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Trafficking in persons

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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 2022 became law in January 2023), 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 remained on Tier 3; the Taliban employed or recruited child soldiers and sex slaves (including bacha bazi – a practice where men, particular community leaders, government officials, and armed groups, exploit boys for social and sexual entertainment); the Taliban made no efforts to address or prevent labor and sex trafficking, nor did they identify or protect any victims; the Taliban continued to undermine the rights of women, minorities, and other vulnerable populations and hindered the work of NGOs, further exacerbating trafficking (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Afghanistan and exploit Afghan victims abroad; most Afghan trafficking victims are children forced to work in carpet making, brick kilns, domestic servitude, sex trafficking, herding, begging, opium production and trade, salt mining, weapons trafficking, and truck driving; international experts indicate child labor increased after the Taliban takeover and estimate 25% of Afghan children are involved in child labor; some children are forced to migrate for work to other parts of Afghanistan or to Iran, Pakistan, or Turkey to support their families, and some are sold to traffickers to work as indentured servants; some families marry off underage daughters to receive a dowry payment, force children into labor with physical violence, or sell their children into sex trafficking; the Taliban and non-state armed groups, including ISIS-K, continue to recruit and use children in combat and support roles; the Taliban have detention facilities where they force detainees, including child and adult sex trafficking victims charged with “moral crimes,” into forced labor; sexual exploitation of boys, including bacha bazi, remains pervasive nationwide, and traffickers subject some boys to such exploitation abroad; restrictions on the movement of women and girls, and severely diminished access to employment and education, increase their vulnerability to trafficking; LGBTQI+ individuals are among the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan under the Taliban; members of ethnic and religious minorities also are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation; Afghan men, women, and children seeking employment abroad, primarily in Iran, Pakistan, and Europe, are at risk of labor or sex trafficking; Afghan women and girls sold into marriage in Afghanistan, India, Iran, and Pakistan are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude by their husbands (2023)

note:  The US has not recognized the Taliban or another entity as the government of Afghanistan. All references to “the pre-August 15, 2021 government” refer to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. References to the Taliban do not denote or imply that the US recognizes the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. (2023)

Algeria

tier rating: Tier 3 — Algeria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Algeria was downgraded to Tier 3; the government did take some steps to address trafficking, including adopting a National Action Plan, creating specialized trafficking units, and approving standardized victim identification indicators, although the indicators had not yet been promulgated; a draft anti-trafficking law was pending in Parliament at the end of the reporting period and the government continued work with an international organization to develop a National Referral Mechanism and train officials; however, officials conducted fewer investigations and prosecutions, and efforts to identify and assist victims remained insufficient; authorities most likely continued to penalize trafficking victims for immigration offenses committed as a result of being trafficked; government efforts to deport undocumented migrants without screening for trafficking indicators deterred some victims from reporting crimes or seeking assistance (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Algeria, and Algerians are exploited abroad; undocumented migrants, primarily from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria are vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking in Algeria; unaccompanied women and women traveling with children are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced domestic work; refugees and asylum seekers are vulnerable to trafficking before and during migration to Algeria; false promises of work in beauty salons or restaurants lure migrants to Algeria where they are exploited in sex and labor trafficking; victims report physical and sexual abuse from smugglers and traffickers; sub-Saharan men and women needing funds for their onward journey to Europe work illegally in construction and commercial sex and are vulnerable to sex trafficking and debt bondage;  Algerian women and girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking due to financial problems or after running away from home; criminal begging rings that exploit sub-Saharan African migrant children are common; Cuban medical workers in Algeria may have been forced to work by the Cuban Government, and North Korean and Chinese nationals working in Algeria may be at risk of exploitation (2023)

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 remained on Tier 3; the government decreased trafficking-related investigations and prosecutions; fewer victims were identified and referred to services; officials did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting any traffickers under its trafficking statute nor did they provide adequate protection to victims; officials reportedly returned many migrants and asylum seekers to their countries of origin without screening them for indicators of trafficking; similarly, authorities did not screen Ukrainian refugees; the government did not report conducting awareness-raising activities, and its efforts to prevent labor trafficking remained inadequate; for the sixth consecutive year, Belarus did not report investigating or filing charges related to illegal recruitment of migrant workers (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Belarus and exploit Belarusians abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are men subjected to forced labor, primarily in Belarus and Russia but also in Poland, Turkey, and other European, Eurasian and Middle Eastern countries; some Belarusian women traveling for foreign employment in the adult entertainment and hotel industries are subjected to sex trafficking; most traffickers are Belarusian citizens, and traffickers increasingly use online methods to coerce victims into forced labor and sex trafficking; the government has identified Belarusian, Moldovan, Russian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese victims in Belarus; Belarusian authorities continue to facilitate entry into Belarus of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers, mostly from Iraq but also from other Middle Eastern countries, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia under a government-orchestrated migration crisis that began in 2021; officials facilitate onward travel to the borders of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland where migrants are encouraged, and sometimes forced, to attempt irregular border crossings; these migrants remain vulnerable to trafficking (2023)

