FIELD LISTING :: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. The International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues, estimates that 12.3 million people worldwide are enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude at any given time. Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat, depriving people of their human rights and freedoms, risking global health, promoting social breakdown, inhibiting development by depriving countries of their human capital, and helping fuel the growth of organized crime. In 2000, the US Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), reauthorized in 2003 and 2005, which provides tools for the US to combat trafficking in persons, both domestically and abroad. One of the law's key components is the creation of the US Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which assesses the government response (i.e., the current situation) in some 150 countries with a significant number of victims trafficked across their borders who are recruited, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained for forced labor or sexual exploitation.
| Country | TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS |
|---|---|
| Algeria |
current situation: Algeria is a transit and, to a lesser extent, a destination and source country for women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and, to a lesser extent, men subjected to forced labor; criminal networks, sometimes extending to sub-Saharan Africa and to Europe, are involved in human smuggling and trafficking in Algeria; sub-Saharan adults enter Algeria voluntarily but illegally, often with the aid of smugglers, for onward travel to Europe, but some of the women are forced into prostitution, domestic service, and begging; some sub-Saharan men, mostly from Mali, are forced into domestic servitude; some Algerian women and children are also forced into prostitution domestically tier rating: Tier 3 - Algeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so: some officials denied human trafficking despite evidence; no efforts were made to investigate, prosecute, or convict perpetrators of human trafficking or forced labor; victim identification remained weak, and no system existed to provide victims with protection and assistance; no anti-trafficking public awareness or educational campaigns were conducted (2014) |
| Angola |
current situation: Angola is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor in agriculture, fishing, construction, domestic service, and diamond mining; some Angolan girls are forced into domestic prostitution, while some Angolan boys are taken to Namibia as forced laborers; women and children are also forced into domestic service in South Africa, Namibia, and European countries; Vietnamese, Brazilian, and Chinese women are trafficked to Angola for prostitution, while Chinese, Southeast Asian, Namibian, and possibly Congolese migrants are subjected to forced labor in Angolas construction industry tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Angola does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has written but not implemented a plan to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking and amended the penal code to include prohibitions against human trafficking; authorities investigated two suspected trafficking cases in 2013, leading to one arrest, but have not vigorously prosecuted trafficking offenses and have never convicted a perpetrator; no actions were taken against officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking; the government failed to systematically investigate forced labor in the construction sector, despite years of reported abuses; victim identification efforts remained inadequate, and protective services were not provided (2014) |
| Antigua and Barbuda |
current situation: Antigua and Barbuda is a destination and transit country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; forced prostitution has been reported in bars, taverns, and brothels, while forced labor occurs in domestic service and the retail sector tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Antigua and Barbuda does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the 2010 law prohibiting human trafficking is flawed because it requires cases to be tried in a lower court that is unable to impose sentences as severe as those provided for other serious crimes; authorities investigated three suspected trafficking cases but no prosecutions, convictions, or punishments were reported; a government department continued to provide high-quality assistance to victims, but only one adult labor trafficking victim and no sex trafficking victims were identified during the reporting period; trafficking prevention activities were sustained |
| Bahrain |
current situation: Bahrain is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; unskilled and domestic workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, and other countries migrate willingly to Bahrain, but some face conditions of forced labor through the withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, nonpayment, threats, and abuse; many Bahraini labor recruitment agencies and some employers charge foreign workers exorbitant fees that make them vulnerable to forced labor and debt bondage; domestic workers are particularly at risk of experiencing forced labor and sexual exploitation because they are not protected under labor laws; women from Thailand, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Russia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries are forced into prostitution in Bahrain tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Bahrain does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; an increased number of trafficking offenders were investigated, prosecuted, and convicted in 2013; the government did not prosecute or convict any forced labor perpetrators and often treated these cases as labor violations rather than serious crimes; some progress was made in identifying victims and referring them to protection services, but trafficking victims continued to be punished for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2014) |
| Belarus |
current situation: Belarus is a source, transit, and destination country for women, men, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; women and children are trafficked to European and Middle Eastern countries and within Belarus for sexual exploitation; Belarusian men, women, and children are found in forced labor in the construction industry and other sectors in Russia, Belarus, and other countries; Ukrainian women may be sex trafficked in Belarus tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Belarus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; authorities did not convict any trafficker and conducted the fewest investigations in the last four years; a 2013 law permitting state funding for NGOs that provide services to victims has not been implemented; the government retained a decree forbidding workers from leaving their jobs in the wood processing industry without their employers permission, and authorities did not identify any labor trafficking victims; continuing efforts to prevent human trafficking included awareness campaigns, penalizing fraudulent labor recruitment, and a safe migration hotline (2014) |
| Belize |
current situation: Belize is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the coerced prostitution of children, often by their parents, for school fees, money, and gifts is common; child sex tourism, involving primarily US citizens, is on the rise; women from Belize and other Central American countries are forced into prostitution in bars, nightclubs, and brothels; workers from Central America, Mexico, and Asia may fall victim to forced labor, especially in the agricultural and fishing sectors tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Belize does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government made its first arrest under its 2013 trafficking law, but weak law enforcement efforts resulted in no prosecutions being initiated; authorities did not systematically identify trafficking victims, leaving them vulnerable to being jailed or deported for immigration violations; the government made minimal efforts to prevent trafficking, failing to implement an anti-trafficking strategic plan or to conduct public awareness campaigns (2014) |
| Bolivia |
current situation: Bolivia is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking domestically and abroad; indigenous children are particularly vulnerable; Bolivian adults and children perform forced labor in domestic service, mining, ranching, agriculture, and food processing; Bolivian women and girls are sex trafficked in neighboring countries, while other Bolivians are found in forced labor in neighboring countries, Spain, and the US; a limited number of women from nearby countries are forced into prostitution in Bolivia tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Bolivia does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government did not demonstrate increasing anti-trafficking efforts during the reporting period; investigations decreased and convictions remained very low compared to the number of potential trafficking victims identified; the government did not offer adequate protective services for trafficking victims, leaving civil society organizations to provide most of the care without government support; trafficking prevention efforts were limited (2014) |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
current situation: Bosnia and Herzegovina is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children (including the developmentally disabled) subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Bosnian women and girls are sexually exploited domestically; Roma children are forced to beg and to marry by local organized crime groups; Bosnians are also trafficked to other European countries tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Bosnia and Herzegovina does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; some progress was made in 2013 in prosecuting and convicting trafficking offenders, but authorities significantly decreased their identification of victims; the national referral mechanism did not involve labor inspectors, hampering efforts to identify forced labor victims; the government has not amended all sub-national laws to criminalize all forms of trafficking consistent with national and international law (2014) |
| Botswana |
currrent situation: Botswana is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; young Batswana serving as domestic workers, sometimes sent by their parents, may be denied education and basic necessities or experience confinement and abuse indicative of forced labor; adults and children of San ethnicity were reported to be in forced labor on farms and at cattle posts; Batswana girls also are forced into prostitution domestically; undocumented Asian workers may be vulnerable to forced labor due to the threat of deportation tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Botswana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; nevertheless, authorities did not increase anti-trafficking efforts in 2013; no cases involving domestic trafficking were investigated, no trafficking offenders were criminally prosecuted and convicted, and no reports of official complicity were investigated; the government did not pass anti-trafficking legislation or launch a public awareness campaign; formal victim identification and referral procedures were not developed (2014) |
| Burma |
