US report assesses efforts in fight against human trafficking

07/06/2006

Southeast European countries made significant anti-trafficking efforts in 2005 but need to do more to meet minimum standards, the US government said in a report released Monday.

(Washington File, AP, Reuters, RFE/RL, UPI, DTT-NET, Sofia News Agency - 06/06/06; US State Department - 05/06/06)

The annual Trafficking in Persons Report said Cyprus has failed to implement any significant sections of its National Action Plan -- the document that was largely responsible for Cyprus being transferred off the Watch List in 2005. [US State Department]

While praising most of the Southeast European (SEE) nations for their efforts in the fight against human trafficking over the past 12 months, the US government is urging all countries in the region to do more.

"Human trafficking is an illicit industry of coercion, subjugating and exploiting the world's most vulnerable people for profit and personal gain," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday (5 June) upon the release of the State Department's Annual Trafficking in Human Persons Report. Fighting trafficking is a "great moral calling of our time," she added.

The 2006 report places 149 nations in one of four categories, based on their efforts to control human trafficking, prosecute those involved and provide assistance to victims.

Tier 1, comprising countries seen as meeting the "minimum standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" lists only 26 nations, two more than in the 2005 report. All SEE countries, except for Cyprus, are in Tier 2. This category includes nations that are demonstrating the commitment to address their trafficking problems, but have not yet met international standards.

Cyprus -- primarily a destination country -- has been placed in the Tier 2 Watch List because it did not "show evidence of increasing efforts to address its serious trafficking for sexual exploitation problem". The report criticised the government for failing to utilise its anti-trafficking legislation, to proactively implement its National Action Plan and to formally open a trafficking shelter.

"The government should assign a clear political priority to fighting trafficking immediately," the document said, urging the authorities to start prosecuting trafficking crimes. Another recommended measure is to significantly reduce the number of "artiste" visas, believed to be facilitating the sexual exploitation of thousands of girls and women every year.

Thanks to its increased efforts in dealing with the human trafficking issue, Greece has improved its ranking, moving from the Tier 2 Watch List in last year's report to Tier 2, joining 78 other countries in this group.

Along with Tajikistan, the 2006 report's section on International Best Practices praises two other SEE countries -- Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Romania -- for their actions in the fight against human trafficking over the past 12 months. Major raids in BiH -- a country of origin, transit, and destination for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation -- have led to the rescue of 26 victims and the capture of at least 14 traffickers.

Romania, a source and transit country, was praised for its co-operation with private researchers on the most comprehensive report on human trafficking in the country to date.

Of the other SEE nations, Bulgaria and Serbia-Montenegro are described as source, transit and destination countries for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, while Croatia is a country of transit, and increasingly, a source and destination.

Macedonia is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, destination country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and Turkey is a major destination and transit country for women and children trafficked primarily for sexual exploitation and, to a lesser extent, forced labour.

Albania is viewed as primarily a source country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour.

"Protecting the non-negotiable demands of human dignity is the equal calling of every country and everyone must be held to the same high standards of moral conduct, including the United States," Rice said on Monday. "We in America recognise that we, too, are a destination for the victims of human traffickers and we are taking measures to hasten the coming of the day when no man, woman or child is denied their rights and their common humanity on American soil."