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Participation in an organized criminal group
    Smuggling of migrants
      Trafficking in persons

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        • Organized Crime Convention

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        • Smuggling of Migrants Protocol

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        • Firearms Protocol

           

          Original Text

          PART 1 – PRELIMINARY

          Principal objects

          1. The principal objects of this Act are:

          (a) to implement certain United Nations Security Council Resolutions and Conventions dealing with terrorism and transnational organised crime; and

          (b) to prevent terrorists from operating in Vanuatu; and

          (c) to prevent persons in Vanuatu from taking part in terrorist activities or supporting terrorism.

          Interpretation

          2. (1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:

          “Administrator” means the Attorney General or a person appointed by the Attorney General under section 51;

          “aircraft” means any aircraft, other than an aircraft in the military, customs or police services;

          “authorised officer” means:

          (a) the Commissioner of Police; or

          (b) a police officer authorised by the Commissioner of Police for a provision of this Act; or

          (c) a person authorised by the Minister for a provision of this Act.

          “child” means a person under 18 years;

          “commercial carrier” includes a company, or the owner, operator, or person in charge of any means of transport that engages in the transport of goods or people for commercial gain;

          “counter terrorism convention” means:

          (a) an instrument mentioned in the Schedule; or

          (b) an instrument prescribed by the regulations;

          “Court” means the Supreme Court of Vanuatu;

          “craft” includes any aircraft, ship, boat or other machine or vessel used or capable of being used for the carriage or transportation of persons or goods, or both, by air or water or over or under water;

          “entity” means a person, group, trust, partnership, fund or an unincorporated association or organisation;

          “exploitation” includes all forms of sexual exploitation (including sexual servitude and exploitation of another person’s prostitution), forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude and the removal of organs;

          “explosive or other lethal device” means:

          (a) an explosive or other incendiary weapon or device that is designed or has the capability to cause death, serious bodily injury or substantial material damage; or

          (b) a weapon or device that is designed or has the capability to cause death, serious bodily injury or substantial material damage through the release, dissemination or impact of toxic chemicals, biological agents, toxins or similar substances or radiation or radioactive materials;

          “forfeiture order” means an order made by the Court under section 20;

          “fraudulent travel or identity document” means a travel or identity document that:

          (a) has been made, or altered in any way, by a person other than a person or agency lawfully authorised to make or issue the travel or identity document on behalf of a country; or

          (b) has been issued or obtained through misrepresentation, corruption or duress or in any other unlawful manner; or

          (c) is being used by a person other than the lawful holder;

          “illegal entry” means entering Vanuatu or any other country without complying with the requirements for lawful entry of that country;

          “international organisation” means any organisation of States or Governments of States or any organ or any agency of any organisation of that kind;

          “internationally protected person” means:

          (a) any of the following persons while in a foreign country, including a member of the person’s family accompanying him or her:

          (i) a Head of State (including any member of a collegial body performing the functions of a Head of State);

          (ii) a Head of Government;

          (iii) a Minister of State; or

          (b) a representative or official of a country or an official or other agent of an international organisation of an inter-governmental character who, when and where a crime against the person or the person’s official premises, private accommodation or means of transport is committed, is entitled under international law to special protection from attack on the person’s freedom or dignity, as well as on the person’s family forming part of that person’s household;

          “material benefit” includes any type of financial or non-financial inducement, payment, bribe, reward, advantage or service’

          “Minister” means the Minister responsible for justice;

          “nuclear material” means any of the following:

          (a) plutonium with an isotopic concentration of not more than 80% in plutonium-238;

          (b) uranium-233;

          (c) uranium containing uranium-233 or uranium-235 or both;

          (d) uranium with a naturally occurring isotopic concentration, other than uranium in the form of ore or ore residue;

          (e) a substance containing nuclear material;

          “operator”, for a craft, means the owner, operator or person having for the time being command or charge of the craft, other than a pilot of a ship, a harbour master or a law enforcement officer acting in the course of his or her duties;

          “organised criminal group” means a group of persons, existing for a period of time, that acts together with an objective of obtaining material benefits from the commission of offences that are punishable by a maximum penalty of at least 4 years imprisonment;

          “people smuggling” means the arranging or assisting of an unauthorised person’s illegal entry into any country;

          “property” includes:

          (a) currency; and

          (b) assets of any kind, whether corporeal or incorporeal, moveable or immovable, tangible or intangible; and

          (c) legal documents or instruments in any form including electronic or digital, evidencing title to, or interest in, such assets, including but not limited to bank credits, travellers cheques, bank cheques, money orders, shares, securities, bonds, drafts and letters of credit; and

          (d) any legal or equitable interest in any such property;

          “receiving country” means:

          (a) for people smuggling – the country into which the unauthorised person’s entry is arranged; or

          (b) for people trafficking – the country into which a trafficked person is brought as part of an act of trafficking in persons;

          “registrable property” means property the title to which is passed by registration on a register kept under a law in force in Vanuatu;

          “ship” means a vessel that is not permanently attached to the sea bed:

          (a) including a hovercraft, hydrofoil, submarine or other floating craft; but

          (b) not including a warship, a ship owned or operated by a state and being used as a naval auxiliary or for customs or police purposes or a ship that has been withdrawn from navigation.

          “specified entity” means a person or entity that is prescribed under section 4;

          “specified means” means any of the following:

          (a) threat;

          (b) use of force or other forms of coercion;

          (c) abduction;

          (d) fraud;

          (e) deception;

          (f) abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability;

          (g) giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person;

          “terrorist group” means:

          (a) an entity that has as one of its activities or purposes committing, or facilitating the commission of, a terrorist act; or

          (b) a specified entity;

          “terrorist property” means:

          (a) property that has been, is being, or is likely to be used to commit a terrorist act; or

          (b) property that has been, is being, or is likely to be used by a terrorist group; or

          (c) property owned or controlled, or derived or generated from property owned or controlled, by or on behalf of a specified entity;

          “terrorist act” means an act or omission in or outside Vanuatu that:

          constitutes an offence within the scope of a counter terrorism convention; or

          is mentioned in section 3;

          “trafficked person” means a person who is the victim of trafficking in persons;

          “trafficking in persons” means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person for the purpose of exploitation;

          “unauthorised person”, for a country, means a person who is not a citizen of the country or is not in possession of all the documents required by the law of the country for the person’s lawful entry into the country;

          “weapon” includes a firearm, chemical, biological or nuclear weapon;

          (2) For this Act:

          (a) the period during which an aircraft is in flight is taken to include:

          (i) any period from the moment when all its external doors are closed following embarkation until the moment when any door is opened for disembarkation; and

          (ii) for a forced landing – any period until the competent authorities take over responsibility for the aircraft and for persons and property on board; and

          (b) an aircraft is taken to be in service:

          (i) during the whole of the period that begins with the pre-flight preparation of the aircraft for a flight and ends 24 hours after the aircraft lands having completed that flight; and

          (ii) at any time (outside that period) while, in accordance with paragraph (a), the aircraft is in flight.

          (3) For this Act, a reference to an aircraft in flight includes a reference to an aircraft during any period when it is on the surface of the sea or land but not within the territorial limits of any country.

          (4) For this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, a reference to a country or the territorial limits of a country is taken to include a reference to the territorial waters, if any, of the country.