current situation: Burma is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor, and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking in other countries; poor economic conditions have led to increased legal and illegal migration of Burmese adults and children to East Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and the US where they are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking; men are forced to work in the fishing, manufacturing, and construction industries, while women and girls are forced into prostitution or domestic servitude; some Burmese economic migrants and Rohingya asylum seekers have become forced laborers in Thailand; military personnel and insurgent militia unlawfully conscript child soldiers and continue to be the leading perpetrators of forced labor inside the country; Burmese children are also forced to work in tea shops, home industries, on plantations, and as beggars tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Burma does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; in 2013, an anti-trafficking division was created; authorities continued to investigate and prosecute cross-border sex trafficking offenses but did little to address domestic trafficking; forced labor and forced recruitment of child soldiers remain serious problems; the government continued modest efforts to provide temporary shelter and facilitate safe passage to Burmese victims repatriated from abroad, but its overall victim protection efforts were inadequate and left victims vulnerable to being re-trafficked (2014) |
| Burundi |
current situation: Burundi is a source country for children and possibly women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; business people recruit Burundian girls for prostitution domestically, as well as in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and the Middle East, and recruit boys and girls for forced labor in Burundi and Tanzania; children and young adults are coerced into forced labor in farming, mining, construction, informal commerce, or fishing; some family members, friends, and neighbors are complicit in exploiting children, luring them in with offers of educational or job opportunities tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Burundi does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; in 2013, the government established a national coordinating body to oversee anti-trafficking efforts, completed a national action plan, and worked to finalize anti-trafficking legislation; law enforcement efforts remained modest, and investigations focused on transnational trafficking; most victim assistance continued to be provided by NGOs without government support; a system for identifying victims among vulnerable populations and referring victims to care providers was not finalized (2014) |
| Cambodia |
current situation: Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Cambodian men, women, and children migrate to countries within the region and, increasingly, Africa for legitimate work but are subsequently subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, debt bondage, or forced labor, often in the fishing industry; poor Cambodian children are subject to forced labor, including domestic servitude and forced begging, in Thailand and Vietnam; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers for sexual exploitation; Cambodian men are the main exploiters of child prostitutes, but men from other Asian countries, the US, and Europe travel to Cambodia for child sex tourism tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government drafted and implemented a pilot program to test a standardized, nationwide system for identifying victims of vulnerable groups; authorities prosecuted and convicted fewer trafficking offenders and identified fewer victims than in the previous year; corruption continued to impede anti-trafficking endeavors; victims were systematically referred to NGO shelters, which provide the majority of services to those in need, but the lack of available long-term care made victims, particularly children, vulnerable to re-trafficking; efforts to punish fraudulent labor recruiters declined (2014) |
| Central African Republic |
current situation: Central African Republic (CAR) is a source, transit, and destination country for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, women subjected to forced prostitution, and adults subjected to forced labor; increased violence and displacement rendered Central Africans more vulnerable to exploitation; the recruitment of child soldiers, at times through force, increased dramatically during the year; most victims appear to be CAR citizens exploited within the country, with a smaller number transported back forth between the CAR and nearby countries; armed groups operating in the CAR, including the Lords Resistance Army, continue to recruit and re-recruit children for military activities and labor; children are also forced into domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, agricultural labor, mining, and street vending tier rating: Tier 3 - Central African Republic does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government did not investigate or prosecute any suspected cases of human trafficking in 2013, including the use of child soldiers; the government also failed to identify, provide protection to, or refer to service providers any trafficking victims (2014) |
| China |
current situation: China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Chinese adults and children are forced into prostitution and various forms of forced labor, including begging and working in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories; women and children are recruited from rural areas and taken to urban centers for sexual exploitation, often trafficked by criminal syndicates or gangs; state-sponsored forced labor continues to be an area of serious concern; Chinese men, women, and children also may be subjected to conditions of sex trafficking and forced labor worldwide, particularly in overseas Chinese communities; women and children are trafficked to China from neighboring countries, as well as Europe and Africa, for forced labor and prostitution tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - China does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however it is making significant efforts to do so; the governments conflation of human trafficking with other crimes in 2013 made it difficult to assess law enforcement efforts to investigate and to prosecute trafficking offenses according to international law; authorities did not provide the data needed to ascertain the number of victims identified or assisted or the services provided; the National Peoples Congress ratified a decision to abolish reform through labor (RTL); reports indicate some detainees were released and many RTL camps ceased operations, but others show that some RTL facilities have been converted into different types of detention centers; some North Korean refugees continued to be forcibly repatriated as illegal economic migrants, despite reports that some were trafficking victims (2014) |
| Comoros |
current situation: Comoros is a source country for children subjected to forced labor and, reportedly, sex trafficking; Comoran children are forced to labor within the country in domestic service, roadside and street vending, baking, fishing, and agriculture; some Comoran students at Koranic schools are exploited for forced agricultural or domestic labor, sometimes being subjected to physical and sexual abuse; Comoros may be particularly vulnerable to transnational trafficking because of inadequate border controls, government corruption, and the presence of criminal networks and may be a destination for the forced labor of Malagasy and East African women tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Comoros does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; the penal code was revised to include prohibitions against and penalties for human trafficking, but these modifications await parliamentary adoption; authorities failed to vigorously investigate or prosecute trafficking offenses, including official complicity in these crimes; although the government provided some funding to NGO-run centers, victim protection provisions remained very modest (2014) |
| Congo, Democratic Republic of the |
current situation: The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a source, destination, and possibly a transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the majority of this trafficking is internal, and much of it is perpetrated by armed groups and government forces outside government control within the country's unstable eastern provinces; Congolese women and children have been exploited internally as domestic servants, while others migrate to Angola, South Africa, the Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan, as well as East African, Middle Eastern, and European nations where they are subjected to forced prostitution, domestic servitude, and forced labor in agriculture and diamond mining; indigenous and foreign armed groups, including the Lords Resistance Army, abduct and forcibly recruit Congolese adults and children to serve as laborers, porters, domestics, combatants, and sex slaves; some commanders of the Congolese national army also recruit, at times through force, men and children for use as combatants, escorts, and porters tier rating: Tier 3 - The Democratic Republic of the Congo does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government took steps to implement a UN-backed action plan to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers within its armed forces; authorities investigated a few cases of transnational sex trafficking but did not prosecute or convict any trafficking offenders or report providing victims with protection services or referring victims to NGOs for care; no action was taken against security forces complicit in exploiting adults and children in forced labor, sex trafficking, or in military recruitment; NGOs continued to provide the vast majority of the limited shelter, legal, medical, and psychological services available to victims (2014) |
| Cuba |
current situation: Cuba is a source country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking, and possibly forced labor; child prostitution and child sex tourism reportedly occurs in Cuba, while some Cubans are forced into prostitution abroad; allegations have been made of Cubans being subjected to forced labor at Cuban work missions abroad; the scope of trafficking within Cuba is difficult to gauge due to a dearth of independent reporting, but the Cuban government provided information on human trafficking for the first time in 2013 tier rating: Tier 3 - Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government has not established a legal framework criminalizing all forms of human trafficking but intends to amend its criminal code to comply with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol, which it acceded to in 2013; the government provided assistance to vulnerable women and children in 2013 but did not offer services specifically for trafficking victims; some prosecutions and convictions for sex trafficking occurred, but none for forced labor were registered (2014) |
| Cyprus |
