[From the introductory text accompanying this report on the U.S. Department of State website: "In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti-trafficking progress of countries that may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2010 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2009 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May – the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report – and November. Readers are requested to refer to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large-scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country or territory."]

The Government of the Netherlands Antilles has made some progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2009 TIP Report. The government has not yet passed pending legislation criminalizing trafficking, but, in an initial positive step, the Minister of Justice separated the human trafficking article from the broader code of criminal law in order to facilitate its expeditious passage.

The anti-trafficking coordinator of the Netherlands Antilles formally trained officials, including health officials working with women in the Curacao government-regulated brothel, on identifying trafficking and providing victim assistance. Netherlands Antilles officials also worked with Dutch authorities to establish new procedures giving foreign women in this brothel control of all of their travel documents. The anti-trafficking coordinator continued to initiate anti-trafficking public awareness activities, including dissemination of anti-trafficking information via social media.

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