Bolivia

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Bolivia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government adopted a National Action Plan for the elimination of trafficking and reportedly sentenced three traffickers who had been detained since 2016; however, Bolivia did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; officials did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting traffickers and did not report identifying or referring victims to care; therefore, Bolivia was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bolivia, and victims from Bolivia abroad; Bolivian adults and children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor at home and abroad; officials report 63% of the victims identified were female; to a lesser extent, women from neighboring countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay, and Venezuela, are exploited in sex trafficking in Bolivia; some migrants from Chile, The Gambia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean travelling to or through Bolivia are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor; child sex tourists exploit children within Bolivia; rural, poor, mostly indigenous Bolivians, and LGBTQIA+ youth are particularly at risk for sex and labor trafficking; Bolivian women and girls are exploited in sex trafficking at home and abroad in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Panama, and Peru; within Bolivia, adults and children are exploited in domestic work, mining, ranching, and agriculture; forced criminality continues, including cases of children being forced to commit crimes, such as robbery and drug production, as well as forced begging; traffickers exploit Bolivians in forced labor in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in sweatshops, agriculture, brickmaking, domestic work, textile factories, and the informal sector; social media is used as the primary recruitment tool, luring vulnerable individuals with fraudulent employment opportunities  (2023)

Botswana

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Botswana does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials investigated some additional trafficking crimes and referred victims to services, increased cooperation with foreign governments to investigate and prosecute cross-border trafficking, and sought trafficking survivors’ input in drafting a new National Action Plan; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not initiate any new prosecutions or convict any traffickers, nor did they amend the anti-trafficking law to remove sentencing provisions that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment; fewer trafficking victims were identified, and the lack of formal procedures to identify and refer victims to care hindered protection efforts; the government continued to rely on civil society to provide most victim services and did not report providing adequate in-kind or financial support for these efforts; efforts to regulate labor recruitment agencies remained minimal, increasing migrant workers’ vulnerability to trafficking; therefore, Botswana was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Botswana, and exploit victims from Botswana abroad; unemployed women, individuals from rural areas, agricultural workers, and children are trafficked for sex and labor; traffickers use social media and other online platforms to recruit, using false employment offers, and exploit Batswana girls and women in sex trafficking; traffickers abuse the cultural practice where some parents in low-income rural communities send their children to live and work for wealthier relatives or acquaintances in cities, agriculture, or farming, leading to exploitation of children in sex and labor trafficking; extended family members may subject young Batswana domestic workers to conditions indicative of forced labor, including confinement and verbal, physical, or sexual abuse; owners of private cattle farms and ranches exploit adults and children from the indigenous San community of Bushmen, but avoid inspection from local officials with whom they have relationships; Batswana adults and children are exploited in labor trafficking, including domestic servitude and agricultural work, in other African countries, including Cameroon, South Africa, and Zimbabwe; traffickers intercept and exploit, in Botswana and South Africa, Central African economic migrants transiting Botswana to South Africa, as well as child sex victims from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and East African countries; Cuban nationals working in Botswana may have been forced to work by the Cuban Government  (2023)

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, therefore Brunei was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; key achievements included referring two alleged traffickers for prosecution, including one Bruneian national, identifying and providing assistance to 14 victims, opening two shelters for victims, and signing a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding with Bangladesh on recruitment of migrant workers; however, the government did not effectively screen for trafficking among foreign nationals in commercial sex and migrant workers; officials handled some potential trafficking cases administratively, if at all, and probably inappropriately detained, prosecuted, and deported potentially unidentified sex and labor trafficking victims; for the sixth consecutive year, the government did not convict any traffickers under its anti-trafficking law, and other laws that could be used to prosecute traffickers did not provide sufficiently stringent sentences (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Brunei; some men and women who migrate to Brunei to work in domestic service, retail, or construction work 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, and some Kenyan women reportedly faced forced labor in Brunei; workers from Bangladesh and China may have been forced to work in Brunei at Chinese-run projects; some traffickers use Brunei as a transit point for victims used for sex and labor trafficking in Malaysia and Indonesia; Anti-LGBTQI+ laws place some LGBTQI+ individuals at higher risk; trafficking experts in Brunei have received threats from traffickers (2023)