current situation: Cyprus is a source and destination country for men and women from Eastern Europe, India, Vietnam, and sub-Saharan Africa who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; migrant workers and asylum seekers from these countries are subjected to forced work in the construction, agriculture, and domestic service sectors; migrant workers are often subjected to debt bondage, threats, and withholding of pay and documents once work permits expire; sex trafficking occurs within Cyprus commercial sex industry outlets, including bars, coffee shops, and cabarets tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Cyprus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government implemented an EU directive that strengthened its legal framework for combating human trafficking, and a new-anti-trafficking action plan was adopted for 2013-2015; significant decreases occurred in investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking offenses, and punishments remained weak; fewer trafficking victims were identified (2014) |
| Djibouti |
current situation: Djibouti is a transit, source, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; economic migrants from East Africa en route to Yemen and other Middle East locations are vulnerable to exploitation in Djibouti; some women and girls may be forced into domestic servitude or prostitution after reaching Djibouti City, the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor, or Obock the main crossing point into Yemen; Djiboutian and foreign children may be forced to beg, to work as domestic servants, or to commit theft and other petty crimes tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Djibouti does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; a national action plan was completed in 2014, but tangible efforts to prevent trafficking were minimal; authorities failed to investigate or prosecute any forced labor of child prostitution crimes, and no victim identifications were reported in 2013; foreign victims were deported to countries where they could face retribution (2014) |
| Equatorial Guinea |
current situation: Equatorial Guinea is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sexual exploitation; children are trafficked from nearby countries for work as domestic servants, market laborers, ambulant vendors, and launderers; women may also be trafficked to Equatorial Guinea from Cameroon, Benin, other neighboring countries, and China for forced labor or prostitution; Equatorial Guinean girls may be encouraged by their parents to engage in the sex trade in urban centers to receive groceries, gifts, housing, and money tier rating: Tier 3 Equatorial Guinea is not making significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards on the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government initiated no investigations or prosecutions of suspected trafficking offenses and demonstrated no efforts to identify victims or to provide them with necessary services, despite being required to do so under its 2004 anti-trafficking law; undocumented migrants were deported without screening to assess whether they were trafficking victims; the government did not launch any public anti-trafficking campaigns or implement any programs to address forced child labor (2014) |
| Eritrea |
current situation: Eritrea is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor domestically and, to a lesser extent, sex and labor trafficking abroad; the countrys national service program is often abused to keep conscripts indefinitely and to force them to perform labor outside the scope of their duties; each year large numbers of migrants, often fleeing national service, depart Eritrea in search of work in Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, and Yemen, where some are likely to become victims of forced labor; Eritrean children working in various economic sectors, including domestic service, workshops, and agriculture may be subjected to forced labor; some Eritrean refugees in Sudanese camps are held for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula, where they are forced to work and are abused tier rating: Tier 3 Eritrea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the Eritrean Government does not operate with transparency and reported no data in 2013 regarding its efforts to combat human trafficking; no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of any traffickers were reported, and few efforts were made to identify or to refer any victims to protective services; authorities largely lacked an understanding of human trafficking, conflating it with all forms of transnational migration; the government continued to warn its citizens of the dangers of human trafficking; Eritrea is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol (2014) |
| Gambia, The |
current situation: The Gambia is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Gambian women, girls, and, to a lesser extent, boys are exploited for prostitution and domestic servitude; boys in some Koranic schools are forced into street vending or begging; women, girls, and boys from West African countries are trafficked to The Gambia for sexual exploitation, particularly catering to European tourists seeking sex with children; some Gambian trafficking victims are identified in neighboring West African countries tier rating: Tier 3 The Gambia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government did not report prosecuting or convicting any trafficking offenders in 2013, did not formally identify trafficking victims, and did not indicate whether victims received any government-supported services; a government program continued to provide resources and financial support to 12 Koranic schools on the condition that their students were not forced to beg (2014) |
| Guinea-Bissau |
current situation: Guinea-Bissau is a source country for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the scope of the problem of trafficking women or men for forced labor or forced prostitution is unknown; boys are forced into street vending in Guinea-Bissau and manual labor, agriculture, and mining in Senegal, while girls may be forced into street vending, domestic service, and, to a lesser extent, prostitution in Senegal and Guinea tier rating: Tier 3 - Guinea-Bissau does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; anti-trafficking efforts have stalled under the transitional government; despite enacting an anti-trafficking law and adopting a national action plan in 2011, authorities still have not taken action against trafficking offenders, provided protection to identified victims, or conducted any prevention activities; no progress has been made in implementing the national action plan (2014) |
| Guinea |
current situation: Guinea is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the majority of trafficking victims are Guinean children; Guinean girls are subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation, while boys are forced to beg or to work as street vendors, shoe shiners, or miners; some Guinean children are forced to mine in Senegal, Mali, and possibly other West African countries; Guinean women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and sex trafficking in Nigeria, Cote dIvoire, Benin, Senegal, Western Europe, the US, and the Middle East, while Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese women are forced into prostitution in Guinea tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government conducted six trafficking investigations in 2013 and prosecuted and convicted only one trafficking offender, which was an increase over the previous year; the government failed to provide victims with protective services and did not support NGOs that assisted victims but continued to refer child victims to NGOs on an ad hoc basis; Guinean law does not prohibit all forms of trafficking, excluding, for example, debt bondage (2014) |
| Guyana |
current situation: Guyana is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Guyanese and foreign women and girls are forced into prostitution in Guyana; forced labor, especially of children, is reported in mining, agriculture, forestry, domestic service, and shops; Indonesian workers are victims of forced labor on Guyanese-flagged fishing boats tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Guyana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however,it is making significant efforts to do so; limited efforts were made to protect and provide assistance to victims in 2013, and authorities operated a hotline for trafficking victims; the government failed to increase its efforts to hold trafficking offenders accountable with jail time, creating an enabling environment for human trafficking and further endangering victims (2014) |
| Haiti |
current situation: Haiti is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; many of Haitis trafficking cases involve children recruited to live with families in other towns in the hope of going to school but who instead become forced domestic servants known as restaveks; restaveks are vulnerable to abuse and make up a large proportion of Haitis population of street children, who are forced into prostitution, begging, and street crime by violent gangs; Haitians are exploited in forced labor in the Dominican Republic, elsewhere in the Caribbean, South America, and the US, and some Dominican women are forced into prostitution in Haiti; women and children living in camps for internally displaced people since the 2010 earthquake are at increased risk of sex trafficking and forced labor tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Haiti does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government passed a law in 2014 criminalizing human trafficking but did not prosecute or convict any trafficking offenders, despite large numbers of identified victims; a national plan to combat human trafficking was also passed in 2014; authorities did not provide direct or specialized services for trafficking victims and referred suspected victims to donor-funded NGOs; the government managed a hotline for trafficking victims and conducted a campaign to raise awareness about child labor and child trafficking (2014) |
| Iran |
current situation: Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Iranian women and children are subjected to sex trafficking in Iran, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and Europe; Iranian children are forced, sometimes by their parents or crime networks, to beg, to work in sweatshops, or to be prostitutes in Iran and abroad; Azerbaijani and, reportedly, Uzbek women and children are also sexually exploited in Iran; Pakistani migrant workers are sometimes subjected to forced labor, including debt bondage; criminal organizations play a large role in human trafficking in Iran tier rating: Tier 3 Iran does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government does not share information on its anti-trafficking efforts making it difficult to assess the countrys human trafficking problem or the governments attempts to curb it; Iranian law does not prohibit all forms of human trafficking; existing laws against human trafficking, forced labor, and debt bondage reportedly remain unenforced because of a lack of political will and widespread political corruption; Iran has no apparent protection services or rehabilitation programs for victims and has reportedly punished sex trafficking victims for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2014) |
| Jamaica |
