July 21 (Xinhua) -- The incidence rate of COVID-19 rose again in Mongolia due to the prevalence of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the country's health ministry said Thursday.

The two subvariants have caused around 10 percent of all new cases in Mongolia recently, said the ministry.

In response, the country's Health Minister Sereejav Enkhbold has ordered all relevant health institutions to stockpile necessary medicines and medical supplies, urging the public to wear masks in public places and follow other health guidelines.

Mongolia has reported 323 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 934,357, according to the ministry.

Less than 100 new infections had been registered in the country for several months before mid-July.

The Asian Development Bank has lowered its growth forecast for developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region this year to 4.6 percent.

The projection for 2022 that the ADB released on Thursday was cut by 0.6 percentage points from the 5.2 percent growth forecast issued in April.

Among the reasons for the downgrade, the ADB cites slower growth in China, where the government has stuck to a strict zero-COVID policy.

The bank says China's economy is expected to expand 4 percent this year, compared with its earlier projection of 5 percent.

It attributes China's slower growth to weakness in consumption caused by the lockdowns in Shanghai and instability in the housing market.

The ADB downgraded its growth forecast for India from 7.5 to 7.2 percent, saying higher-than-expected inflation will dampen consumption.

The bank raised its growth projection for Indonesia from 5 to 5.2 percent. It says higher prices for the country's coal and other key commodity exports are generating windfall export earnings.

The ADB says aggressive monetary tightening by central banks could cause turbulence in financial markets, and further rises in food prices could also pose risks for the region's economic outlook

Netherlands-based global payments infrastructure company TerraPay has partnered with Mongolia-based money transmitter and financial institution SendMN to simplify the complexity of cross-border payment transactions, Paypers reported.

The partners’ aim to improve the way Mongolians receive and send real-time payments. Mongolian customers will be able to receive remittances from major corridors like UK, USA, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland and also access major sending corridors like Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, and the USA.

The collaboration will facilitate P2P, P2B, B2P, and B2B transactions enabling diaspora residents to make low-cost, real-time transactions to beneficiaries in Mongolia.

According to a TerraPay representative, this partnership will enable the payments infrastructure company to deploy its technical solutions globally and offer Mongolian residents around the world cross-border payment options.

Cardano’s IOG has become the latest member of the Mongolian wing of the American Chamber of Commerce [AmCham]. According to the tweet, AmCham Mongolia stated,

We are very excited to announce our newest member a leading technology company committed to the highest principles of academic rigor and evidence-based software development.

Describing IOG as “one of the world’s pre-eminent blockchain infrastructure research and engineering companies”, the Mongolian entity also stated that the research wing build high-assurance blockchain infrastructure solutions for public, private sector and government clients.

Besides that, AmCham Mongolia is slated to host Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and his team for a special ‘Meet & Greet’ event. It has laid out the details of the event here.

Just some days ago, Hoskinson, CEO of IOG, the software studio behind Cardano [ADA] blockchain solutions, spoke on the feasibility of blockchain-based instruments in governmental systems.

In the The Crypto Mile podcast, Mr. Hoskinson sat down to discuss the prospects of blockchain systems in governance solutions.

The chief exec says that as distributed, democratic and permissionless systems, blockchain systems will enable public services to become more accessible than ever before:

“It enables the poorest and most vulnerable person in society equal access as the president of the US, and there has never been a time in human history that that has been the case”, he said.

Apart from that, it has the ability to prevent one nation [USA, China] from gaining absolute control over global political affairs. Thus improving the quality of governance.

“It is a better way of doing things with less friction, less fraud, less waste and abuse and more transparency and ultimately less consolidation of power.”

Cardano To Establish lab at University of Edinburgh

To begin with, blockchain technology can help prove its worth in various sphere of public services such as land contracts, commercial and government voting, health information, educational credentials, tax and legal information, etc.

In order to study various aspects of decentralization and its use for governance, IOG is planning to build a new entity in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh.

Mr. Hoskinson revealed that his team will research all blockchains, including Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH], to find out the most suitable one.

A whirlwind, seven-day trip exploring the capital of Mongolia, traversing the nation’s remote countryside, and camping in yurts—or “gers” as they’re called in Mongolian—might sound like a true adventure to even the most seasoned traveler.

Now, how about doing that trip without a change of clothes?

That’s just what happened to students in the Penn Global seminar Mongolian Civilization: Nomadic and Sedentary, professor Christopher P. Atwood and teaching fellow Stephen Garrett when they headed to Mongolia in May for the first time since before the pandemic. They arrived in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, on May 12. Their luggage, however, stayed in Turkey and didn’t join them until the final two days of the trip.

“Through it all the students were just super troopers,” says Atwood, Mongolian professor and chair of the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. “When I saw them joking with each other and asking good questions about Zanabazar and the history of Ulaanbaatar as a city, I kept on having to remind myself that some of them were still wearing the same [clothing] they were wearing on the plane.”

