedures investigations were conducted, no new prosecutions were initiated for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations the second consecutive year, and referring them to protective services; no convictions were made, down from one in 2013; some officials continue to confuse human warned businesses in advanced of planned raids for suspected trafficking with human smuggling and offenses; victim protection deteriorated when the presence state-run shelter for female victims barred access to victims shortly after opening in January 2014, in part because of undocumented migrants (2013) bureaucratic disputes, which dissuaded victims from pursuing charges against perpetrators; the government did not prosecute or hold accountable any employers or government officials for withholding passports (2015)

current situation: Maldives is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for women and children subjected to labor and sex trafficking; primarily Bangladeshi and Indian migrants working both legally and illegally in the construction and service sectors face conditions of forced labor, including fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, nonpayment and withholding of wages, and debt bondage; a small number of women from Asia, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet states are trafficked to Maldives for sexual exploitation; Maldivian women may be subjected to sex trafficking domestically or in Sri Lanka; some Maldivian children are transported to the capital for domestic service, where they may also be victims of sexual abuse and forced labor
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List – Maldives does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government adopted a national action plan for 2015-2019 2015-19 and is continuing to develop victim identification, protection, and referral procedures, but overall its anti-trafficking efforts did not increase; only five trafficking investigations were conducted, no new prosecutions were initiated for the second consecutive year, and no convictions were made, down from one in 2013; some officials warned businesses in advanced advance of planned raids for suspected trafficking offenses; victim protection deteriorated when the state-run shelter for female victims barred access to victims shortly after opening in January 2014, in part because of bureaucratic disputes, which dissuaded victims from pursuing charges against perpetrators; the government did not prosecute or hold accountable any employers or government officials for withholding passports (2015)

current situation: Maldives is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for women and Maldivian children subjected to labor and sex trafficking; primarily human trafficking within the country; Bangladeshi and Indian migrants working both legally and illegally in the construction and service sectors face conditions of forced labor, including fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, nonpayment and withholding of wages, and debt bondage; a small number of women from Asia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet states are trafficked to Maldives for sexual exploitation; Maldivian women may be subjected to sex trafficking domestically or in Sri Lanka; some Maldivian children are transported to the capital for forced domestic service, where they may also be victims of sexual abuse and forced labor sexually abused
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List – — Maldives does not fully comply with meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included convicting two individuals for trafficking-related offenses, convening the government adopted National Anti-Trafficking Steering Committee for the first time in two years; drafting and finalizing a 2020-2022 national action plan plan; however, efforts to hold employers accountable for 2015-19 trafficking did not increase, non-payment of wages and is continuing to develop of the retention of migrant workers’ passports continued; standard operating procedures for victim identification, protection, and referral procedures, but overall its anti-trafficking efforts did not increase; only five trafficking investigations were conducted, no new prosecutions not adopted; insufficient resources were initiated for devoted to the second consecutive year, and no convictions were made, down from one in 2013; some officials warned businesses in advance of planned raids for suspected trafficking offenses; victim protection deteriorated when national action plan; Maldives was granted a waiver per the state-run shelter for female victims barred access to victims shortly after opening in January 2014, in part because of bureaucratic disputes, which dissuaded victims Trafficking Victims Protection Act from pursuing charges against perpetrators; the government did not prosecute or hold accountable any employers or government officials for withholding passports (2015) an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — the Maldives government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to eliminate trafficking compared with the previous reporting period and was downgraded to period, therefore Maldives remained on Tier 2 Watch List; List for the second consecutive year; for more details, go to: https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-trafficking-in-persons-report/maldives/ https://www.state.gov/reports/2025-trafficking-in-persons-report/maldives/