current situation: Jamaica is a source, transit, and destination country for children and adults subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; the exploitation of local children in the sex trade is a serious problem; sex trafficking of children and adults occurs on the street, in night clubs, bars, and private homes; Jamaicans have been subjected to sexual exploitation or forced labor in the Caribbean, Canada, the US, and the UK, while foreigners have endured conditions of forced labor in Jamaica or aboard foreign-flagged fishing vessels operating in Jamaican waters; an alarmingly high number of Jamaican children are reported missing tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Jamaica does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government implemented amendments to strengthen the anti-trafficking law; for the fifth consecutive year, no trafficking offenders or officials complicit in human trafficking were convicted; the lack of victims identified raised concerns that the government did not employ standard operating procedures to guide front-line responders; a government-operated hotline continued to provide specialized assistance to human trafficking victims (2014) |
| Kenya |
current situation: Kenya is a source, transit, and destination country for adults and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Kenyan children are forced to work in domestic service, agriculture, fishing, cattle herding, street vending, begging, and prostitution; Kenyan economic migrants to other East African countries, South Sudan, Europe, the US, and the Middle East are at times exploited in domestic servitude, massage parlors or brothels, or forced manual labor; children from Burundi, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are subjected to forced labor and prostitution in Kenya; children, often Somalis, living in the Dadaab refugee camp complex may be forced into prostitution or forced to work on tobacco farms tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Kenya does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has written but not implemented a plan to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking; corruption among officials and inadequate police training and resources continued to hamper efforts to bring traffickers to justice in 2013; efforts to assist and care for child trafficking victims remained strong, but relatively few services were provided to adults trafficked domestically or identified in situations of forced labor or prostitution abroad; the Department of Childrens Services and an NGO continued to operate a hotline for reporting child trafficking, labor, and abuse; almost 400 recruitment agencies were inspected in conjunction with the lifting of the ban on sending domestic workers to the Middle East in 2013 (2014) |
| Korea, North |
current situation: North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor, forced marriage, and sex trafficking; many North Korean workers recruited to work abroad under bilateral contracts with foreign governments are subjected to forced labor and do not have a choice in the work the government assigns them, are not free to change jobs at will, and face government reprisals if they try to escape or complain to outsiders; thousands of North Koreans, including children, in prison camps are subjected to forced labor, including logging, mining, and farming; many North Korean women and girls, lured by promises of food, jobs, and freedom, have migrated to China illegally to escape poor social and economic conditions only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements tier rating: Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government continued to participate in human trafficking through its use of domestic forced labor camps and the provision of forced labor to foreign governments through bilateral contracts; no known investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of trafficking offenders or officials complicit in trafficking-related offenses were conducted; the government also made no efforts to identify or protect trafficking victims and did not permit NGOs to assist victims (2014) |
| Kuwait |
current situation: Kuwait is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser degree, forced prostitution; men and women migrate from India, Egypt, Bangladesh, Syria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Iran, Jordan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Lebanon, and Kenya to work in Kuwait, most of them in the domestic service, construction, and sanitation sectors; although most of these migrants enter Kuwait voluntarily, upon arrival some are subjected to conditions of forced labor by their sponsors and labor agents, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest, deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on movement, such as the withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace tier rating: Tier 3 - Kuwait does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making sufficient efforts to do so; no efforts were made to prosecute or convict trafficking offenders using the 2013 anti-trafficking law or other laws addressing trafficking crimes; victim protection measures remained weak particularly due to a lack of proactive victim identification procedures and non-enforcement of the law prohibiting sponsors from withholding workers passports; no system was developed to refer victims to protective services; the government initiated investigations of companies that brought in large numbers of unskilled foreign workers under false promises of work and that illegally sold visas (2014) |
| Laos |
current situation: Laos is a source and, to a lesser extent, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Lao economic migrants may encounter conditions of forced labor or sexual exploitation in destination countries, most often Thailand; Lao women and girls are exploited in Thailands commercial sex trade, domestic service, factories, and agriculture; Lao men and boys are victims of forced labor in the Thai fishing, construction, and agriculture industries; some Vietnamese and Chinese women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in Laos while others are trafficked through Laos to neighboring countries, particularly Thailand; some Lao adults and children are subject to sex and labor exploitation domestically tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Laos does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; authorities sustained moderate efforts to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders; the government failed to identify victims exploited within the country or among those deported from abroad; the government relies almost entirely on local and international organizations to implement its anti-trafficking programs, including providing assistance to trafficking victims (2014) |
| Lebanon |
current situation: Lebanon is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Eastern European women and children are transported through Lebanon for sexual exploitation in other Middle Eastern countries; women from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, Cameroon, and Nigeria are recruited by agencies to work in domestic service but are often subject to conditions indicative of forced labor, including the withholding of passports, nonpayment of wages, restricted movement, threats, and abuse; Lebanons artiste visa program enabling women to work as dancers for three months in the adult entertainment industry sustains a significant sex trade; anecdotal information indicates some Lebanese children are victims of forced labor, such as street begging and commercial sexual exploitation; Syrian refugee women and children in Lebanon are at increased risked of sex trafficking tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Lebanon does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; in 2013, authorities conducted an increased number of investigations of human trafficking and prosecuted and convicted some trafficking offenders; the government identified and referred some trafficking victims to NGO-run safe houses but did not directly fund protective services; Lebanons sponsorship system and the withholding of passports continued to put domestic workers at risk of exploitation (2014) |
| Lesotho |
current situation: Lesotho is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and for men subjected to forced labor; Basotho women and children are subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation within Lesotho and South Africa; some Basotho men who voluntarily migrate to South Africa for work become victims of forced labor in agriculture and mining or are coerced into committing crimes tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Lesotho does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government initiated several prosecutions for trafficking offenses but did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to address human trafficking; key portions of the 2011 anti-trafficking act remain unimplemented, including the development of formal referral procedures and the establishment of victim care centers; the government continued to rely on NGOs to identify and assist victims, without providing any funding or support for these services (2014) |
| Libya |
current situation: Libya is a destination and transit country for men and women from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution; migrants who seek employment in Libya as laborers and domestic workers or transit Libya en route to Europe may be subject to forced labor; private employers also recruit migrants from detention centers as forced laborers on farms and construction sites; some sub-Saharan women are reportedly forced to work in Libyan brothels, particularly in the countrys south; militia groups and other informal military units allegedly conscript children under the age of 18 tier rating: Tier 3 - the Libyan Government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government failed to demonstrate significant efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenders in 2013 or to identify and protect trafficking victims; authorities continued to treat trafficking victims as illegal migrants, punishing them for unlawful acts that were committed as a result of being trafficked; no public anti-trafficking awareness or education campaigns were conducted (2014)Tier 3 - the Libyan Government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government failed to demonstrate significant efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenders in 2013 or to identify and protect trafficking victims; authorities continued to treat trafficking victims as illegal migrants, punishing them for unlawful acts that were committed as a result of being trafficked; no public anti-trafficking awareness or education campaigns were conducted (2014) |
| Madagascar |
current situation: Madagascar is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; poor Malagasy women hired as domestic workers in Lebanon, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are vulnerable to abuse by recruitment agencies and employers; Malagasy men experience forced labor aboard Chinese-flagged fishing vessels in South Africas territorial waters; Malagasy children, mostly from rural areas, are subjected to domestic servitude, prostitution, forced begging, and forced labor within the country, often with the complicity of family members; child sex tourism continues to increase, especially in coastal cities, with Malagasy men being the main clients tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Madagascar does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the first seven convictions under the 2007 anti-trafficking law were secured in 2013; no government employees were investigated, despite widespread corruption and the alleged official complicity in human trafficking; authorities lacked formal procedures to identify victims among vulnerable groups and did not systematically provide or refer victims to NGOs for care; the government did not engage with the Lebanese Government regarding the protection of and legal remedies for exploited Malagasy workers but began discussions with Saudi and Kuwaiti officials (2014) |
