Denver – The latest US Trafficking in Persons’ report (TIP) has revealed that once again, Algeria remains at the bottom of the list of countries proactively taking a stand against human trafficking operations. The report highlighted several flaws in the Algerian government’s policies, especially exploring how these failures continue to be exploited by trafficking groups in the country.  

Ineffective legislation and enforcement

Algeria’s current legislation is inherently detrimental to the fight against trafficking within the country. Although the country’s legislatures included a constitutional amendment “condemning” trafficking, victims are still mandated to prove “the existence of force, fraud or coercion to constitute an offense,” in contradiction with international trafficking laws. 

This makes it difficult to prosecute cases where evidence of force, fraud, or coercion may not be apparent to law enforcement, especially in cases involving young children. Such flaws in Algeria’s legal system negate the superficial condemnation that was added to the constitution, as many cases of child sex trafficking still escape prosecution in the country.

Also mentioned in the TIP report is Algeria’s “uneven” enforcement of its laws. Although the country’s National Police and Gendarmerie allegedly dismantled 190 smuggling groups last year, Algeria’s government failed to report the investigation of any trafficking cases for the second year in a row. 

Algeria also chose to cancel the majority of anti-trafficking training for officials last year due to COVID. The report makes it clear that failure to take more effective enforcement measures against smugglers will continue to embolden traffickers to operate in the country. More alarming, however, is the report’s finding that Algeria’s child begging networks “were exploiting more than 6,000 unaccompanied migrant children” in the country and have reportedly increased in size over recent years. 

Failures to protect and prevent

Vulnerable populations such as women, children, and irregular migrants continue to be the main focus of trafficking organizations in the North African country. Adding insult to injury is that Algeria’s government has made “negligible” efforts to proactively identify and provide aid to these at-risk groups in order to prevent their coercion by traffickers. 

In the past year, the government reported the identification of zero current or potential trafficking victims within the country. But NGO groups reporting during the same time period reported “at least 26 victims of trafficking and 19 potential victims of trafficking,” according to TIP. Algeria also chose to deport masses of irregular migrants, rather than screen for potential victims of trafficking. 

Not only has Algeria deported large numbers of irregular migrants, argued the TIP report, it has also repeatedly left deported migrants stranded in the “desert on the borders of Mali and Niger,” with no aid or support. This forces many victims and potential victims to conceal their predicament under threat of being deported. 

An NGO reported last year that Algerian authorities expelled “potential victims of trafficking,” including refugees and asylum seekers, due to lack of screening measures in place to identify vulnerable individuals. 

Victims of trafficking that were expelled from Algeria often faced reprisals and hardships in their home countries, the Algerian government offered “insufficient” victim protection services and no legal alternatives besides expulsion. Algeria’s prevention efforts have also been hampered by the effects of COVID, and the country has not provided any reports on its 2020 trafficking statistics, nor has it addressed the nationwide appetite for commercial sex. 

Who remains at risk?

As with most trafficking networks, the most at risk individuals for exploitation are irregular migrants, particularly unaccompanied women and children. Criminal networks in Algeria target young sub-Saharan migrant women for sexual exploitation before or during their entrance into the country. 

These women are often forced into prostitution to repay smuggling debts to these same criminal groups. Children are also exploited and used in child begging rings throughout the country. Migrant men are also subject to forced manual labor in Algeria. One case highlighted in the TIP report involved 55 migrant men who were forced to work in Algeria’s construction industry, after being “fraudulently recruited” by traffickers to work in Spain. 

Algeria’s lack of effective policy to protect migrant trafficking victims, coupled with its popularity amongst migrants from central African countries, continues to entice smuggling groups to take advantage of the failures of Algeria’s policymakers and operate with relative impunity.

The solution

Algeria must improve its anti-trafficking efforts through policy reform, increased law enforcement investigation of trafficking, and better support for the vulnerable people exploited or at risk of being exploited by criminal networks. The country must also cooperate with international organizations and embassies to guarantee safe repatriation of irregular migrant victims to their countries of origin. 

Doing so will increase the number of irregular migrants willing to come forward and report trafficking crimes. The TIP report also recommends that the country specifically amends the section of its penal code which requires “the obligation to demonstrate the use of force, fraud or coercion” as a prerequisite to prosecuting child sex trafficking crimes. 

In doing this, Algeria will enable more victims to come forward and ensure that they will not be penalized for reporting trafficking crimes, while their perpetrators will actually be prosecuted by the Algerian justice system. 

As long as Algeria’s government continues to indiscriminately punish irregular migrants without using proper screening and by failing to implement comprehensive anti-trafficking policies and adequate victim support, the country will remain a hotbed of trafficking activities.