Most students agree the missing luggage was just an added bit of humor in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Mongolia with an insider’s view, thanks to Atwood’s connections and language fluency and Penn Global’s reach in the region. They did, however, eventually make a stop at a department store for essentials and Penn Global sent along funds so they could purchase much needed cold weather gear for their nights in the countryside where the temperatures drop dramatically after dark.

The group had spent the spring semester exploring how two intertwined ways of life—pastoral nomadism and settling down for religious, educational, and economic reasons—have shaped the cultural, artistic, and intellectual traditions of Mongolia. They studied how the Mongolian economy, literature, and steppe empires were built on grass and livestock and also learned how Mongolians have consistently used the foundations of empire to build sedentary monuments and buildings, whether funerary complexes, Buddhist monasteries, socialist boarding schools, or modern capitals. Then they took that newfound knowledge on the road with them to Mongolia.

They started off in Ulaanbaatar, exploring the nightlife and live music, upscale restaurants, and museums. Then they hopped into three vans for a long journey into the countryside, where they were stunned by the stark beauty of the grasslands, herds of animals like yaks and camels, and wildlife. They even managed to see the rare Przewalski’s horse, the last truly wild horse in the world.

“As we all agreed, driving through the countryside is like an unending movie,” Atwood says.

They stayed in Kharkhorin in gers, visited local museums and monasteries and met with herders to learn about their way of life. Then they headed back to Ulaanbaatar to meet with local artists, visit a ger district, and learn about the challenges of melding the nomadic and modern city ways of living. They finished with a visit to a jazz club and a tour of the Winter Palace of a Buddhist monk who became the last emperor of Mongolia.

“People have these ideas about nomadism, that nomads must be totally isolated from the rest of the world, that it’s completely incompatible with being part of the 21st century,” says Atwood. “I wanted the students to have an understanding that’s not the case; many people in the countryside in Mongolia are nomads, and they’re also living in the same 21st century that we’re living in. They are interested in hip hop, they’re interested in studying abroad, they are part of the same world as us.”

Azzaya Galsandum, a rising sophomore from Ewing, New Jersey, majoring in linguistics, signed up for the course to learn more about her culture: Her parents came to the U.S. from Mongolia more than two decades ago, and she had never visited.

“They were excited for me, and my mom was definitely tearing up when I boarded the plane,” she says.

For her, the highlight was visiting the countryside, since both her parents came from nomadic families in that region. She was able to visit her half-siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time.

“I actually got to see the ger where my mother was raised,” she says, adding that she’d brought a bunch of gifts for everyone, but they were stuck in her missing luggage.

“It made me realize how my parents lived when they were growing up. My mom’s favorite animals are goats and sheep, and we saw this giant herd of sheep and goats and these little baby goats came running up to us. I understood why my mom loves all this. I feel such a connection to it now.”

Galsandum says her classmates surprised her with how excited they were about all things Mongolian, and they turned to her cultural expertise and language skills throughout the trip, at restaurants, gift shops, and more, despite her being one of youngest on the trip.

“I know they signed up for the course, but it’s still surprising to see people who are so interested in my culture because where I grew up I could count the number of Asian people in my school on one hand,” she says. “I’m not used to people actually being interested in my culture, but my classmates were so excited about all the Mongolian stuff. It was amazing to be able to see people try things that I eat all the time, and they all liked it.”

Angela Lao, a rising senior from Macau studying neuroscience, says she was drawn to the Penn Global seminar because she always wanted to study abroad but can’t really take off a full semester with her pre-med course load. A brief trip in May was ideal, she says, and this Mongolia course aligned with her East Asian studies minor and interests.

Memorable moments for her were going emergency shopping before the trip to the countryside, having fun in the museums, the kindness of the locals, and gazing amazed at one of the world’s tallest Buddhas. She also took a free afternoon to write postcards and deliver them to the local post office with Atwood and shop for some cashmere.

She came up with the idea for her final project based on her experience with traffic congestion in Ulaanbaatar.

“It was something I noticed during the trip and never would have even thought about before going there,” she says. “I was actually pretty happy to do my final project.”

Lao also was fascinated by a visit to a boarding school for children of nomadic families. The government is pushing for universal literacy and universal schooling, so children of herding families now attend these schools away from home. The kids showed off their art and asked lots of questions.

“These opportunities that Penn Abroad offer students are truly life changing, and I’m so glad I took advantage of it,” she says.

Alan Burd, a rising senior studying international relations and Russian from Silver Spring, Maryland, says he signed up for the course because it seemed like an opportunity he might not have again in his lifetime, to see Mongolia from these varied and up-close vantage points.

He also found the countryside to be a highlight of the trip, visiting the monasteries, speaking with local herders who welcomed them into their homes with open arms, petting the goats and sheep, and taking in the landscape.

“We get to the campsite and we can’t help but stop to watch the sunset. It’s purple, blue, orange, red, all these colors and you see the valleys and the hills. I was just overwhelmed by the scenery,” he says. “It was breathtaking to see this beauty and smell the mountain air. It was almost surreal.”

