PART 1 | Short title and commencement |
| 1. This Act may be cited as the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act 2014 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister charged with the responsibility for home affairs may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint. |
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —| “abduct”, in relation to an individual, means to compel by force, or induce by any deceitful means, the individual to go from any place; |
“abuse of the position of vulnerability”, in relation to an individual, means taking advantage of the vulnerable position the individual is placed in as a result of —| (a) | the individual entering or remaining in Singapore illegally; | | (b) | the individual’s pregnancy; | | (c) | the individual’s physical or mental illness, infirmity or disability; or | | (d) | the impairment (permanently or temporarily) of the individual’s decision-making ability by reason of the individual’s physical or mental illness, infirmity or disability; |
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| “child” means an individual below the age of 18 years; |
“coercion”, in relation to an individual, means the use of force or threat, whether violent or otherwise, against the individual or another individual, including —| (a) | any threat of harm to or physical restraint of the individual or the other individual; | | (b) | any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause the individual to believe that the failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint of the individual or the other individual; or | | (c) | any abuse or threat related to the legal status of the individual or the other individual; |
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| “conjugal partner”, in relation to a trafficked victim at a given point in time, means the individual with whom the trafficked victim was in a relationship as if the individual were the trafficked victim’s spouse at that point in time; |
“debt bondage” means a status or condition arising from —| (a) | the pledging by a debtor of the personal services of the debtor or an individual under the debtor’s control, as security for a debt; and | | (b) | the reasonable value of such services not being applied towards the discharge of the debt, or the length or nature of such services not being limited or defined, respectively; |
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| “document” has the same meaning as in section 29 of the Penal Code (Cap. 224); |
| “exploitation” means sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or any practice similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of an organ; |
| “Minister” means the Minister charged with the responsibility for home affairs; |
| “practice similar to slavery” includes debt bondage, serfdom or any servile form of marriage; |
“premises” includes —| (a) | any building or structure, whether permanent or temporary; | | (b) | any land, whether built on or not; | | (c) | any place, whether open or enclosed, including any place situated underground or underwater; | | (d) | any vehicle, train, vessel or aircraft; and | | (e) | any part of the premises; |
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| “prostitution” means the offering of an individual’s body for hire, whether for money or in kind, for the purpose of sexual penetration; |
| “public servant” has the same meaning as in section 21 of the Penal Code, and includes any person who is deemed under this Act or any other written law to be a public servant for the purposes of the Penal Code; |
| “serfdom” means the condition or status of a tenant who is, by law, custom or agreement, bound to live and labour on land belonging to another person and to render any determinate service to that other person, whether for reward or not, and is not free to change that condition or status; |
“servile form of marriage” means any institution or practice in which —| (a) | a woman or female child, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parent, guardian, family or any other person or group of persons; | | (b) | the husband of a woman or female child, or his family or clan, has the right to transfer her to another person, whether for value received or otherwise; or | | (c) | a woman or female child on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person; |
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| “servitude”, in relation to an individual, means any condition or obligation, not authorised by any written law, to work or render services from which the individual cannot escape or which the individual is not free to change; |
| “sexual exploitation”, in relation to an individual, means the involving of the individual in prostitution, sexual servitude or the provision of any other form of sexual service, including the commission of any obscene or indecent act by the individual or the use of the individual in any audio or visual recording or representation of such act; |
| “trafficked victim” means an individual against whom an offence under section 3 is committed, and includes an alleged victim of the offence. |
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