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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, estimated in 2022 that 27.6 million people worldwide were victims of forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude. 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 several times (the latest in 2019 with a 2022 reauthorization pending in Congress), 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 in some 185 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. Countries in the annual report are rated in three tiers, based on government efforts to combat trafficking. The countries identified in this entry are those listed in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report as 'Tier 2 Watch List' or 'Tier 3' based on the following tier rating definitions:

Tier 2 Watch List countries do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so, and for which:
-- the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions; or,
-- there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials

Tier 3 countries do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

  • Afghanistan

    tier rating:

    Tier 3 — Afghanistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Afghanistan remains on Tier 3; substantial personnel turnover and closing of some ministries after the August 15, 2021 Taliban takeover hindered Afghanistan’s ability to maintain consistent anti-trafficking efforts; although the pre-August 15 government took some training and awareness steps to address trafficking, it employed or recruited child soldiers and sexual slaves in government compounds; After August 15, the Taliban continued recruiting or employing child soldiers and did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers; the Taliban shut down shelters for victims, did not identify or protect victims, and did not make any efforts to prevent trafficking; Taliban undermining the rights of women, minorities, and other vulnerable populations, further exacerbated vulnerabilities to trafficking (2022)



    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Afghanistan and exploit Afghan victims abroad; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking; since the Taliban takeover, vulnerabilities to exploitation have intensified; traffickers exploit men, women, and a large number of children domestically; victims are subjected to forced labor in agriculture, brick kilns, carpet weaving, domestic servitude, commercial sex, begging, poppy cultivation and harvesting, salt mining, transnational drug smuggling, and truck driving; the Taliban and non-state armed groups, such as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), continue to unlawfully recruit and use child soldiers; sexual exploitation of boys remains pervasive nationwide, and traffickers subject some boys to sexual exploitation abroad; after the Taliban takeover, restrictions on the movement of women and girls, and severely diminished access to employment and education, increased their vulnerability to trafficking; LGBTQI+ individuals are among the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan under the Taliban (2022)

    note: The United States has not recognized the Taliban or another entity as the government of Afghanistan. On August 15, 2021, the Taliban culminated its takeover of Kabul, and on September 7, 2021, the Taliban announced a so-called interim government. As of December 2021, the Taliban had not outlined steps or a timeline to establish a new permanent government. All references to “the pre-August 15 government” refer to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. References to the Taliban reflect events both prior to and after August 15.

  • Algeria

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Algeria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government made key achievements during the reporting period, therefore Algeria was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; authorities identified more trafficking victims, increased investigations and prosecutions, while continuing to convict traffickers; Algeria partnered with international organizations to train officials and conduct public awareness campaigns; however, government identification of and services for victims remained insufficient; authorities continued to punish some potential victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2022)

    trafficking profile:

    human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims; Algerian women and girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking due to financial problems or after running away from home; undocumented sub-Saharan migrants are vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking and are exploited in restaurants, houses, and informal worksites; sub-Saharan men and women needing more funds for their onward journey to Europe work illegally in construction and commercial sex and are vulnerable to sex trafficking and debt bondage; foreign women and girls, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, are subject to sex trafficking in bars and informal brothels; criminal begging rings that exploit sub-Saharan African migrant children are common and reportedly increasing (2022)

  • Antigua and Barbuda

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch list – Antigua and Barbuda does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; more trafficking cases were investigated, Family and Social Services officials were trained for the first time, and funding continued for the National Action Plan; however, the government did not identify any victims for the second consecutive year, nor initiate any prosecutions or convictions of traffickers; therefore Antigua and Barbuda was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)

    trafficking profile: traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Antigua and Barbuda, and exploit victims from Antigua and Barbuda abroad; individuals from minority communities are at higher risk; documented and undocumented migrants from the Caribbean, notably Jamaica, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic, were victims of sex trafficking and forced labor; traffickers exploited victims in multiple-destination trafficking, arriving in Antigua and Barbuda for a few months before being exploited in other Caribbean countries such as St. Kitts and Nevis and Barbados. Sex trafficking, including girls, occurs in bars, taverns, and brothels; forced labor, including children, occurs in domestic service and retail stores, particularly family-owned businesses; Cuban and PRC nationals working in Antigua and Barbuda may have been forced to work by their own governments (2022)

  • Aruba

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Aruba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government identified more potential victims, investigated more trafficking cases, and produced a new awareness campaign; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared to the previous reporting period, on its anti-trafficking capacity; authorities did not prosecute or convict any traffickers for the third consecutive year and sometimes relied on victims to self-identify; efforts depended on ad hoc funding, limiting key initiatives; officials conflated trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, hindering the effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts; because the government has devoted significant resources to a plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet minimum standards, Aruba was granted a waiver per the TVPA and thus remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for a third consecutive year (2022)

    trafficking profile:

    human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims; traffickers exploit Venezuelan women in sex trafficking, and foreign men and women are subject to forced labor in Aruba’s services and construction sectors; Venezuelans overstaying visas are at risk of forced labor in domestic service, construction, and commercial sex; Chinese men and women and Indian men are subject to forced labor in retail businesses and domestic service; Arubans force Caribbean and South American women into domestic servitude; Officials reported increases in forced criminality, where traffickers compel victims to commit unlawful acts, such as robberies and drug-related offenses (2022)