For him, it was particularly interesting to see all the signs written in Cyrillic, which he could read because of his Russian language skills

“We had learned over the course of the semester about the historical influence the Soviet bloc had on Mongolia and the country’s many transitions,” he says.

His biggest takeaway was how the trip was a culmination of all they learned that semester in class in the form of experiential learning.

“We could go to the historic City Square and see Sukhbaatar’s statue or go to see Buddhist temples, and it was meaningful. It was only meaningful because we were working hard throughout the semester—connecting a lot of those things that we had learned in class,” he says. “It’s really amazing the process that happens: You go into a textbook; you talk to your professor; you talk to your class, but then you apply it to the real world around you.”

He says he knew it would be rewarding, but all expectations were exceeded.

“You can’t have the class without the trip and you can’t have as meaningful of a trip as we had without the class. You need it to go both ways,” Burd says. “I’m so grateful to Penn Global for pulling this off, despite the uncertainties along the way. They were adamant from the initial weeks in the semester that we would go, and it truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

FC Deren has played well during the group stage. They will now play in the A playoffs, thanks to a solid victory over the Swedish team Norrby IF today.

– We’re happy to reach the A playoffs, says Saruultugs Batbayar, one of the goal scorers in the game.

No goals were scored in the first half in the game between FC Deren and Norrby IF at Kviberg. FC Deren scored a very important goal ten minutes before full time. And the game was scored by one of the most talented players on the pitch.

– It felt great to score that goal, says Saruultugs Batbayar with a huge smile.

His teammate Batbayar Baatarchuluun then scored to make it 2-0 in the last minute of the game. The victory took FC Deren to the A playoffs.

– We appreciate that. This was our second win, as we beat the French team JSC Pitray-Olier Paris 2 White yesterday. We’re just so happy right now. I absolutely think that we can go far in this tournament, says FC Deren’s number 10.

The Mongolian players have a lot of fun together.

– I like the tournament. We travel a lot but this is the first time we meet a lot of teams from different countries. It’s a great experience for us. I like the people in the Gothia Cup. We learn things from other people all the time, says Saruultugs Batbayar.

FC Deren was founded in 2008, so they’re quite new as a football club.

– There’s just a few cups in Mongolia and some teams. Football isn’t very big in our country, says the goal scorer.

The 14-year-old has one idol in particular.

– I like Lionel Messi. I like his dribbling and how he thinks on the pitch, he says.

One day, he wants to play in the big arenas.

– I want to become a professional player and play in a top league in Europe, says Saruultugs Batbayar.

But first he wants to win more games in the Gothia Cup 2022!

During today’s regular meeting of the Cabinet, Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry G.Yondon presented the measures being taken to stabilize the price of fuel.

This month, A-80 fuel is being imported from Russia for USD 1,255, which increased by USD 81 compared with the previous month.

The price of fuel imported from Russia to Mongolia is directly related to the price of oil on the world market. The average cost of A-80 fuel has increased to MNT 3,758, AI-95 fuel to MNT 4,145, and diesel fuel to MNT 4,116 due to the increase in oil prices, the border price of import, and the USD exchange rate.

In order to reduce the increase in fuel prices, the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry reached an agreement with the Russian company Rosneft to purchase 120,000 tons of AI-92 gasoline at the border price of USD 840 per ton. As a result, the retail price of AI-92 gasoline, which was estimated to reach MNT 3,325 per liter in April, has been stabilized at MNT 2,390.

In July 2022, as a result of another negotiation with Rosneft, an agreement has been reached to buy AI-92 gasoline at USD 830 per ton until the end of December of this year. As a result, the border price of AI-92 gasoline, which reached USD 1,285, was reduced to USD 830 per ton, or the retail price of 1 liter of the product was reduced from MNT 3,728 to MNT 2,390. Moreover, it became possible to maintain the price of AI-92 at MNT 2,390 per liter until the end of the year, according to the Minister.

‘E-Mongolia’ center, which provides online services of government organizations and gives instructions and advices to citizens, opened in 14 aimags of the country.

A joint team of the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications and E-Mongolia Academy worked in rural areas between March and June of this year and digitized 1,281 local government services in 21 aimags.

During the rural trip, the joint team organized the ‘Open Door’ events for rural citizens to give them information, instructions and advice on how to use ‘E-Mongolia’ electronic platform to receive public services online.

The Government of Mongolia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore Mongolia remained on Tier 2. These efforts included investigating more traffickers and identifying more victims than the previous reporting period; improving information sharing and coordination among ministries and with international partners, including through the establishment of Mongolia’s first trafficking-specific Multidisciplinary Task Force (MDTF); creating and staffing a new prosecutor position to specialize in trafficking cases; and enacting a new labor law that addressed several longstanding vulnerabilities in the labor recruitment process. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. For at least the 10th consecutive year, the government did not formally identify any male victims. Overlapping and at times conflicting criminal code articles complicated anti-trafficking judicial processes and continued to incentivize prosecutions and convictions under lesser charges.

PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS:

Increase efforts to train officials on and implement Articles 12.3 and 13.1 of the criminal code to investigate and prosecute sex trafficking and forced labor crimes—including those allegedly committed or facilitated by law enforcement officials, detected through child labor inspections and hotlines, and handled in partnership with law enforcement counterparts in common destination countries—rather than under alternative administrative or criminal provisions that prescribe lower penalties. • Clarify anti-trafficking judicial procedures by reviewing and amending anti-trafficking legislation to eliminate conflicting or overlapping penalty provisions. • Systematize and fully implement formal procedures to guide government officials, including police, immigration officers, child rights officers, and labor authorities, in victim identification and referral to protective services—especially among men and boys, foreign workers, domestic and foreign nationals transiting major border crossing areas, domestic coal transport workers exploited or abused by People’s Republic of China (PRC)-based employers, women and children living in mining communities, and LGBTQI+ persons. • Amend relevant laws to ensure victims’ access to protection services, regardless of whether officials initiate formal criminal proceedings against the alleged traffickers. • Enact policies to fully institutionalize, make permanent, and allocate resources for the MDTF. • Amend Articles 16.1 and 16.4 of the criminal code to increase prescribed penalties such that they are in line with penalties for other child trafficking crimes. • Amend Article 8 of the Labor Law to align its definitions with preexisting anti-trafficking laws, including by eliminating exemptions for compulsory labor in basic landscaping and cleaning. • Allocate increased funding to support and expand both government and NGO-run shelters and other forms of tailored victim assistance and protection, including for male victims and children. • Strengthen efforts to monitor the working conditions of foreign laborers employed in Mongolia and screen them for labor trafficking indicators, including by increasing funding, resources, and training for labor inspectors and allowing them to conduct unannounced inspections.

