The government maintained prevention efforts. The government continued implementing the 2018-2023 national anti-trafficking strategy and continued drafting a new national strategy. The MOJ continued to lead the National Authority, which included representatives from 13 ministries and experts from civil society; although the National Authority is an independent government body, it did not have a separate budget from the MOJ and lacked the resources to fully implement its mandate. A 2019 decree established SOPs and guidelines for the National Authority and four specialized commissions to focus on monitoring and evaluation, research, training and development, and tracking the causes of trafficking.
The National Authority established a network of trafficking survivors that served as a council to share experience, advise, and present recommendations to the committee to help improve its work during previous reporting periods; the government did not report if the survivor consultant network was still active. The government continued to conduct numerous anti-trafficking public awareness and information campaigns, at times in partnership with civil society organizations. The government provided expertise to the Lebanese and Libyan governments, in coordination with a foreign donor, to develop victim identification tools; the Lebanese and Tunisian governments launched Lebanon’s new victim identification toolkit in Tunis March 2024.
The government operated a hotline to report potential trafficking crimes, which was operational five days a week during regular business hours and whose operators spoke Arabic, French, and English. The hotline received 302 calls in 2023, of which 57 resulted in identified victims, referral to assistance, or criminal investigations. The government initiated the process of acceding to the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings at the end of the reporting period.
After President Saied’s February 2023 remarks accusing migrants from sub-Saharan Africa of being part of a plot to change the demographics of the country, sub-Saharan migrants experience increased violence, evictions, and barriers to employment that further increased distrust of authorities and vulnerability to trafficking.
The Agency for Placement Abroad in Private Establishments (EPPA) continued to regulate private labor recruiters and had 31 EPPA officers in Tunisian embassies abroad to oversee labor migration. Article 4 of Law 2010-2948 on the EPPA prohibited worker-paid recruitment fees. The Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment maintained three resource centers for Tunisian labor migrants to offer support and services before, during, and after traveling abroad for work. In addition, the Directorate General for Immigration continued to coordinate with the Minister of Vocational Training and Employment to combat illegal job recruitment agencies. The National Agency for Employment and Independent Work (ANETI) maintained a network of 120 approved private recruiting agencies, 1,000 job advisors, and an online platform to improve employment searches in Tunisia and prevent exploitative work contracts. ANETI raised awareness about its work and advised job seekers to avoid communicating with unauthorized recruitment agencies as they may use exploitative contracts. Law No. 37 of 2021 defined the terms of employment for domestic workers and the rights and obligations of the employer and wage earner, as well as monitoring and inspection mechanisms. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Women, Children and Family signed a partnership agreement to implement Law 37, which included measures such as training courses, establishing a complaint mechanism, and creating a database for domestic workers. Civil society reported concerns the government did not provide sufficient initiatives to address the internal child domestic servitude problem. The government made efforts to reduce demand for commercial sex acts, including by conducting awareness campaigns targeting purchasers of commercial sex.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