  • Belarus

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Belarus does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore Belarus was downgraded to Tier 3; despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including conducting trafficking-related investigations and prosecutions and identifying and referring to services more trafficking victims; however, the government did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting any traffickers under its trafficking statute and did not provide adequate protection services to trafficking victims nor conduct awareness activities; authorities reportedly returned many third-country migrants and asylum seekers to their countries of origin without screening them for trafficking (2022)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims and exploit Belarusians abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are men subjected to forced labor, primarily in Russia; most Belarusian victims are exploited in Belarus and Russia, but also in Poland, Turkey, and other European, Eurasian and Middle Eastern countries; some Belarusian women seeking foreign employment in the adult entertainment and hotel industries are subjected to sex trafficking; the government has identified Belarusian, Moldovan, Russian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese victims exploited in Belarus; the majority of traffickers are Belarusian citizens, and they increasingly use online methods to coerce victims into forced labor and sex trafficking (2022)

  • Bhutan

    tier rating:

    Tier 2 Watch List — Bhutan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; among its accomplishments, Bhutan convicted one trafficker, appealed the dismissal of trafficking charges in a second case, finalized and disseminated standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral, and initiated an investigation into reports of labor exploitation; the government also continued to work with an international organization on anti-trafficking training and public awareness events; however, Bhutanese courts continued to dismiss and refile on lesser charges human trafficking cases due to inconsistencies between Bhutanese law and the international definition of trafficking; additionally, authorities did not identify any trafficking victims during the reporting period and did not provide protective services to Bhutanese victims of forced labor abroad (2020)



    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bhutan and Bhutanese abroad; some traffickers posing as recruiters use the lure of well-paying jobs overseas to exploit Bhutanese citizens for forced labor; some Bhutanese working in hospitality, retail, and service industries in the Gulf states and India, Thailand, and the UK reported trafficking indicators, including illegal recruitment fees, wage deductions, restricted movement, passport retention, and non-payment of wages; Bhutanese women and girls working as domestics, caregivers, and entertainers are subject to sex and labor trafficking domestically; Bhutanese and Indian women may be forced to work in hotels, massage parlors, and nightclubs, while male Indian workers face unauthorized deductions and non-payment of wages in the construction and hydropower sectors

  • Brunei

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Brunei does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government enacted the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Order, which criminalized sex and labor trafficking and separated trafficking crimes from migrant smuggling crimes; the government formalized its interagency anti-trafficking in persons committee; instituted a committee to review foreign worker recruitment practices, ratified the ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, and acceded to the UN TIP Protocol; however, authorities did not formally identify any trafficking cases, did not initiate any new trafficking prosecutions, and did not convict any traffickers; trafficking victims continued to be detained, deported, and charged with crimes without law enforcement determining if they were forced to commit the illegal acts by traffickers; the government again did not allocate money to a fund established in 2004 for victim compensation and repatriation; a draft national action plan to combat trafficking was not completed for the sixth consecutive year (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Brunei; some men and women who migrate to Brunei to work as domestics or in retail or construction are subject to involuntary servitude, debt-based coercion, contract switching, non-payment of wages, passport confiscation, physical abuse, or confinement; some female migrants entering Brunei on tourist visas are forced into prostitution; some traffickers use Brunei as a transit point for victims used for sex and labor trafficking in Malaysia and Indonesia

  • Burma

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Burma does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; authorities increased the investigation and prosecution of trafficking crimes, including those involving officials, and the investigation of forced labor in the fishing sector; the government identified and referred more victims to care and enacted legislation enhancing protections for child victims; however, a policy or pattern of forced labor existed; the use of children in labor and support roles by the military increased in conflict zones in Rakhine and Shan States; displacement resulting from military conflict made Rohingya and other ethnic groups vulnerable to human trafficking; the constitutionally guaranteed power of the military continued to limit the government’s ability to address forced adult labor and child soldier recruitment; although authorities allocated increased funding to victim protection, most services to trafficking victims were provided by NGOs and foreign donors (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit men, women, and children through forced labor, and women and children in sex trafficking in Burma and abroad; Burmese men are forced to work domestically and abroad in fishing, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, and construction; fishermen are lured into forced labor in remote waters and offshore by recruitment agencies in Burma and Southeast Asia; Burmese women increasingly are lured to China for marriage under false pretenses and are subjected to sex trafficking, forced concubinage and childbearing, and forced domestic labor; men, women, and children in ethnic minority areas are at increased risk of sex trafficking and forced labor in farming, manufacturing, and construction; men and boys are recruited locally by traffickers for forced labor in oil palm, banana, and rubber plantations, in mining, fishing, and bamboo, teak, rice, and sugarcane harvesting; some military personnel, civilian brokers, border guard officials, and ethnic armed groups continue to recruit child soldiers, particularly in conflict areas