PROSECUTION

The government increased law enforcement efforts. Article 13.1 of the criminal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking; it prescribed penalties of two to eight years’ imprisonment for offenses involving an adult victim and five to 12 years’ imprisonment for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. Other provisions of the criminal code additionally criminalized some forms of labor and sex trafficking. Article 13.13 separately criminalized forced labor and prescribed fines, community service, probation, and/or one to five years’ imprisonment. Article 12.3 of the criminal code criminalized sexual exploitation offenses, including some forms of sex trafficking; penalties ranged from two to eight years’ imprisonment for trafficking offenses involving individuals older than the age of 14 and 12 to 20 years’ imprisonment for those involving children younger than the age of 14. As in prior years, authorities sometimes prosecuted trafficking crimes under statutes carrying lesser penalties. Articles 16.1 and 16.4 criminalized “inducing a child to the committing of a crime” and “forcing a child into begging,” respectively; they both prescribed penalties of a travel ban for one to five years or one to five years’ imprisonment. In previous years, some prosecutors reportedly charged child forced begging cases as misdemeanors, rather than as more serious offenses. Observers noted complex case initiation and referral procedures, restrictions on contact between anti-trafficking police and prosecutors, judicial officials’ general unfamiliarity with anti-trafficking laws, rapid turnover of investigators, and criminal code articles with overlapping and often conflicting definitions and penalty provisions at times hindered investigations and prosecutions. In 2021, the government enacted a new labor law with a definition of forced labor that appeared to be narrower than the definition in Article 13.13 of the criminal code in that it only criminalized forced labor through force, the threat of force, or financial coercion. Separately, the labor law exempted from the definition of forced labor “basic landscaping and cleaning works performed by residents of certain regions, villages, habituated areas or cities,” which observers noted could be interpreted as allowing compulsory labor in public works. The government initiated 45 sex trafficking investigations involving at least 51 alleged perpetrators (compared with 36 investigations involving 49 alleged perpetrators in 2020). Seven of these investigations involving 32 women resulted from police raids on saunas, massage parlors, hotels, karaoke bars, and other venues suspected of facilitating commercial sex (11 investigations resulting from raids in 2020), and 23 resulted from police monitoring of sex solicitation on social media (unreported in 2020). The National Police Agency (NPA) maintained an anti-trafficking unit, which conducted 15 of these investigations (compared with eight in 2020). Authorities also initiated a new investigation into a case of alleged forced labor; the case involved at least one alleged perpetrator and at least three victims from Fiji, the Philippines, and Burma (compared with one investigation involving three victims in 2020). Although officials reported detecting one instance of forced child labor in hazardous work, they did not initiate a criminal investigation into the case or seek accountability for the alleged perpetrator. Authorities investigated an additional 41 cases of unspecified exploitation, some of which may have included definitional trafficking elements, involving 51 individuals. Authorities newly prosecuted 21 cases involving 32 defendants for alleged sex trafficking crimes, including four defendants under Article 12.3, eight defendants under 12.6, and 10 under Article 13.1 (compared with four under Article 12.3 and 17 under Article 12.31 in 2020); however, they prosecuted 11 of these cases under Articles 16.8 and 16.9 (“Advertising and dissemination of pornography or prostitution, inducement to a child” and “Advertising and dissemination of pornography or prostitution involving a child”), which carried lesser penalties. Proceedings against 19 defendants whose prosecutions began in 2020 were ongoing at the end of the reporting period. Unlike the previous year, there was one prosecution of an alleged forced labor crime under Article 13.13. Courts convicted 27 individuals for trafficking-related crimes in 2021—an increase from 18 in 2020—but this included fewer cases convicted under specific anti-trafficking criminal code articles. Courts convicted 13 individuals under anti-trafficking articles, including three under Article 12.3 and 10 under Article 13.1, compared to one and 17, respectively, in 2020; they did not convict any labor traffickers for the second consecutive year (three in 2019). Courts also convicted 10 individuals under Articles 16.8 and 16.9; authorities did not provide sufficient detail to ascertain whether these cases featured trafficking elements according to international definitional standards. Authorities reportedly sentenced three traffickers to terms ranging from three to eight years’ imprisonment under Article 12.3; 10 traffickers to terms ranging from six months to 20 years’ imprisonment under Article 13.1; and four traffickers to terms ranging from six months to five years’ imprisonment under Articles 16.8 and 16.9 (compared with 17 traffickers sentenced to terms ranging from five to 26 years’ imprisonment under Article 13.1 and one trafficker to seven years’ imprisonment under Article 12.3). One individual convicted under Article 13.13 faced only a fine. Courts ordered a total of 3.6 million Mongolian tugrik (MNT) ($1,260) as restitution payments to three victims as part of sentencing, but no victims were recompensated under Article 13.1 (compared with 798,400 MNT (or $280) under unspecified articles to at least one victim in 2019). There were unverified allegations of police complicity in trafficking crimes leading to an investigation that was ongoing at the end of the reporting period. In prior years, officials who facilitated or abetted forced labor crimes received administrative sanctions in lieu of criminal penalties. Authorities continued to categorize certain crimes as trafficking based on Mongolia’s more expansive legal definitions, culminating in law enforcement data that at times included cases involving child pornography, sexual extortion, and “organizing prostitution;” some of these cases also included trafficking elements in line with international definitional standards. In recent years, due to the misconception among many government officials that traffickers only exploit women and girls crossing borders, authorities rarely used Articles 12.3 or 13.1 to prosecute cases in which traffickers targeted male victims and instead used provisions with less stringent penalties. Civil society representatives reported various judicial entities often maintained conflicting or incomplete data on anti-trafficking case registration and history. The government frequently redirected law enforcement resources and personnel to contain the pandemic, at times interrupting certain antitrafficking efforts. The government continued organizing, facilitating, and providing funding and in-kind support for specialized training courses for law enforcement officers and social workers on trafficking. Observers continued to describe an acute need for additional training, resources, and dedicated personnel to properly handle trafficking cases; in an attempt to address this need, in 2021, the government designated the country’s first special prosecutor for trafficking crimes. Mongolia maintained mutual legal assistance agreements with the PRC, Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and Malaysia but did not provide data on their implementation.