| Malaysia |
current situation: Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; Malaysia is mainly a destination country for foreign workers who migrate willingly from countries including Indonesia, Nepal, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, and Vietnam but subsequently encounter forced labor or debt bondage at the hands of their employers in the domestic, agricultural, construction, plantation, and industrial sectors; a small number of Malaysian citizens were reportedly trafficked internally and abroad for commercial sexual exploitation in 2013; refugees are also vulnerable to trafficking; some officials are reportedly complicit in facilitating trafficking tier rating: Tier 3 - Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, authorities continued to detain trafficking victims in government facilities as part of a court-ordered protection measure, the government identified significantly fewer trafficking victims and reported fewer investigations and convictions compared to the previous year; many front-line officials continued to lack the ability to recognize indicators of human trafficking and instead treated these cases as immigration violations; NGOs provided the majority of victim rehabilitation and counseling services with no financial support from the government (2014) |
| Mali |
current situation: Mali is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; women and girls are forced into domestic servitude, agricultural labor, and support roles in gold mines, as well as subjected to sex trafficking; Malian boys are found in conditions of forced labor in agricultural settings, gold mines, and the informal commercial sector, as well as forced begging within Mali and neighboring countries; Malians and other Africans who travel through Mali to Mauritania, Algeria, or Libya in hopes of reaching Europe are particularly at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking; men and boys, primarily of Songhai ethnicity, are subjected to the longstanding practice of debt bondage in the salt mines of Taoudenni in northern Mali; some members of Mali's black Tamachek community are subjected to traditional slavery-related practices, and this involuntary servitude reportedly has extended to their children; there has been a decrease in the recruitment of Malian children as combatants, cooks, porters, guards, spies, and sex slaves by non-governmental armed groups in northern Mali tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Mali does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; although the government enacted a comprehensive anti-trafficking law in 2012, it did not demonstrate evidence of overall increasing efforts to address human trafficking over the previous year; the government failed to prosecute or convict any trafficking offenders because the law had not yet been distributed to judges and a significant lack of awareness of the law within the judiciary remained; authorities did not provide any direct services to victims and did not make any tangible prevention efforts; NGOs provided care to victims without government funding; no awareness-raising campaigns or anti-trafficking training were carried out (2014) |
| Marshall Islands |
current situation: The Marshall Islands is a source and destination country for Marshallese women and girls and women from East Asia subjected to sex trafficking; Marshallese and foreign women are reportedly forced into prostitution in businesses frequented by crew members of fishing and transshipping vessels; some Chinese women are recruited to the Marshall Islands with promises of legitimate work and are subsequently forced into prostitution tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List The Marshall Islands do not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; government officials publically acknowledged the existence of human trafficking and an investigation into women being forced into prostitution was initiated in 2013; the government has not provided evidence of implementing 2011 anti-trafficking legislation or providing training to law enforcement or judges on the law; no trafficking prosecutions have been reported since 2011; in 2013, no proactive efforts were made to identify victims among vulnerable groups, such as women in prostitution or foreign men in the fishing industry; several public awareness campaigns were conducted in 2013 (2014) |
| Mauritania |
current situation: Mauritania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; adults and children from traditional slave castes are subjected to slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships; Mauritanian boy students called talibe are trafficked within the country by religious teachers for forced begging; Mauritanian girls, as well as girls from Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and other West African countries, are forced into domestic servitude; Mauritanian women and girls are forced into prostitution domestically or transported to countries in the Middle East for the same purpose tier rating: Tier 3 - Mauritania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, law enforcement and judicial personnel thwarted the progress of criminal prosecutions for human trafficking by intervening on the behalf of alleged offenders; the government did not provide adequate protective services to victims or ensure their referral to NGOs, which provide the majority of care to trafficking victims without financial support from the government; the absence of measures in place to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations may have led to victims being punished for acts committed as a result of being trafficked; the effectiveness of the 2007 anti-slavery law remains impaired because slaves, many of whom are illiterate, are unable to file the required legal complaint; NGOs are barred from lodging cases on behalf of slaves, and the national agency to fight slavery became operational in 2013 but did not submit any criminal complaints for victims (2014) |
| Morocco |
current situation: Morocco is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Moroccan adults and children are exploited for forced labor and forced prostitution in the Middle East and Europe; some Moroccan girls recruited to work as maids experience conditions of forced labor, while some Moroccan boys experience forced labor when working as apprentices in the artisan and construction industries and in mechanic shops; women and children from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia who voluntarily enter Morocco are subsequently coerced into prostitution or, less frequently, forced domestic service tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Morocco does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; nevertheless, in 2013, the government did not demonstrate progress in investigating, prosecuting, convicting, and adequately punishing trafficking offenders and provided limited law enforcement data; the government did not develop or employ systematic procedures to proactively identify trafficking victims and provided limited to no social or protective services, relying heavily on NGOs to supply care ; Morocco continues to lack a single comprehensive anti-trafficking law (2014) |
| Namibia |
current situation: Namibia is predominantly a country of origin and destination for children and, to a lesser extent, women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; victims, lured by promises of legitimate jobs, are forced to work in hazardous condition in urban centers and on commercial farms; traffickers exploit Namibian children, as well as children from Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, for forced labor in agriculture, cattle herding, domestic service, fishing, and street vending; children are also forced into prostitution, often catering to tourists from southern Africa and Europe; San girls are particularly vulnerable tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Namibia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; draft anti-trafficking legislation awaits review by the attorney general and the Child Care and Protection Bill, which would criminalize child trafficking, is still pending parliamentary approval; the government developed a national protection referral network for crime victims in 2013, but it has not been fully operationalized; authorities did not make systematic efforts to identify trafficking victims or to screen vulnerable groups for potential victims (2014) |
| Pakistan |
current situation: Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the countrys deteriorating security situation and weak economy have dominated the governments resources and attention; the largest human trafficking problem is bonded labor in agriculture, brickmaking and, to a lesser extent, mining and carpet-making; children are bought, sold, rented, and placed in forced begging rings, domestic service, small shops, brick kilns, or prostitution; militant groups also force children to spy, fight, or die as suicide bombers, kidnapping the children or getting them from poor parents through sale or coercion; women and girls are forced into prostitution or marriages; Pakistani adults migrate to the Gulf States and African and European states for low-skilled jobs and sometimes become victims of forced labor, debt bondage, or prostitution; foreign adults and children from Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tanzania, and Bangladesh may be subject to forced labor, and foreign women may be sex trafficked in Pakistan, with refugees and minorities being most vulnerable tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Pakistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; officials continue to focus on trafficking as a transnational problem and lack the political will to address the issue unless pressured by the media and activists; the government does not prohibit and penalize all forms of trafficking and has not submitted a draft anti-trafficking bill to the National Assembly or Senate; authorities have yet to convict any offenders under the Bonded Labor System Act since it came into force in 1992; trafficking and smuggling continue to be conflated, with trafficking victims often prosecuted for prostitution or other crimes committed as a result of trafficking; Pakistan does not have systematic methods for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable population and referring them to protective services (2014) |
| Panama |
current situation: Panama is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; most Panamanian victims are sexually exploited domestically; indigenous girls and women are also forced into domestic servitude in the country; foreign women from nearby countries migrate to Panama legally but some are subsequently exploited in sex trafficking or, to a lesser extent, in domestic service; Chinese adults and men from neighboring countries are subjected to debt bondage, while Colombian and Middle Eastern men are used as forced labor in restaurants tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Panama does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; several public awareness events were conducted in 2013, but the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts; authorities did not report whether any internal sex trafficking or forced labor involving the movement of victims was investigated or prosecuted in 2013; many officials lack an understanding of human trafficking; fewer trafficking victims were identified and assisted in 2013; victim assistance mechanisms required by Panamanian law were not implemented (2014) |