  • Cambodia

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Cambodia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities continued to prosecute and convict traffickers and utilized new victim identification and data collection technologies; the government enacted a five-year national action plan to combat human trafficking; however, corruption continued to impede law enforcement efforts, criminal proceedings, and services to victims; some corrupt officials may have profited directly from sex and labor trafficking or accepted bribes to dismiss charges or reduce sentences; insufficient judicial monitoring systems enabled suspected traffickers to flee before trial; authorities failed to issue formal guidance allowing the use of undercover techniques in anti-trafficking investigations (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit Cambodian men, women, and children in forced labor and sex trafficking in Cambodia and abroad, and foreign nationals are trafficked in Cambodia; Cambodian adults and children migrate to other countries in the region or increasingly to the Middle East where traffickers force them to work in agriculture, fishing, construction, manufacturing, and domestic servitude; significant numbers of Cambodian men and boys are subject to forced labor on Thai ships in international waters and may experience physical abuse, nonpayment or underpayment of wages, and confinement at sea for years; brick kiln owners exploit thousands of Cambodians, including children, through debt-based coercion; children from poor families are vulnerable to forced labor, often with the complicity of their parents, in domestic servitude, forced begging, or street vending in Thailand and Vietnam; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls from rural areas move to cities and tourist areas where they are sex trafficked

  • Cameroon

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Cameroon does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities investigated at least nine suspected trafficking cases, identified 77 victims, and provided some training on trafficking indicators to officials and teachers; however, officials prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers; standard operating procedures for the identification and referral of trafficking victims were not implemented, and officials were not trained on the measures; the government did not report referring trafficking victims to government institutions for vulnerable children, but NGO-funded centers provided care for an unknown number of child victims; 2012 anti-trafficking legislation addressing victim and witness protection in conformity with international law was not passed for the eighth consecutive year (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cameroon and Cameroonians abroad; deteriorating economic and education conditions and diminished police and judicial presence caused by conflict in the Northwest and Southwest has left displaced persons vulnerable to trafficking; parents may be lured by promises of education or a better life for their children in urban areas, and then the children are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking; teenagers and adolescents may be lured to cities with promises of employment and then become victims of forced labor and sex trafficking; children from neighboring countries are forced to work in spare parts shops or cattle grazing by business owners and herders; Cameroonians, often from rural areas, are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and African countries

  • Chad

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Chad does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; one trafficker was convicted, the first under a 2018 law, but the government did not report investigating or prosecuting alleged traffickers, including complicit government officials; the government adopted a formal Road Map to implement its 2108 National Action Plan but did not report executing it; authorities did not identify any victims and have not drafted victim identification and referral procedures; the government continued to make no effort to raise awareness on trafficking (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Chad and Chadians abroad; most trafficking is internal; some children are sent by their parents to relatives or intermediaries to receive education, an apprenticeship, goods, or money and are then forced to work in domestic service or cattle herding; children are also forced to work in agriculture, gold mines, charcoal vending, and fishing, and those attending Koranic schools are forced into begging and street vending; girls from rural areas who search for work in larger towns are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude; terrorist groups abduct children to serve as soldiers, suicide bombers, brides, and forced laborers

  • China

    tier rating: Tier 3 — China does not fully meet the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government prosecuted and convicted some traffickers and continued to cooperate with international authorities to address forced and fraudulent marriages in China; however, there was a government policy or pattern of widespread forced labor, including the continued mass arbitrary detention of more than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of law enforcement officials allegedly complicit despite continued reports of officials benefiting from, permitting, or directly facilitating sex trafficking; authorities did not report identifying any trafficking victims or referring them to protective services; it is likely that law enforcement arrested and detained unidentified trafficking victims for crimes traffickers compelled them to commit; for the third consecutive year, the government did not report the extent to which it funded anti-trafficking activities in furtherance of the 2013-2020 National Action Plan on Combating Human Trafficking (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in China and Chinese people abroad; Chinese men, women, and children are victims of forced labor and sex trafficking in at least 60 countries; traffickers also use China as a transit point to subject foreign individuals to trafficking in other countries throughout Asia and in international maritime industries; state-sponsored forced labor is intensifying under the government’s mass detention and political indoctrination campaign against Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; well-organized criminal syndicates and local gangs subject Chinese women and girls to sex trafficking within China; women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and several countries in Africa experience forced labor in domestic service, forced concubinism leading to forced childbearing, and sex trafficking via forced and fraudulent marriage to Chinese men; African and Asian men reportedly experience conditions indicative of forced labor aboard Chinese-flagged fishing vessels; many North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers living in China illegally are particularly vulnerable to trafficking

