Human trafficking is a horrendous reality, as we all can imagine. Many travelers who have ventured outside of the U.S. (although trafficking happens in our own country as well, sadly) have been to places where, outside of the safety of tourist havens or nice hotels, there are dark underworlds where countless people are trapped in labor and/or sex trafficking situations. It’s truly heart wrenching.
The U.S. State Department released its TIP (Trafficking in Persons) Report today, and it was interesting to read through. The Department surveyed 180 countries, apparently the largest number ever studied for the report, and ranked countries by Tiers 1, 2, and 3. If a country is labeled as a Tier 1 country, that means that they’re in compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards. Tier 2 means that the country’s government doesn’t fully comply with the Act’s standards but is making “significant efforts” to enact compliance and is seeing improvement in human trafficking. Countries who are blacklisted on the Tier 3 list are not complying with minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
This year, the following countries made the Tier 3 black list:
1. Algeria
2. Burma
3. Central African Republic
4. Congo (DRC)
5. Cuba
6. Equatorial Guinea
7. Eritrea
8. Guinea-Bissau
9. Iran
10. North Korea
11. Kuwait
12. Lebanon
13. Libya
14. Madagascar
15. Mauritania
16. Micronesia
17. Papua New Guinea
18. Saudi Arabia
19. Sudan
20. Turkmenistan
21. Venezuela
22. Yemen
23. Zimbabwe
Last year, 13 countries made it on the Tier 3 black list, meaning that there are 10 more countries that have worsened in terms of human trafficking. The Dominican Republic was the only country to get its name removed from the Tier 3 list.
There are many ways to get involved in the fight against human trafficking. I am a big fan of the organization IJM (International Justice Mission), which does great work in combating human trafficking. They work with locals in countries like those on the Tier 3 list to identify trafficking rings, rescue victims from slavery, prosecute the criminals who enslave them, and rehabilitate the victims. For more information check out http://www.ijm.org.
June 27, 2011 at 5:01 pm
IJM is my favorite organization. Thank you for this blog entry Linds! If I could focus all my energy into one thing it would be to work alongside organizations like IJM and help to eradicate slavery around the world. It continues to blow my mind that it still exists.
June 29, 2011 at 1:46 pm
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