| Papua New Guinea |
current situation: Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; foreign and Papua New Guinean women and children are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude; parents may sell girls into forced marriages to settle debts or as peace offerings, leaving them vulnerable to forced domestic service, or may prostitute their children for income or to pay school fees; local and Chinese men are forced to labor in logging and mining camps through debt bondage schemes; migrant women from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude at logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites tier rating: Tier 3 - Papua New Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; no law enforcement or government officials were investigated in 2013, despite reports of complicity in human trafficking at the highest levels of government; parliament in 2012 passed legislation prohibiting all forms of trafficking, but the bill did not enter into force during the reporting period; trafficking-related crimes were prosecuted in village courts rather than criminal courts, resulting in restitution to the victim but no prison time for offenders; no formal victim identification or referral mechanism exists, and the government did not fund shelters run by NGOS or international organizations (2014) |
| Qatar |
current situation: Qater is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution; the predominantly foreign workforce migrates to Qatar legally but often experiences situations of forced labor, including debt bondage, delayed or nonpayment of salaries, confiscation of passports, abuse, hazardous working conditions, and squalid living arrangements; foreign female domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to trafficking because of their isolation in private homes and lack of protection under Qatari labor laws; some women who migrate for work are also forced into prostitution tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Qatar does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government took action to prevent human trafficking by convicting individuals for visa selling, doubling the number of labor inspectors, closing some recruitment firms, and implementing anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; authorities identified some trafficking victims and provided them with shelter and other protection services; the government did not reform the exploitive sponsorship system, prosecute or convict any trafficking offenders, or rigorously enforce laws prohibiting employers from wage and passport withholding (2014) |
| Russia |
current situation: Russia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, although labor trafficking is the predominant problem; workers from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, and Asia, including Vietnam and North Korea, are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Russias construction, manufacturing, agriculture, grocery store, maritime, and domestic services industries, as well as forced begging, waste sorting, and street sweeping; North Koreans contracted under bilateral government arrangements to work in the timber industry in the Russian Far East reportedly are subjected to forced labor; Russian women and children were reported to be victims of sex trafficking in Russia, Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, while women from European, Southeast Asian, African, and Central Asian countries were reportedly forced into prostitution in Russia tier rating: Tier 3 - Russia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making a significant effort to do so; prosecutions of trafficking offenders remains low in comparison to the scope of Russias trafficking problem; in 2013, the government did not develop or deploy a formal system for the identification of trafficking victims or their referral to protective services, although some victims were reportedly cared for through ad hoc efforts; victims were routinely detained and deported; the government has not investigated allegations of slave-like conditions of North Korean workers in Russia; the Russian Security Council has not made a decision on an anti-trafficking national action plan (2014) |
| Rwanda |
current situation: Rwanda is a source and, to a lesser extent, transit and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Rwandan girls and, to a lesser extent, boys are exploited in domestic servitude within the country; Rwandan adults and children are forced to work in agriculture, industry, domestic servitude, and prostitution in Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia, South Africa, UAE, Malaysia, China, the US, and Europe; women and children from neighboring countries and Somalia are subjected to prostitution and forced labor in Rwanda; until its defeat in late 2013, M23, an armed group operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, recruited men and children with the support of some Rwandan officials tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Rwanda does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government maintained strong efforts to investigate and prosecute some trafficking crimes but convicted no offenders and remained complicit in human trafficking crimes through its support of M23; the government opened five additional centers for assisting victims of gender-based violence and provided financial support to private and NGO-run child rehabilitation centers (2014) |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
current situation: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; some children under 18 are pressured into providing sexual acts in exchange for money or gifts; foreign workers may experience forced labor and are particularly vulnerable when employed by small, foreign-owned companies; adults and children are vulnerable to forced labor domestically, especially in the agriculture sector tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Saint Vincent and the Grenadines does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; authorities investigated three trafficking cases in 2013 but did not report prosecuting or convicting any offenders; the government did not proactively identify any victims or refer them to care in 2013, a decline from the previous year; anti-trafficking awareness efforts in schools have increased; a national action plan awaits parliamentary approval but lacks resources for implementation (2014) |
| Saudi Arabia |
current situation: Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution; many men and women from Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa who voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or low-skilled laborers subsequently face conditions of involuntary servitude, including nonpayment, withholding of passports, restriction of movement, food deprivation, and abuse; some migrant workers are forced to work indefinitely beyond the term of their contract because their employers will not grant them a required exit visa; foreign domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because of their isolation in private homes; women, primarily from Asian and African countries, are believed to be forced into prostitution in Saudi Arabia, while other foreign women were reportedly kidnapped and forced into prostitution after running away from abusive employers; Yemeni, Nigerian, Pakistani, Afghan, Chadian, and Sudanese children were subjected to forced labor as beggars and street vendors in Saudi Arabia, facilitated by criminal gangs tier rating: Tier 3 - Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government did not report prosecuting or convicting any trafficking offenders and identified and referred fewer victims to protection services than in the previous reporting period; the sponsorship system, including the exit visa requirement, continues to restrict the freedom of movement of migrant workers and to hamper the ability of victims to pursue legal cases against their employers; the withholding of workers passports remains widespread because legislation prohibiting the practice was not enforced; officials continue to arrest, detain, deport, and sometimes prosecute trafficking victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2014) |
| Solomon Islands |
current situation: The Solomon Islands is a source and destination country for local adults and children and Southeast Asian men and women subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution; women from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines are recruited for legitimate work and upon arrival are forced into prostitution; men from Indonesia and Malaysia recruited to work in the Solomon Islands mining and logging industries may be subjected to forced labor; local children are forced into prostitution near foreign logging camps, on fishing vessels, and at hotel and other entertainment venues; some local children are also sold by their parents for marriage to foreign workers or put up for informal adoption and then find themselves forced into domestic servitude or forced prostitution tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List The Solomon Islands does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government passed but did not gazette implementing regulations for 2012 legislation prohibiting all forms of human trafficking; authorities investigated an unspecified number of labor trafficking cases in the fishing industry but did not prosecute or convict any suspected offenders or actively assist victims; the government did not allocate funding for national anti-trafficking efforts in 2013; the country lacks systematic procedures for identifying trafficking victims among high-risk groups and a formal mechanism for referring victims to care; civil society and religious organizations provide limited services to victims; no anti-trafficking awareness-raising campaigns were conducted in 2013 (2014) |
| South Sudan |
current situation: South Sudan is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; South Sudanese women and girls, particularly those who are internally displaced, orphaned, or from rural areas, are vulnerable to forced labor and sexual exploitation, often in urban centers; the rising number of street children and child laborers are also exploited for forced labor and prostitution; women and girls from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are trafficked to South Sudan with promises of legitimate jobs and are forced into the sex trade; inter-ethnic abductions continue between some communities in South Sudan, with abductees subsequently faced with domestic servitude, forced herding, or sex trafficking; government security forces and armed militia groups continue to recruit children tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; implementation of a UN-backed action plan to eliminate the use of child soldiers in the countrys armed forces continued in 2013, but no officers complicit in the ongoing recruitment of children were investigated, prosecuted, or punished; efforts to address other forms of human trafficking were negligible; South Sudanese law does not prohibit all forms of human trafficking, and authorities did not investigate or prosecute any offenders; limited protection was provided to former child soldiers in 2013, while no steps were taken to identify victims of sex or labor trafficking or to refer them to care (2014) |
| Sri Lanka |