  • Comoros

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Comoros does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the Anti-Trafficking Task Force met for the first time since 2017 and began drafting a national action plan for combatting trafficking; the government took steps to ratify the 2000 UN TIP Protocol and supported centers that would identify and provide care to victims of crime and would include trafficking victims; however, authorities continued to lack an understanding of trafficking and did not make any anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts; the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any alleged traffickers or officials suspected of complicity in trafficking; the government did not develop any standard operating procedures for identifying trafficking victims and referring them to limited care providers; no public awareness campaigns were conducted (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers may exploit domestic and foreign victims in Comoros and Comorians abroad; some Comorian and Malagasy women are subject to forced labor in the Middle East; adults and children may be forced to work in agriculture, construction, or as domestics in Mayotte; children abandoned by parents who left to seek jobs abroad are vulnerable to exploitation in domestic service, vending, baking, fishing, and agriculture; children from poor families whose parents place them with a relative or acquaintance for educational opportunities are vulnerable to domestic servitude and physical and sexual abuse; some children in Koranic schools may experience forced labor in agriculture or domestic servitude; inadequate border controls; government corruption, and international crime networks leave Comorians vulnerable to international trafficking

  • Congo, Democratic Republic of the

    tier rating:

    Tier 2 Watch List — The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the DRC was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List because of several accomplishments; the government drafted and launched its first national anti-trafficking action plan; authorities increased law enforcement efforts, including investigating and prosecuting more trafficking crimes; a number of traffickers were convicted, including a high-ranking army officer and the leader of an armed group; however, authorities continued to lack standard operating procedures for identifying victims and referring them to care; there were credible allegations that the army abducted women and girls for sexual slavery and recruited and used child soldiers (2020)



    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congolese abroad; most trafficking is internal and involves the forced labor of men, women, and children in artisanal mining, agriculture, domestic servitude, sex trafficking, or child recruitment by armed groups; some traffickers are family members or others who promise victims or victims’ families educational or job opportunities and instead force victims to work as domestic servants, street vendors, gang members, or in commercial sex; some Congolese women and girls who migrate to other countries in Africa or the Middle East are exploited in sex trafficking or forced labor in agriculture, diamond mines, or domestic service; they may be fraudulently recruited by traffickers with false promises of jobs or education

  • Cuba

    tier rating:

    Tier 3 — Cuba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government made some efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict sex traffickers and sex tourists and identified and provided assistance to some victims; however, no efforts were made to address forced labor; there was a government policy or pattern to profit from labor export programs with strong indications of forced labor, particularly in foreign medical missions; authorities did not protect potential trafficking victims, leaving them at risk of being detained or charged for crimes their traffickers forced them to commit (2020)



    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cuba and Cubans abroad; individuals are forced or coerced into participating and threatened to stay in labor export programs, most notably foreign medical missions; sex trafficking and sex tourism occur within Cuba; traffickers exploit Cubans in sex trafficking and forced labor in South America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the US; foreigners from Africa and Asia are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor in Cuba to pay off travel debts; the government uses high school students in some rural areas to harvest crops without pay, claiming that the work is voluntary

  • Curacao

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Curacao does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but it is making significant efforts to do so; the government prosecuted and convicted more traffickers than in the previous reporting period; however, authorities identified fewer victims, and assistance to victims was contingent upon their cooperation with law enforcement in prosecuting traffickers; victims who were in the country illegally, including Venezuelans, were at risk of deportation if they did not participate in trials against their traffickers; the government did not operate centers for trafficking victims but provided some funding to NGOs and international organizations to care for victims (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Curacao; undocumented migrants, including the growing population of Venezuelans, are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking; Curacaoan and foreign women and girls, mostly Dominican and Venezuelan, are exploited in sex trafficking; migrants from other Caribbean countries, South America, China, and India are subject to forced labor in construction, domestic servitude, landscaping, minimarkets, retail, and restaurants

  • Equatorial Guinea

    tier rating:

    Tier 2 Watch List — Equatorial Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities investigated, and for the first time since 2010, initiated the prosecution of alleged human traffickers; the government partnered with an international organization to provide training for more than 700 officials and civil society actors; authorities developed and implemented formal screening procedures to identify victims within vulnerable populations, an effort that had stalled for five years; however, the government still has not convicted a trafficker or any complicit government employees under its 2004 anti-trafficking law; a lack of training among judicial officials has resulted in potential trafficking crimes being tried under related statutes; victim services remained inadequate; authorities did not report referring any trafficking victims to government housing that was supposed to serve as temporary shelter (2020)



    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Equatorial Guinea and Equatoguineans abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are subjected to forced domestic service and commercial sex in cities, particularly in the hospitality and restaurant sector; local and foreign women, including Latin Americans, are exploited in commercial sex domestically, while some Equatoguinean women are sex trafficked in Spain; some children from rural areas have been forced into domestic servitude; children from nearby countries are forced to labor as domestic workers, market workers, vendors, and launderers; individuals recruited from African countries and temporary workers from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are sometimes exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking

  • Eritrea

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Eritrea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government engaged in critical bilateral and multilateral partnerships to build its capacity for anti-trafficking initiatives; officials participated in a UN-sponsored regional anti-trafficking workshop and committed to produce a regional plan of action to combat trafficking; however, a government policy or pattern of forced labor existed; the government continued to subject its nationals to forced labor in its compulsory national service and citizen militia by forcing them to serve indefinitely or for arbitrary periods; authorities did not report any trafficking investigations, prosecutions, or convictions, including complicit government employees, nor did they report identifying victims and referring them to care; the government has no action plan to combat human trafficking (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers export domestic victims in Eritrea or abroad; National Service is mandatory at age 18 and may take a variety of forms, including military service and physical labor but also government office jobs and teaching; Eritreans who flee the country, usually with the aim of reaching Europe, seek the help of paid smugglers and are vulnerable to trafficking when they cross the border clandestinely into Sudan, Ethiopia, and to a lesser extent Djibouti; Eritreans are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking mainly in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya

  • Guinea

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however it is making significant efforts to do so; the government  drafted a new anti-trafficking action plan, provided support to eight victims exploited in the Middle East, and incorporated anti-trafficking training into the law enforcement curriculum; however, the government did not overall increase efforts compared to the last rating period; investigations and prosecutions of trafficking crimes decreased, victim identification was inadequate, and NGO’s providing victim services did not receive government support; for the fourth year, resources for the anti-trafficking committee or the Office for the Protection of Gender, Children and Morals were inadequate; a Quranic teacher was not prosecuted for allegedly forcing child begging; Guinea was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)

    trafficking profile: 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, 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 d’Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, Greece, and Spain, while Chinese and Vietnamese women are reportedly forced into prostitution in Guinea

  • Guinea-Bissau

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Guinea-Bissau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include identifying forced child begging victims, cooperating with Moroccan authorities on international crime investigations, and approving a new action plan; yet, the government has not convicted a trafficker, identified fewer trafficking victims, and lacked resources or the political will to fight trafficking or to enact its action plan, which would meet minimum standards; Guinea-Bissau was granted a waiver under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)

    trafficking profile: Guinea-Bissau is a country of origin and destination 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 reportedly were transported to southern Senegal for forced manual and agricultural labor; girls may be subjected to forced domestic service and child prostitution in Senegal and Guinea; both boys and girls are forced to work as street vendors in cities in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal

  • Hong Kong

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List —  Hong Kong does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Hong Kong is hiring and training 98 new employees within the immigration, customs, labor, and justice departments dedicated to trafficking issues; authorities screened more than 7,000 vulnerable individuals for trafficking; the labor department introduced a victim identification mechanism to its division offices; the government provided anti-trafficking training to various officials; the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any cases of labor trafficking, investigated fewer sex trafficking cases, and did not provide victims any government-funded services; the government continued to penalize victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit; no legislation was enacted to fully criminalize all forms of trafficking (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Hong Kong, and traffickers also exploit victims from Hong Kong abroad; traffickers exploit women from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia in sex trafficking; some women in Hong Kong – often with the assistance of their families – deceive Indian and Pakistani men into arranged marriages involving forced domestic service, bonded labor in construction and other physically demanding industries, and other forms of abuse via exploitative contracts; drug trafficking syndicates coerced South American women to carry drugs into Hong Kong; employment agencies hired foreign domestic workers under false pretenses and forced them into commercial sex, sometimes through debt-based coercion

  • Iran

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Iran does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Iran remained in Tier 3; the government continued a policy of recruiting and using child soldiers, government officials perpetrated sex trafficking of adults and children and continued trafficking both in Iran and overseas; the government continued to force or coerce children and adults to fight for Iranian-led militias operating in Syria and provided financial support to militias fighting in armed conflicts in the region using child soldiers; authorities failed to identify and protect trafficking victims among vulnerable populations; law enforcement treated trafficking victims as criminals, facing severe punishment or death for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020)

    trafficking profile: Iran is a presumed source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Iranian and Afghan boys and girls are forced into prostitution domestically; Iranian women are subjected to sex trafficking in Iran, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and Europe; Azerbaijani women and children are also sexually exploited in Iran; Afghan migrants and refugees and Pakistani men and women are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Iran; NGO reports indicate that criminal organizations play a significant role in human trafficking in Iran

  • Korea, North

    tier rating: Tier 3 — the government of North Korea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; during this reporting period there was a government policy or pattern of forced labor of adults and children in prison camps, labor training centers, and through its imposition of forced labor conditions on North Korean overseas contract workers;  proceeds from state-sponsored forced labor fund government functions and illicit activities; the government has made no effort to address human trafficking (2020)

    trafficking profile: North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor, forced marriage, and sex trafficking; in the recent past, many North Korean women and girls lured by promises of food, jobs, and freedom migrated to China illegally to escape poor social and economic conditions only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements; North Koreans do not have a choice in the work the government assigns them and are not free to change jobs at will; many North Korean workers recruited to work abroad under bilateral contracts with foreign governments are subjected to forced labor and reportedly face government reprisals if they try to escape or complain to outsiders; thousands of North Koreans, including children, are subjected to forced labor in prison camps

