SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

8.2.4.2 Exploitation in travel and tourism
Sri Lanka does not have direct extradition or extraterritorial agreements with other countries,
although the judiciary and police cooperate to punish offenders who are arrested under other
countries’ extraterritorial legislation. For example, Sri Lanka has assisted the deportation of
persons arrested under the United Kingdom Sexual Offences Act 2003, under which a person
can be prosecuted in the United Kingdom for a crime committed in another country that is
viewed as a criminal offence in both countries. Realizing the need to address sexual
exploitation in travel and tourism, including the culpability of hotel owners in tourists’
exploitation of children on hotel premises, the government in Penal Code Amendment Act
2006 amends section 286A. The revision legally obligates any persons who have “the charge,
care, control or possession of any premises being used for commission of an act constituting
the abuse of a child” to inform the police authorities of the fact. 445
8.2.4.3 Trafficking for sexual exploitation
The laws on trafficking in the Penal Code have recently been amended to concur with the
Palermo Protocol. Previously, the mechanisms of trafficking were inadequately addressed,
including only buying, selling, bartering, transporting and procuring a child from care
institutions. With the 2006 amendment, the mechanisms of, recruiting, transferring,
harbouring, receiving, ‘or any other act’ were added. 446 The addition of the words ‘or any
other act’ allows the law to address a wide range of recruitment mechanisms that may not be
included in the definition. The amendment specifically addresses child trafficking and
stipulates that any person shall be guilty of trafficking, if the person recruits, transports,
transfers, harbours or receives a child or does any other act with or without the consent of
such child for the purpose of securing forced or compulsory labour or services, slavery,
servitude or the removal of organs, prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation. 447 In the
2006 amendment, the means of recruitment include the use of threat, force, fraud, deception
or inducement, as well as exploiting the vulnerability of another. However, they do not
include some common means by which traffickers acquire victims, such as abduction of the
victim, or deceiving, causing fear to, threatening or coercing the parent or guardian.
Whereas the exploitation phase was not defined in previous legislation, PCA 2006 includes
forced or compulsory labour or services, slavery, servitude, the removal of organs,
prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation ‘or any other act’. 448 The amendment uses
the words ‘or any other act’ to leave the various forms of exploitation open-ended, as in the
Protocol. The markets for trafficked persons are extremely varied and continue to expand, and
they can include such situations as camel jockeying and marriage.
The previous Penal Code legislation on trafficking, as of the 1995 amendment, was limited
due to its emphasis on the transportation of the trafficked child ‘to a foreign country’. This
has been addressed in the 2006 amendment, which does not mention the country of
445 PCA 2006, Section 286C.
446 PCA 2006, Section 360C.
447 PCA 2006 Section 260C.
448 Ibid.
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