current situation: Sri Lanka is primarily a source and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; some Sri Lankan adults and children who migrate willingly to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, and the US to work as domestic servants, construction workers, or garment factory workers subsequently face conditions of forced labor, including restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, abuse, and threats; some Sri Lankan women are forced into prostitution in Jordan, Singapore, Maldives, and other countries, while some foreign women are forced into prostitution in Sri Lanka; within Sri Lanka, women and children are also subjected to sex trafficking, and other children are forced to work in the agriculture, fireworks, and fish-drying industries tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Sri Lanka does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; modest trafficking prevention efforts in 2013 included updating a national action plan and launching awareness campaigns; law enforcement efforts were limited; no traffickers were convicted under the trafficking statute and none of those convicted under the procurement statute served prison time; labor recruitment regulations were rarely enforced; authorities did not approve guidelines developed in 2012 for the identification of victims and their referral to protective services; no government employees were investigated or prosecuted, despite allegations of complicity (2014) |
| Sudan |
current situation: Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Sudanese women and girls, particularly those from rural areas or who are internally displaced, are vulnerable to forced labor as domestic workers in homes throughout the country; Sudanese women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude in Middle Eastern countries and to forced sex trafficking in Europe; some Sudanese men who voluntarily migrate to the Middle East as low-skilled laborers face conditions indicative of forced labor; Sudanese children in Darfur are forcibly conscripted, at times through abduction, and used by armed groups and government security forces, while Sudanese children in Saudi Arabia are used in forced begging and street vending; Sudan is a transit and destination country for Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Filipina women subjected to domestic servitude in Sudan and Middle Eastern countries, as well as a destination country for women sex trafficked from East African countries and possibly Thailand tier rating: Tier 3 - Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2013, the government enacted an anti-trafficking law, raised the age of military recruitment to 18, rescued and assisted an increased number of trafficking victims, and made efforts to bring traffickers to justice; however, its law enforcement, protection, or prevention measures to address human trafficking remained ad hoc; the government did not employ a system for proactively identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable population or a referral process for transferring victims to organizations providing care; in 2013, Sudans armed forces and proxy militia continued to recruit child soldiers and did not conclude a proposed joint action plan with the UN to address the issue (2014) |
| Suriname |
current situation: Suriname is a source and destination country for women, men, and children who are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; women and girls from Suriname, Guyana, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic are subjected to sex trafficking in the country, sometimes in interior mining camps; Surinamese women and girls are also sexually exploited in French Guiana; migrant workers in agriculture and on fishing boats and children working in informal urban sectors and gold mines are vulnerable to forced labor tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Suriname does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; in 2013, the government prosecuted an increased number of sex trafficking cases but decreased investigations and prosecutions of sex trafficking offenders; authorities failed to investigate, prosecute, or convict labor traffickers; fewer sex trafficking and no forced labor victims were identified; protective services for victims were inadequate, but plans to open a government-run shelter for women and child victims were initiated in 2014; a national strategy to combat human trafficking was also adopted in 2014 (2014) |
| Syria |
current situation: due to Syrias political uprising and violent unrest, hundreds of thousands of Syrians, foreign migrant workers, and refugees have fled the country and are vulnerable to human trafficking; the lack of security and inaccessibility of the majority of the country makes it impossible to conduct a thorough analysis of the scope and magnitude of Syrias human trafficking situation; Syria is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Syrian refugee women and girls are forced into exploitive marriages or prostitution in neighboring countries, while refugee children are forced into street begging domestically and abroad; the Syrian armed forces and opposition forces are using Syrian children in combat and support roles and as human shields tier rating: Tier 3 - the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; increasing violence undercut any law enforcement efforts in 2013; the government failed to protect and prevent children from recruitment by government forces and armed opposition groups; a new law passed in 2013 criminalizing the recruitment of children under 18 by armed forces was not enforced; authorities did not make efforts to investigate and punish trafficking offenders, including complicit government employees; no trafficking victims were identified or provided with protective services; the government did not attempt to inform the public about human trafficking or to provide anti-trafficking training to officials (2014) |
| Tanzania |
current situation: Tanzania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the exploitation of young girls in domestic servitude continues to be Tanzania's largest human trafficking problem; Tanzanian boys are subject to forced labor mainly on farms but also in mines, in the commercial service sector, in the sex trade, and possibly on small fishing boats; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking and is usually facilitated by friends, family members, or intermediaries offering education or legitimate job opportunities; trafficking victims from Burundi, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Yemen, and India are to work in Tanzania's agricultural, mining, and domestic service sectors or may be sex trafficked tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Tanzania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; law enforcement made modest anti-trafficking efforts but imposed punishments on offenders that were inadequate for the seriousness of the crimes committed; key victim protection provisions of the 2008 anti-trafficking act remain unimplemented; the government continues to refer child trafficking victims to NGOs for care but has no procedure for the referral of adult victims; the national anti-trafficking action plan has not been implemented; no public awareness campaigns about the dangers of trafficking are conducted (2013) |
| Thailand |
current situation: Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; victims, who are most often from neighboring countries (especially Burma) but also China, Vietnam, Russia, Uzbekistan, India, and Fiji, migrate to Thailand in search of economic opportunities but are forced, coerced, or defrauded into labor in fishing, low-end garment production, factories, domestic work, street begging, or the sex trade; men from Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand who are forced to work on fishing boats have reportedly been kept at sea for years; migrants, members of ethnic minorities, and stateless persons are most vulnerable to forced labor and debt bondage; sex trafficking of Thai and migrant children and sex tourism remain significant problems; Thailand is a transit country for victims from North Korea, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Burma destined for exploitation in third countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Russia, South Korea, the US, and Western European countries tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Thailand does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; anti-trafficking efforts remain insufficient compared with the size of Thailands human trafficking problem, which is compounded by widespread corruption among law enforcement personnel; few efforts were made in 2013 to address frequent reports of forced labor and debt bondage among migrants in Thailands fishing and other commercial sectors; authorities systematically failed to investigate, prosecute, and convict owners, captains, or complicit officials for involvement in forced labor; government labor inspections did not result in the identification of any suspected cases of labor trafficking (2014) |
| Timor-Leste |
current situation: Timor Leste is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Timorese women and girls may be sent to India, Singapore, and Middle Eastern and other Southeast Asian countries for domestic servitude; women and girls from rural areas are also lured to the capital with promises of legitimate jobs and are then forced into prostitution or domestic servitude; Timorese family members are subject to bonded domestic or agricultural labor to repay debts; foreign migrant women are subject to sex trafficking in Timor Leste, while men and boys from Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand are forced to work on fishing boats in Timorese waters under inhumane conditions tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Timor Leste does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; legislation that would prohibit all forms of human trafficking remains pending approval, despite being submitted to the Council of Ministers in 2012; in 2013, authorities did not investigate or prosecute any trafficking cases and did not convict any offenders; the governments efforts to protect trafficking victims were negligible; no victims were identified or referred to NGO-provided services, although funding was allocated to an NGO shelter for this purpose; increased patrolling of territorial waters in 2013 did not lead to increased identification of trafficking victims (2014) |
| Tunisia |
current situation: Tunisia is a source, destination, and possible transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Tunisias increased number of street children, children working to support their families, and migrants who have fled unrest in neighboring countries are vulnerable to human trafficking; Tunisian women have been forced into prostitution domestically and elsewhere in the region under false promises of legitimate work; East and West African women may be subjected to forced labor as domestic servants tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Tunisia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; prior commitments to enact draft anti-trafficking legislation have not been fulfilled, but a slightly increased number of trafficking offenders were prosecuted and convicted in 2013 under existing trafficking-related laws; the government instituted victim identification procedures and developed a victim referral mechanism, although it was not utilized during the reporting period; anti-trafficking awareness campaigns continued to be implemented, and the government worked with an international organization to produce a baseline study on human trafficking in Tunisia (2014) |