  • Macau

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Macau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government trained police, customs, and social welfare officials on human trafficking, funded an awareness campaign, and provided services to victims; authorities convicted three sex traffickers but did not sentence anyone to significant prison terms; authorities investigated only one potential trafficking case and made no prosecutions; the government provided no assistance to any victims, and officials did not initiate any prosecutions or sentence convicted traffickers to significant terms of imprisonment; Macau was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)

    trafficking profile: Macau is a destination and, to a much lesser extent, source for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and possibly forced labor; most victims come from the Chinese mainland, but others are trafficked from China, Russia, and Southeast Asia; victims are lured in by false job offers and forced into prostitution, often being confined to massage parlors and illegal brothels where their identity documents are confiscated and they are threatened with violence; Chinese, Russian, and Thai criminal organizations are believed to be involved in recruiting women for Macau’s commercial sex industry

  • Malaysia

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Malaysia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government identified more victims, increased the number of trafficking-specialist prosecutors, drafted victim identification standard operating procedures, identified two volunteer victim assistance specialists that worked with more than 100 victims, and co-hosted the first national conference on anti-trafficking; however, authorities prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers and investigated few trafficking cases; despite the issue of corruption, insufficient efforts were made to prosecute officials’ complicity in trafficking-related crimes or to report the results of investigations into such crimes; insufficient interagency coordination and victim services discouraged foreign victims from participating in criminal proceedings; no resources were devoted to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards; Malaysia was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)

    trafficking profile: Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children subjected to conditions of 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, China, the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam, but subsequently they 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 to Singapore, China, and Japan for commercial sexual exploitation; refugees are also vulnerable to trafficking; some officials are reportedly complicit in facilitating trafficking; traffickers lure Rohingya women and girls residing in refugee camps in Bangladesh to Malaysia, where they are coerced to engage in commercial sex

  • Mali

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mali does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; government efforts included prosecuting hereditary slavery cases, increasing convictions, continuing training and awareness raising activities, releasing all children associated with the Malian armed forces (FAMa) to an international organization for care, training law enforcement officials on protection of children in armed conflict, identifying 215 children used by armed groups and referring them to international organizations for care; however, the government did not stop all use of children in the FAMa; the government continued to provide support to and collaborate with the Imghad Tuareg and the Allies Self-Defense Group, which recruited and used child soldiers; authorities did not investigate any suspects for child soldier offenses or make efforts to prevent it; law enforcement lacked resources and training about human trafficking; services for victims remained insufficient; therefore, Mali was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)

    trafficking profile: 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 in 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 debt bondage in the salt mines of Taoudenni in northern Mali; some members of Mali's Tuareg community are subjected to traditional slavery-related practices, and this involuntary servitude reportedly has extended to their children; reports indicate that non-governmental armed groups operating in northern Mali recruited children as combatants, cooks, porters, guards, spies, and sex slaves; slaveholders use some members of the Tuareg community in hereditary servitude where communities rather than individuals or families exploit the enslaved

  • Mauritania

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mauritania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so and was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; the government convicted five hereditary slaveholders, drafted new anti-trafficking legislation and a national action plan, raised awareness on child forced begging in Quranic schools with imams and religious leaders by establishing an inter-ministerial committee, published a child protection guide, and operated a cash transfer program; however, the government rarely imprisoned convicted slaveholders and did not identify any victims; government agencies lacked resources; government officials refuse to investigate or prosecute political offenders (2020)

    trafficking profile: Mauritania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to conditions of 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 boys  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 in the country or transported to countries in the Middle East for the same purpose

  • Nicaragua

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Nicaragua does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so and was downgraded to Tier 3; the government identified slightly more victims than in the previous reporting period and prosecuted a trafficker; however, no traffickers were convicted and victim identification remained inadequate; authorities did not  investigate, prosecute, or convict government employees complicit in trafficking; the government provided no victim services; prosecution, protection, and prevention efforts in the two Caribbean autonomous regions of Nicaragua continued to be much weaker than in the rest of the country (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Nicaragua and Nicaraguans abroad; women, children, and migrants are most at risk; women and children are subject to sex trafficking within the country and its two Caribbean autonomous regions, as well as  in other Central American countries, Mexico, Spain, and the United States; traffickers used social media to recruit victims with promises of high-paying jobs in restaurants, hotels, construction, and security outside of Nicaragua where they are subjected to sex or labor trafficking; traffickers exploit children through forced participation in illegal drug production and trafficking; children and persons with disabilities are subjected to forced begging; Nicaragua is also a destination for child sex tourists from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe

  • Papua New Guinea

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Papua New Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; despite remaining at Tier 3, the government continued to identify some trafficking victims and a prominent trafficking case was advanced; however, the government did not provide protective services for victims and did not systematically implement its victim identification procedures; corruption among officials in the logging sector remains a problem, and they continue to facilitate sex trafficking and forced labor; no alleged traffickers were convicted; the government dedicates little financial and human resources to combat trafficking, and awareness of trafficking is low among government officials (2020)

    trafficking profile: Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; women and children are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude; families may sell girls into forced marriages to settle debts, leaving them vulnerable to forced domestic service; local and Chinese men are forced to labor in logging and mining camps; 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

