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Articles 1 (paragraph 1), 2 (paragraph 1), and 25, of the Convention. Trafficking in persons. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that the Government had not replied to the observations presented in October 2006 by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) – now the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). These observations referred to trafficking in persons, particularly women, for purposes of prostitution, sex tourism and pornography, primarily to Europe as the destination. The ICFTU described the mechanism by which these women, once at the destination, find themselves caught up in a spiral of debt and are constrained to pay it off by prostituting themselves. The trade union confederation also referred to the situation of undocumented Bolivian workers who were victims of forced labour in São Paulo. Recruited in Bolivia by intermediaries, these migrant workers arrive in Brazil having already contracted debt and see their identity documents confiscated by the traffickers, who threaten to report them to the police. The ICFTU also commented on the inadequacy of national legislation, which only addresses trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation.

In spite of the lack of information from the Government on this issue, the Committee noted from information available on the Internet sites of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Justice that the Government had taken certain measures to combat trafficking in persons and requested it to provide further information in this regard.

The Committee notes with regret that in its latest report the Government has not provided any information on the measures taken to combat trafficking in persons. It considers this all the more regrettable, given that the Single Confederation of Workers (CUT), in its observations which were transmitted to the Government in September 2008, underlined the urgent need to elaborate and implement public policies to combat trafficking in persons and forced labour in urban areas.

In these circumstances, the Committee requests the Government to refer to its previous direct request and asks once again the Government to provide detailed information on activities undertaken in the framework of the national policy on combating trafficking in persons and the national plan to combat trafficking in persons (PNETP). Recalling that sections 231 and 231-A of the Penal Code only criminalize trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation, the Committee asks the Government to indicate the provisions used to punish trafficking in persons for purposes of exploitation of their labour. In this regard, please also provide information on the judicial procedures filed against persons who engage in trafficking in persons, as well as on measures taken to encourage victims to report to the relevant authorities and to ensure the protection of the latter. Finally, the Committee hopes that the Government will indicate the measures taken or envisaged to sensitize the population about trafficking in persons, particularly those persons most vulnerable to this type of exploitation.