PROTECTION

The government slightly increased efforts to protect victims. NPA investigators reported using a trafficking risk assessment checklist containing 11 questions to identify victims; however, use of this checklist was sporadic, and the process did not include screening of vulnerable groups. According to available data, police identified 45 female trafficking victims—an increase from 40 female victims identified in 2020—but this figure only included 14 girls younger than the age of 18, marking a decrease in the identification of child victims (24 girls younger than the age of 18 identified in 2020). Observers ascribed this to the closure of businesses traditionally associated with commercial sex as a public health measure during the pandemic, which complicated law enforcement detection of some trafficking crimes. Police reportedly identified one case of forced child labor in hazardous work, but they did not report directly providing or referring the child to any protection services. Neither the government nor the primary service provider NGO identified any male victims for the 10th consecutive year, despite continued NGO reports of the prevalence of trafficking among men and boys. Authorities identified foreign victims of forced labor for the second consecutive year but did not report initiating or jointly conducting any subsequent criminal investigations. A portion of government funding for the primary service provider NGO supported the maintenance of a hotline system; the NGO identified two victims through the hotline, and the calls resulted in an unspecified number of trafficking investigations (compared with none in 2020 and one in 2019). The Family, Child, and Youth Development Agency (FCYDA) ran another 24-hour hotline that received five calls on possible cases of child sex trafficking and 108 calls on cases of hazardous child labor, ultimately facilitating assistance to 114 child laborers nationwide; some of these cases could have featured forced labor indicators. In furtherance of a 2020 child welfare budget resolution, the government newly appointed 53 police personnel to serve as child rights officers throughout the country. However, authorities reportedly did not train the officers on how to detect or respond to cases involving the forced labor of children. In practice, NGOs indicated victim identification and referral procedures were vague, not sufficiently systematic, and often depended largely on the awareness and initiative of individual officers. Authorities at times collected discrepant data based on conflicting definitions of trafficking according to overlapping criminal code provisions, which in turn created bureaucratic challenges to supporting survivors. Redirection of human and financial resources to the pandemic response at times negatively affected the capacity of front-line officers to identify victims of trafficking, particularly among child victims of forced labor. The FCYDA hotline coordinated referrals to special welfare and protection, emergency response, and shelter services for child victims. Authorities referred eight Mongolian victims to NGO shelter services through this hotline—a decrease from 41 referrals in 2020, likely attributable to a significant reduction in certain enforcement activities and in the movement of Mongolian nationals across international borders during the pandemic. Police separately referred at least three victims to witness protection services and other forms of assistance but did not provide further details (compared with three children referred to government shelter services in 2020). Civil society contacts expressed concern that Mongolia’s complex referral system could have re-traumatized some victims due to the requirement that they repeatedly recount their abuses at various stages. NGOs continued to provide the vast majority of Mongolia’s limited victim services, in some cases with government assistance. Two shelters run by an NGO were the main victim service providers in the country; only one could accommodate male victims, and neither was accessible to persons with disabilities. The government ran at least two shelters that housed trafficking child victims alongside victims of domestic violence and other forms of abuse. Observers reported 10 child sex trafficking victims experienced further sexual abuse within two of these shelters due to poor oversight and lack of specialized care; the government investigated and prosecuted the alleged offenders in at least some of these cases but did not provide further information. The government allocated 30 million MNT ($10,530) to fund the primary service provider NGO’s activities in shelter provision, psycho-social and medical care, and legal assistance. With funding from the government and other resources, the NGO reported assisting 41 Mongolian sex trafficking victims, including 31 women and 10 girls younger than the age of 18, and two Mongolian sex trafficking victims repatriated from Malaysia (compared with 43 Mongolian sex trafficking victims and three Burmese forced labor victims in 2020); the NGO provided shelter to seven of these victims. The NGO did not report providing any victims with pro-bono legal assistance in 2021 (compared with 24 in 2020). The same NGO in turn formally supplied information on seven cases involving 15 of the victims to the NPA for criminal investigations into the relevant suspects (compared with 13 cases involving 39 victims in 2020). Another shelter that had previously supported Mongolian victims of trafficking in the PRC did not assist any victims in 2021 due to pandemic-related border closures. NPA’s Victim and Witness Protection Department reportedly staffed psychologists who were equipped to handle domestic violence cases, but they did not provide information on services provided to trafficking victims in 2021. Article 8.1 of the criminal procedural code included language that reportedly denied trafficking victims’ access to protective services until prosecutors had initiated cases against their alleged traffickers, thereby potentially obstructing access to protective services for some victims. In prior years, some officials claimed victims could still access protection services regardless of whether relevant prosecutions had begun. In an effort to address this ambiguity in 2018, the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs created a working group and instituted an intra-governmental comment period to consider amendments to the Law on Victim and Witness Protection. Draft amendments under review at the end of the reporting period did not include language addressing this concern. As in the previous year, trafficking victims may have experienced delays in or denials of access to protection services while awaiting the results of mandatory COVID-19 screening procedures. Article 15 of the antitrafficking law entitled victims to compensation for damages wrought by traffickers, but officials and NGOs agreed inconsistencies between the criminal code and the civil code made this provision impossible to fully implement. Mongolia’s Immigration Agency, the General Authority for Border Protection, and the Consular Department within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared responsibility for handling cases involving Mongolian trafficking victims abroad. The latter maintained a fund to assist Mongolian victims, but it was only available in cases involving organized crime syndicates or “grave harm”—a distinction that was unclear in application. In 2021, authorities partnered with NGOs to repatriate two Mongolian victims from Malaysia, compared with 15 Mongolian victims repatriated from Malaysia in 2020. Authorities also repatriated at least one victim each to Fiji, the Philippines, and Burma in 2021 (unreported in 2020; one victim each to the PRC, Kyrgyzstan, and the Philippines in 2019). Unlike in 2020, there were no specific reports of victim penalization in 2021 (compared with two girls fined under “prostitution” provisions of the Law on Petty Offenses in 2020 and 2019, respectively). However, NGO representatives continued to express broad concern that, due to a lack of formal screening procedures, authorities may have detained some unidentified trafficking victims. Mongolia’s Law on Petty Offenses, which allowed authorities to detain anyone apprehended on suspicion of commercial sex crimes for seven to 30 days, also reportedly continued to place some victims at risk of penalization for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit. Observers noted some victims were hesitant to self-report or testify due to fear that they could face prosecution for such crimes. Mongolian law did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries in which they could face retribution or hardship. The Immigration Agency did not provide comprehensive deportation statistics for 2021 (no data in 2020; more than 1,500 foreign nationals deported to 26 countries in 2019), but the number of deported individuals was likely significantly lower given pandemic-related travel restrictions and border closures. The adequacy of screening procedures was difficult to gauge amid limited deportations in 2021, but screening procedures in previous years were neither universally implemented nor sufficient to detect all forms of trafficking.