  • Russia

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Russia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, is not making significant efforts to do, and remains in Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking by convicting some traffickers, facilitating the return of Russian children from Iraq and Syria, and identifying some victims, including foreign nationals; however, there was a government policy of forced labor, the number of victims identified was negligible, and authorities penalized potential victims without screening for signs of trafficking; the government offered no funding or programs for trafficking victims’ rehabilitation, prosecutions remained low compared with the scope of Russia’s trafficking problem, no national anti-trafficking strategy has been drafted, and government agencies have not been assigned roles or responsibilities (2020)

    trafficking profile: 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; people from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Asia, including Vietnam and North Korea, are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Russia’s construction, manufacturing, agriculture, repair shop, and domestic services industries, as well as forced begging and narcotics cultivation; 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, and the Middle East, while women from European, African, and Central Asian countries were reportedly forced into prostitution in Russia

  • Senegal

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Senegal does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include establishing an anti-trafficking database; planning the third phase of its program to remove vulnerable children, including trafficking victims, from the streets of major cities; launching an emergency campaign to place vulnerable children and forced begging victims in shelters due to COVID 19 pandemic; however, the government rarely proactively investigated or prosecuted traffickers exploiting children in forced begging; authorities did not take action against officials who refused to investigate such cases; officials only applied adequate prison terms in accordance with the 2005 anti-trafficking law to two convicted traffickers; authorities did not identify any adult trafficking victims; government officials continued to have a limited knowledge of trafficking; Senegal was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)

    trafficking profile: Senegal is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women who are subjected to forced begging, forced labor, and sex trafficking; traffickers subject Senegalese children to forced labor in domestic service, mining, and prostitution; some Senegalese boys from Quranic schools and boys from The Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea are forced to beg; Senegalese women and girls are forced into domestic servitude in neighboring countries, Europe, and the Middle East, while others are sexually exploited in Senegal; women and girls from other West African countries are subjected to domestic servitude and sexual exploitation in Senegal; Ukrainian and Chinese women are exploited for sex trafficking in bars and nightclubs; North Korean workers are forced to work in construction

  • South Sudan

    tier rating:

    Tier 3 — South Sudan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so: the government’s efforts include forming and staffing an anti-trafficking inter-ministerial task force, releasing 286 child soldiers, and identifying 19 potential trafficking victims; however, the recruitment of child soldiers by security and law enforcement continues and neither was held criminally responsible; authorities did not investigate or prosecute forced labor or sex trafficking crimes and made no effort to identify and protect trafficking victims; authorities continued to arrest and imprison child sex trafficking victims without screening for indicators of trafficking (2020)



    trafficking profile: 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 or from rural areas, are vulnerable to forced labor and sexual exploitation 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, and 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; government forces use children to fight and perpetrate violence against other children and civilians, to serve as scouts, escorts, cooks, and cleaners, and to carry heavy loads while on the move

  • Syria

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Syria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government does not hold any traffickers, including complicit officials, criminally accountable for trafficking; no trafficking victims were identified or received protection during the reporting period; government and pro-Syrian militias continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers; the government does not prevent armed opposition forces and designated terrorist organizations from recruiting children; authorities continued to arrest, detain, and severely abuse trafficking victims, including child soldiers, and punished them for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020)

    trafficking profile: due to Syria’s civil war, 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 impact of the ongoing conflict on the scope and magnitude of Syria’s human trafficking situation; prior to the uprising, the Syrian armed forces and opposition forces used Syrian children in combat and support roles and as human shields

  • Turkmenistan

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Turkmenistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government approved the 2020-2022 national action plan, continued anti-trafficking awareness campaigns, worked with international organizations on combating trafficking, provided training to its diplomatic corps on human trafficking, and identified potential trafficking victims at the international airport; however, the  government used forced labor in the cotton harvest and public works projects; no officials were held accountable for their role in trafficking crimes; authorities did not prosecute or convict any traffickers; no victims were identified and offered protection or assistance programs (2020)

    trafficking profile: Turkmenistan is a source, and to a much lesser degree, destination country for men, women, and children who are 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; some Turkmen women and girls are sex trafficked abroad; Turkey is the primary trafficking destination, followed by Russia, India, and other countries in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Europe; labor trafficking occurs within Turkmenistan, particularly in the construction industry; government officials require employees in private sector institutions, soldiers, and public sector workers to pick cotton without payment under the threat of penalty, such as dismissal, reduced work hours, or salary deductions to meet government-imposed quotas for the cotton harvest

  • Venezuela

    tier rating: Tier 3 — Venezuela does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government created a specialized prosecutor’s office to oversee trafficking investigations and prosecutions; authorities began legal proceedings against three complicit officials in a notable case; however, the government did not assist any victims or investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers; little effort was made to curb the forced recruitment of Venezuelan children by Colombian armed groups operating illegally in Venezuela; authorities made little effort to screen Cuban medical professionals for trafficking indicators as the Cuban Government may have forced them to work by withholding their documentation, and coercing them to falsify medical records (2020)

    trafficking profile: 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, lured from the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas; 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 & Tobago, where they are subjected to forced prostitution; some Venezuelan children are forced to beg on the streets or work as domestic servants, while Ecuadorian children, often from indigenous communities, are subjected to forced labor; the government provided support to FARC dissidents and the ELN, which grew through the recruitment of child soldiers and exploitation of children in sex trafficking and forced labor; Illegal armed groups lure children in vulnerable conditions and dire economic circumstances with gifts and promises of basic sustenance to later recruit them into their ranks