| Turkmenistan |
current situation: Turkmenistan is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Turkmen in search of work in other countries are forced to work in textile sweatshops, construction, and domestic service, with women and rural inhabitants being the most vulnerable; some Turkmen women and girls are sex trafficked abroad; Turkey is the primary trafficking destination, followed by Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and, to a lesser extent, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Cyprus, the UK, Sweden, and the US; Turkmen also experience forced labor domestically in the informal construction industry; participation in the cotton harvest is still mandatory for some public sector employees tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Turkmenistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; the denial of an internal trafficking problem by some government officials, corruption, and a lack of institutional capacity continued to impede the governments response to trafficking in 2013; the government reported detailed anti-trafficking law enforcement data for the first time and is making an effort to support anti-trafficking training; the government did not offer services to trafficking victims in 2013 and did not fund NGOs providing care; authorities punished some victims for crimes committed as a result of being trafficked (2014) |
| Ukraine |
current situation: Ukraine is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Ukrainian victims are sex trafficked within Ukraine as well as in Russia, Poland, Iraq, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Seychelles, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Moldova, China, the United Arab Emirates, Montenegro, UK, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, and other countries; small numbers of foreigners from Moldova, Russia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cameroon, and Azerbaijan were victims of labor trafficking in Ukraine; Ukrainian recruiters most often target Ukrainians from rural areas with limited job prospects using fraud, coercion, and debt bondage tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Ukraine does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the former Yanukovych government adopted standards of social services for victims, re-established its anti-trafficking unit, and increased the units number of officers; the number of human trafficking cases investigated and prosecuted continued to decline in 2013, but significantly fewer victims were identified and referred to care; the government continued to rely on international donors to fund protective services and to provide inadequate funding to NGOs for assisting trafficking victims (2014) |
| Uruguay |
current situation: Uruguay is a source country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and, to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for men, women, and children exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking; most victims are women and girls exploited in sex trafficking domestically; some Uruguayan women lured by fraudulent job employment offers in Spain, Italy, and Argentina are forced into prostitution; foreign workers in domestic service, agriculture, and lumber processing are vulnerable to forced labor in Uruguay; some human trafficking cases are reportedly linked to international crime rings tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List Uruguay does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; authorities investigated and prosecuted several trafficking cases in 2013 but reported no convictions; limited anti-trafficking data makes it difficult to assess law enforcement efforts; the government provides limited services to human trafficking victims outside the capital and to forced labor victims; two public awareness campaigns were launched with foreign funding in 2013 (2014) |
| Uzbekistan |
current situation: Uzbekistan is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; adults and children are victims of government-compelled forced labor during Uzbekistans annual cotton harvest, as well as for the construction and cleaning of parks; the government in 2013 for the first time cooperated with the ILO to monitor the cotton harvest for compliance with the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention; the ILO recorded 53 violations but concluded that forced child labor was not used on a systematic basis during the 2013 cotton harvest; Uzbekistani women and children are sex trafficked domestically and in countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe; Uzbekistani men and women are subjected to forced labor in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia, the UAE, Malaysia, and, to a lesser extent, Ukraine in domestic service, agriculture, construction, and the oil industry tier rating: Tier 3 Uzbekistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government in 2013 did not openly acknowledge forced labor in the cotton sector, which remained prevalent, but it took an encouraging step in allowing the ILO to monitor the cotton harvest for forced child labor; authorities continued to address transnational sex and labor trafficking, implementing anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; the government operated a shelter to help sex and labor trafficking victims and strengthened its ties with NGOs to repatriate victims and provide services, although no systematic procedures for assisting trafficking victims were in place; NGOs unaffiliated with the government faced additional scrutiny in 2013, hampering their efforts to protect victims (2014) |
| Venezuela |
current situation: Venezuela is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, often lured from the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas with false job offers; women from Colombia, Peru, Haiti, China, and South Africa are also reported to have been sexually exploited in Venezuela; some Venezuelan women are transported to Caribbean islands, particularly Aruba, Curacao, and Trinidad and Tobago, where they are subjected to forced prostitution; some Venezuelan children are forced to beg on the streets or to work as domestic servants, while Ecuadorian children, often from indigenous communities, are subjected to forced labor tier rating: Tier 3 Venezuela does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government did not publically document progress on human trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions or victim identification and assistance in 2013, making it difficult to assess the scope or efficacy of these efforts; victim services appeared to remain inadequate, and the extent of efforts to investigate internal forced labor or to help children in prostitution was unclear; authorities provided limited funding to some NGOs providing victim services; public service announcements and an awareness campaign on human trafficking continued; anti-trafficking legislation drafted in 2010 remained unapproved (2014) |
| World |
current situation: the International Labour Organization conservatively estimated that 20.9 million people in 2012 were victims of forced labor, representing the full range of human trafficking (also referred to as modern-day slavery) for labor and sexual exploitation; about one-third of reported cases involved crossing international borders, which is often associated with sexual exploitation; trafficking in persons is most prevalent in southeastern Europe, Eurasia, and Africa and least frequent in EU member states, Canada, the US, and other developed countries (2012) Tier 2 Watch List: countries that do not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so; (44 countries) Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Comoros, Cyprus, Djibouti, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Namibia, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay Tier 3: countries that neither satisfy the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking nor demonstrate a significant effort to do so; (23 countries) Algeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe (2014) |
| Yemen |
current situation: Yemen is a source and, to a lesser extent, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; some Yemeni children, mostly boys, migrate to Yemeni cities or across the border to Saudi Arabia and, less frequently Oman, where they end up as beggars, prostitutes, or forced laborers in domestic service or small shops; other Yemeni children were recruited as combatants or checkpoint guards by armed groups and continues to be used in the governments military forces; Yemen is also a source country for girls sex trafficked within country or to Saudi Arabia; thousands of Yemeni migrant workers deported from Saudi Arabia and Syrian refugees are vulnerable to trafficking; additionally, Yemen is a destination and transit country for women and children from the Horn of Africa who are looking for work or receive fraudulent job offers in the Gulf states but are subjected to sexual exploitation or forced labor upon arrival; reports indicate that adults and children are still sold or inherited as slaves in Yemen tier rating: Tier 3 Yemen does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; prolonged political, economic, and security crises, as well as the continued conflation of trafficking and smuggling, impeded the governments modest anti-trafficking efforts; authorities did not institute formal procedures to identify and protect trafficking victims in 2013, nor did they investigate or prosecute officials complicit in trafficking-related crimes; the government did not report efforts to investigate, prosecute, or convict trafficking offenses, and no known efforts were made to investigate or punish persons practicing chattel slavery; officials acknowledged the use of child soldiers and agreed to a UN action plan to eliminate it but did not make efforts to remove child soldiers from the military; draft anti-trafficking legislation still awaits parliamentary endorsement (2014) |
| Zimbabwe |
current situation: Zimbabwe is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Zimbabwean women and girls from towns bordering South Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia are subjected to prostitution, sometimes being sold by their parents; Zimbabwean men, women, and children experience forced labor in agriculture and domestic service in rural areas, as well as domestic servitude and sex trafficking in cities and towns; Zimbabwean women and men are lured into exploitative labor situations in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Korea, and South Africa with false job offers, while women and girls are lured to Zambia, China, Egypt, the UK, and Canada and forced into prostitution; adults and children from Bangladesh, Somalia, India, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia are trafficked through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa tier rating: Tier 3 - Zimbabwe does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary continued to impair anti-trafficking efforts in 2013; the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenses and conviction of offenders remained weak, with only two prosecutions being initiated; law enforcement did not employ formal procedures to identify and refer trafficking victims to care and continued to rely on NGOs to identify and assist victims; temporary regulations in 2014 mandated the creation of an anti-trafficking national action plan and the establishment of centers for trafficking victims, but neither have been implemented; Zimbabwe acceded to the UN TIP Protocol in 2013 (2014) |