PREVENTION

The government increased efforts to prevent trafficking. The National Anti-Trafficking Program (2017-2021) aimed to provide technical guidance on trafficking prevention and coordinate interagency efforts to implement relevant legislation, for which the government budgeted 432 million MNT ($151,650) and spent approximately 336 million MNT ($117,950) for planned activities. The remaining funds were again redirected to respond to the pandemic. The government did not update this action plan for the next five-year cycle. The National Sub-Council, which directed the Program, met quarterly to assess its progress and continued close coordination with international donors and NGOs. One outcome of this coordination was the establishment and convening of the MDTF—a body comprising 18 representatives from key government ministries and one NGO aiming to enhance Mongolia’s efforts to combat child trafficking. Civil society observers lauded the creation of the MDTF but continued to call on the government to issue policy guidance or enact legislation making it a permanent entity, rather than a temporary body limited to the duration of international donor assistance supporting it or subject to dissolution upon key ministry personnel turnover. In conjunction with international organizations, the government conducted four research programs to inform its anti-trafficking coordination and assess prior efforts (compared with three studies in 2020). Officials continued to disseminate a daily trafficking-themed public service announcement on social media and television; this included a Coordination Council for Crime Prevention-directed public awareness campaign that received more than 26 million views on social media. In partnership with the Government of South Korea, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection (MLSP) continued to produce materials raising awareness on trafficking. Authorities postponed or curtailed some elements of anti-trafficking training, funding, and general interagency coordination as a result of the pandemic. The MLSP’s General Agency for Labor and Social Welfare had the authority to monitor labor agreements for foreign nationals working in Mongolia, as well as those for Mongolians working in countries that had bilateral work agreements with Mongolia. The government maintained such agreements with South Korea and Japan; observers noted authorities did not always sufficiently implement these agreements to prevent labor abuses, including trafficking. The General Authority for Specialized Investigation (GASI) had the authority to inspect labor contracts, monitor compliance with the law for all workers in Mongolia, and conduct inspections of working conditions in Mongolian formal sector establishments. Redirection of human and financial resources in response to the pandemic fully precluded inspection activities in 2021. NGOs noted funding and resources for the inspectors were too low to provide comprehensive oversight, and the government did not report statistics on, or the outcomes of, these inspections. After two years of deliberation on amendments intended to provide for unannounced inspections, the government passed a new labor law establishing that inspectors had “unrestricted access to legal entities, organizations, and workplaces which are subject to inspection without prior notice.” However, the law still required GASI to give employers two days’ advance notification before conducting an inspection in some cases, raising concerns that employers could conceal violations in the interim. The new labor law contained a provision outlining inspections without prior notification, but the government did not report implementing it in 2021. It was therefore unclear if the new labor law fully corrected this longstanding insufficiency. Constituting a significant improvement from the previous reporting period, the new labor law contained provisions explicitly prohibiting labor agents from charging workers recruitment fees, confiscating workers’ identity or travel documentation, switching their contracts without consent, or garnishing or withholding their wages as collateral; authorities did not report information on their implementation. The NPA organized public awareness campaigns for television, internet, and print media designed to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

TRAFFICKING PROFILE

As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Mongolia, and they exploit victims from Mongolia abroad. Traffickers may also use Mongolia as a transit point to exploit foreign individuals in sex trafficking and forced labor in Russia and the PRC. Most sex trafficking of Mongolian victims from rural and poor economic areas occurs in Ulaanbaatar, provincial centers, and border areas. A 2018 civil society survey found domestic violence drives the vast majority of Mongolian trafficking victims to seek and accept unsafe employment opportunities on which traffickers prey; this vulnerability has reportedly increased as a result of state-ordered residential quarantines amid the pandemic. During periods of pandemicrelated business closures, clandestine sex trafficking in private residences is reportedly increasing, including through the use of blackmail on social media as a coercive method. Traffickers exploit women and girls in sex trafficking in Mongolian massage parlors, illegal brothels, hotels, bars, and karaoke clubs, as well as in outdoor urban areas, sometimes through the permissive facilitation of local police. Traffickers often utilize online platforms to lure, groom, or blackmail Mongolian children into domestic sex trafficking. LGBTQI+ individuals are vulnerable to trafficking amid widespread discrimination that often jeopardizes their employment status and complicates their access to justice. Transgender women in particular are at higher risk of sex trafficking due to pervasive social stigma barring them from employment in the formal sector. Mongolian communities experiencing widespread unemployment due to the pandemic—especially women and informal sector workers—are more vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor. Tourists from Japan and South Korea reportedly engaged in child sex tourism in Mongolia in prior years; some civil society groups believe this practice persists.