  • Vietnam

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Vietnam does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include providing trafficking victims the right to legal representation in judicial proceedings, increasing the amount of shelter time for victims by one month, providing financial support, continuing large-scale awareness campaigns in vulnerable communities and to workers going overseas, and training law enforcement; however, fewer victims were identified or assisted and procedures remained slow and ineffective; provincial officials unfamiliar with anti-trafficking law impede anti-trafficking efforts; labor recruitment firms extorted illegal high fees from workers looking for overseas employment putting them at risk for forced labor; no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials complicit in trafficking offenses were made (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Vietnam, and traffickers exploit Vietnamese abroad; Vietnamese men and women who migrate abroad for work may be subject to exploitation and illegally high fees from recruiters trapping them in debt bondage; traffickers subject victims to forced labor in construction, fishing, agriculture, mining, maritime industries, logging, and manufacturing, primarily in Taiwan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Laos, Japan, and to a lesser extent, some parts of Europe and the UK; traffickers mislead Vietnamese women and children with fraudulent employment opportunities and sex traffick them to brothels on the borders of China, Cambodia, Laos, and elsewhere in Asia; traffickers use the Internet, gaming sites, and particularly social media to lure victims; domestic traffickers are sometimes  family members or small-scale networks exploiting Vietnamese men, women, and children - including street children and children with disabilities - in forced labor as street beggars or in brick kilns and mines; child sex tourists from elsewhere in Asia and other countries exploit children; prisoners reportedly are forced to work in agriculture, manufacturing, and hazardous industries, such as cashew processing

  • World

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List: (34 countries) Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Zambia, Zimbabwe

    Tier 3:  Afghanistan, Belarus, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Curacao, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Russia, Sint Maarten, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Vietnam

    trafficking profile: approximately 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked annually across national borders, not including millions trafficked within their own countries; at least 80% of the victims are female and up to 50% are minors; 75% of all victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; almost two-thirds of the global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East Asia and the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia (170,000 to 210,000 people)

    Tier 2 Watch List:  (44 countries) Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia

    Tier 3:  (19 countries) Afghanistan, Algeria, Belarus, Burma, Burundi, China, Comoros, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Lesotho, Nicaragua, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Venezuela (2020)

  • Zambia

    tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Zambia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making efforts to do so; efforts included increasing law enforcement training, establishing two fast-track human trafficking courts, conducting awareness campaigns about human trafficking, slightly increasing prosecutions and convictions, and strengthening prison sentences given to traffickers; however; investigations of trafficking crimes and funding to shelters and other victim assistance programs decreased; authorities did not proactively screen for trafficking among vulnerable populations, including foreign nationals and those involved in commercial sex; authorities detained and deported potential trafficking victims involved in smuggling; the national inter-ministerial committee is weak in overseeing national anti-trafficking efforts and trends (2020)

    trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Zambia and Zambians abroad; most trafficking occurs within Zambia’s borders, with traffickers exploiting women and children from rural areas in cities in domestic servitude or forced labor in agriculture, textile production, mining, construction, small businesses, such as bakeries, and forced begging; Jerabo gangs force Zambian children into illegal mining operations, such as loading stolen copper or crushing rocks; truck drivers exploit Zambian boys and girls in sex trafficking in towns along the Zimbabwean and Tanzanian borders, and miners exploit them in Solwezi; Zambian boys are exploited for sex trafficking in Zimbabwe and women and girls in South Africa; traffickers exploit victims from Tanzania and Malawi in the Zambian timber industry

  • Zimbabwe

    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; the government passed an anti-trafficking law in 2014 defining trafficking in persons as a crime of transportation and failing to capture the key element of the international definition of human trafficking – the purpose of exploitation – which prevents the law from being comprehensive or consistent with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol that Zimbabwe acceded to in 2013; the government did not report on anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during 2014, and corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary remain a concern; authorities made minimal efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims, relying on NGOs to identify and assist victims; Zimbabwe’s 2014 anti-trafficking law required the opening of 10 centers for trafficking victims, but none were established during the year; five existing shelters for vulnerable children and orphans may have accommodated child victims; in January 2015, an inter-ministerial anti-trafficking committee was established, but it is unclear if the committee ever met or initiated any activities (2015)

    trafficking profile: 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 forced labor, including domestic servitude, and prostitution catering to long-distance truck drivers; Zimbabwean men, women, and children experience forced labor in agriculture and domestic servitude in rural areas; family members may recruit children and other relatives from rural areas with promises of work or education in cities and towns where they end up in domestic servitude and sex trafficking; Zimbabwean women and men are lured into exploitative labor situations in South Africa and other neighboring countries