Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Somalia (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes with deep concern that the Government’s report has not been received. It expects that the next report will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous comments. The Committee informs the Government that, if it has not supplied replies to the points raised by 1 September 2021, then it may proceed with the examination of the application of the Convention on the basis of the information at its disposal at its next session.

Repetition

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons and forced labour. The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. However, it notes the observations of the Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU), received on 28 August 2015, which state that Somalia is a source, transit, and destination country for trafficking in persons. Somali men work as herdsmen and as migrant workers in the Gulf States in conditions of forced labour. The FESTU also states that women are trafficked within Somalia for sexual exploitation and forced labour in agriculture, livestock herding, construction and domestic work. It indicates that section 14 of the Provisional Constitution of August 2012 prohibits trafficking and forced labour and that section 464 of the Penal Code provides for penalties of six months to five years of imprisonment for the exaction of forced labour. However, the FESTU states that these provisions are not implemented by the Government, and that neither investigations nor prosecutions have been carried out. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary measures to prevent and combat trafficking in persons for labour and sexual exploitation. In this regard, it requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that national legislation prohibiting trafficking and forced labour is effectively applied and to provide information in this respect.