The ongoing development of the mining industry in southern Mongolia continues to drive growing internal and international migration, intensifying trafficking vulnerabilities—especially along the PRCMongolia border. Truck drivers transporting coal across the PRC border in Omnogovi Province are often more vulnerable to labor traffickers due to an arrangement under which employers confiscate their passports as collateral for their vehicles. These drivers often wait in truck lines with minimal sleep, heating, or access to basic needs for weeks or months at a time until they receive permission to cross and make deliveries in the PRC, where PRC national employers and customers impose wage deductions for the delays; this loss of income reportedly makes them further vulnerable to labor exploitation. The families of coal transporters who are delayed at the border, who are injured, or who die as a result of the poor working conditions may also be vulnerable to sex trafficking due to ensuing economic hardships. Traffickers exploit women and girls in sex trafficking in these border crossing truck lines, along the coal transport roads connecting mining sites to the PRC border, at nightlife establishments in mining towns, and at entertainment sites across the border in Inner Mongolia. Mining workers sometimes leave their children at home alone while on extended shift rotations, during which time the children are at elevated risk of sex trafficking. Sex trafficking and child forced labor also occur in connection with artisanal mining. Some men in predominantly ethnic Kazakh regions of western Mongolia subject local women and girls to abduction and forced marriage as part of a cultural practice known as Ala kachuu, or “grab and run”; some of these forced marriages may feature corollary sex trafficking or forced labor elements. Traffickers force some children to beg, steal, or work in other informal sectors of the Mongolian economy, such as horseracing, herding and animal husbandry, scavenging in garbage dumpsites, and construction. Some Mongolian families are complicit in exploiting children in sex trafficking and forced labor. Traffickers exploit Mongolian men, women, and children in forced labor in the PRC, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates and in sex trafficking in Belgium, Cambodia, the PRC, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States. Officials believe Turkey may be rising in prevalence as a destination country due to visa-free travel regimes, the availability of direct flights, and shifts in migration trends following the pandemic-related closure of the PRC border. Traffickers sometimes use drugs, fraudulent social networking, online job opportunities, or English language programs to lure Mongolian victims into sex trafficking abroad. Traffickers have forced Mongolian girls to work as contortionists—often under contractual agreements signed by their parents—primarily in Mongolia and Turkey and to a lesser extent in Hong Kong and Singapore. Mongolian boys are at high risk of forced labor and sex trafficking under visa regimes that enable them to work indefinitely as horse jockeys and circus performers across the PRC border, provided they return with a chaperone once a month; this frequent facilitated transit also makes them more vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers compel women and girls to work in domestic service and engage in commercial sex acts after entering into commercially brokered marriages with men from the PRC and, to a lesser extent, South Korea. Mongolians stranded abroad as a result of pandemic-related travel restrictions may have been at elevated risk of sex trafficking and forced labor due to immigration statuses that prevent them from seeking employment in host countries’ formal sector economies. PRC-based companies hire Mongolian men and boys to work at agricultural operations for compensation far below minimum wage and under ambiguous immigration status, placing them at high risk of trafficking. Some micro-lending institutions in the PRC reportedly retain Mongolians’ passports as a form of collateral, leaving them vulnerable to immigration status-related coercion. PRC national workers employed in Mongolia are vulnerable to trafficking as contract laborers in construction, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, wholesale and retail trade, automobile maintenance, and mining. Some of them experience contract switching when they enter the country, making them especially vulnerable to coercion due to ensuing immigration violations. Some Russian and Ukrainian women entering Mongolia through PRC border crossings for short periods under visafree regimes may be sex trafficking victims. Observers report corruption among some Mongolian officials facilitates sex trafficking in illicit establishments and impedes the government’s anti-trafficking efforts.

By badamsambuud | 20 July, 2022 | Topics: News, Official Reports, U.S. & Mongolia

HOHHOT, July 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 27,700 tonnes of fruits and vegetables were exported from China to Mongolia via the border port of Erenhot in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the first half of this year, according to the Erenhot customs bureau.

The total trade value of fruit and vegetable exports to Mongolia through the port from January to June exceeded 48.96 million yuan (about 7.26 million U.S. dollars).

A green channel for agricultural products was launched in 2018, and it has since been bringing various fruits and vegetables to Mongolian tables. With the introduction of the green channel, fresh fruits and vegetables are allowed to pass through customs at the fastest possible speed.

Some 80 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables in the Mongolian market are Chinese exports supplied via Erenhot.

However, a COVID-19 outbreak in the city of Erenhot disrupted the normal operations of the port in June this year, bringing fruit and vegetable exports to Mongolia to a standstill, said Liu Jian, an official with the Erenhot customs bureau.

To solve the problem, Erenhot customs negotiated with Mongolian customs officials and took measures such as submitting plant quarantine certificates online, Liu said.

Fruit and vegetable exports resumed after stagnating for several days, Liu said.