Bulgaria

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Bulgaria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials convicted more traffickers, informally adopted new National Action Plans for 2022 and 2023, and utilized seized assets to supplement shelters and service centers assisting victims; the government mandated specialized training for investigative prosecutors and magistrates and required assignment of trafficking cases to those individuals; the National Investigative Service established a cyber unit, focusing on internet-based exploitation, including trafficking; Bulgaria and Germany cooperated on a bilateral program to combat labor trafficking, information campaigns targeting the large number of Bulgarians seeking jobs in Germany, and a referral mechanism for trafficking cases between countries; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; courts continued to issue suspended sentences for most convicted traffickers; officials did not adequately screen for trafficking indicators or identify victims, particularly among vulnerable groups such as Roma; the government provided limited funding to NGOs for victim services and a national commission for capacity building and implementation of anti-trafficking activities, limiting the sustainability of the government’s anti-trafficking systems; a lack of resources, legal authority, and training impeded law enforcement; corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary hindered progress, and alleged complicity in trafficking crimes persisted; therefore, Bulgaria remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2023) 

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bulgaria, and traffickers exploit victims from Bulgaria abroad; Bulgaria remains one of the primary source countries of human trafficking in the EU; vulnerable groups include Bulgarians with little education and income, the unemployed, children in residential care, homeless individuals, individuals working in commercial sex, migrants, and Roma; most victims are Roma or individuals with disabilities or mental health conditions; Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity and Romani women and girls account for most of the sex trafficking victims in Bulgaria; family- or clan-based organizations and independent traffickers are overwhelmingly of Romani ethnicity and usually know the victims, who are also Roma; sex trafficking rings typically consist of Bulgarian traffickers who cooperate with foreign nationals in destination countries but do not have direct ties to organized crime groups; traffickers exploit Bulgarian women and girls in sex trafficking throughout Western Europe and in Bulgaria, and exploit Bulgarian men and boys in forced labor across Europe, predominantly in agriculture, construction, and hospitality industries; Romani children are exploited in forced labor, particularly begging and pick-pocketing in Austria, France, and Sweden; child trafficking cases reportedly are increasing; thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and seeking sanctuary in Bulgaria are highly vulnerable to trafficking; corruption among law enforcement and judiciary officials continues to enable some trafficking crimes (2023)

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, therefore, Burma remained on Tier 3; the regime reported investigating and convicting more traffickers, sentencing some to imprisonment, and conducting an awareness-raising event; the 2022 anti-trafficking law was enacted, criminalizing all forms of labor and sex trafficking; however, the regime did not identify or screen for any victims and, as a result, penalized victims for unlawful acts committed as a result of being trafficked; the military continued to use children and adults in forced labor; the regime did not prosecute any military or deposed government officials despite continued reports of complicity in trafficking, and it prevented civil society organizations from assisting victims; displacement resulting from military conflict, exacerbated by the February 2021 military coup that deposed the democratically elected government, made Rohingya and other ethnic groups more vulnerable to human trafficking; efforts to combat trafficking continued to decline dramatically since the coup, as the military regime shifted its focus from serving justice to persecuting pro-democracy opposition (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Burma, as well as Burmese victims abroad; Burmese men are forced to work domestically and abroad in fishing, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, and construction; fishermen are lured into forced labor by recruitment agencies in Burma and Southeast Asia; Burmese women are lured to China for marriage under false pretenses and are subjected to sex trafficking, forced concubinism 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 and rubber plantations, mining, fishing, and bamboo, teak, and rice harvesting; some military personnel, civilian brokers, border guard officials, and ethnic armed groups continue to recruit child soldiers, particularly in conflict areas; men, women, and children are at risk of forced labor and sex trafficking along Burma’s borders with China and Thailand; discriminatory laws and hiring practices put LGBTQI+ individuals at higher risk for trafficking; Burmese women are subjected to forced domestic labor, including in the UAE; foreign traffickers, including Chinese nationals, reportedly are fraudulently recruiting men and women from South and Southeast Asia, as well as Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, and Uzbekistan, for forced labor in cyber scam operations along the border with Thailand (2023)

Cambodia

tier rating: Tier 3 — Cambodia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Cambodia remained on Tier 3; authorities took some steps to address trafficking, including continuing to investigate, prosecute and convict more traffickers, creating a special working group to investigate reports of large-scale cyber scam operations involving possible forced labor and identifying and assisting more victims; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking, including by senior officials, remained widespread, leading to selective and politically motivated enforcement of laws while inhibiting law enforcement efforts; authorities did not investigate or hold accountable any officials involved in the large number of credible reports of complicity; officials did not effectively address forced labor in cyber scam operations nor equitably screen or assist foreign workers removed from cyber scam operations; the government inappropriately penalized victims for crimes committed as a result of being trafficked, including holding victims until they paid bribes to police for release or were repatriated by their home country (2023)

trafficking profile:

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cambodia, as well as Cambodian victims abroad; 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 or exploit them in sex trafficking; 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; 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; traffickers recruit Cambodian women and girls from rural areas under false pretenses, or sometimes through complicit parents, to travel to China to marry Chinese-national men where they are subject to sex trafficking or forced labor; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls who move from rural areas to cities and tourist areas are subjected to sex trafficking; media reports indicate Chinese national-organized crime syndicates fraudulently recruit men, women, and children from Cambodia and other countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America and force them into online gambling, Internet, cryptocurrency, and telephone scams, primarily in large commercial compounds in Cambodia (2023)

Chad

tier rating: Tier 3 — Chad does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Chad was downgraded to Tier 3; officials took some steps to address trafficking, prosecuting trafficking cases and launching an inter-ministerial committee to enhance protections for migrant workers and reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking; however, the government did not identify any victims or convict traffickers for the second consecutive year; officials did not consistently implement standard operating procedures to screen for and identify victims; the government did not operationalize its National Trafficking Commission nor conduct awareness campaigns (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Chad, and traffickers exploit Chadian victims 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 production, and fishing, and those attending Quranic schools are forced into begging and street vending or other forms of trafficking; some military or local officials exploit with impunity child herders in forced labor; girls from rural areas who search for work in larger towns are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude; armed groups most likely recruit and use children in armed conflict; traffickers exploit some undocumented migrants in sex or labor trafficking; Chinese and Cuban nationals working in Chad may have been forced to work by their governments (2023)

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, therefore, China remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including adopting a Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Law, cooperating with foreign law enforcement to extradite Chinese nationals suspected of human trafficking abroad, and awarding restitution to a trafficking victim; however, the government continued its policy or pattern of widespread forced labor, including ongoing mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; the government also implemented similar policies against other religious minorities and Tibetans in other provinces; Chinese nationals reportedly suffered forced labor in countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East hosting Belt and Road Initiative projects; for the sixth consecutive year, the government did not report complete law enforcement data, nor did it identify any trafficking victims or refer them to protection services (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in China, as well as Chinese nationals abroad; state-sponsored forced labor persists under the government’s mass detention and political indoctrination campaign against Muslim and Turkic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; a small number of ethnic Han and members of other religious minority groups reportedly are detained in the same system; authorities in some localities subject families, including some older children, of men arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang to forced labor; traffickers target adults and children with developmental disabilities and children whose parents have left them with relatives – estimated at 6.4 million – and subject them to forced labor and begging; highly organized criminal syndicates and local gangs subject Chinese women and girls to sex trafficking within China and abroad; crime syndicates also subject Chinese and foreign victims into forced criminal activities in cyber scam operations in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos; traffickers use China as a transit point to subject foreigners to trafficking in other countries throughout Asia and in the international maritime industry; Chinese men, women, and children are victims of forced labor and sex trafficking in more than 80 countries; some Chinese nationals, host country nationals, and other migrants are subjected to conditions indicative of forced labor at Chinese Government Belt and Road Initiative or other China-affiliated construction projects, mining, and factories in African, Asian and Pacific, Caribbean, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries; women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and several countries in Africa experience forced labor in domestic service, forced concubinage leading to 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, while some North Korean women are forced into commercial sex, forced marriage, or forced labor; North Korea exploits some of its citizens in forced labor in China as part of its system for financing weapons development programs (2023)

Congo, Republic of the

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — The Republic of the Congo does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government trained law enforcement officials on the anti-trafficking law and issued six decrees to protect Indigenous People from trafficking; however, officials did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, on its anti-trafficking capacity; no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of traffickers occurred; no reports identified victims for the third consecutive year; the government did not take any proactive measures to address alleged official complicity in trafficking, and the lack of a national anti-trafficking task force hindered overall efforts; therefore, the Republic of the Congo was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Republic of the Congo, and victims from the Republic of the Congo are exploited abroad; forced labor of adults and children is the primary type of trafficking, predominantly in the agricultural sector; most victims originate from Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and to a lesser extent from Gabon and other neighboring countries; children, primarily from West Africa, are exploited in domestic servitude in cities; fraudulent employment agents in Benin, the Central African Republic, the DRC, and Gabon recruit victims who are exploited in the Republic of the Congo; foreign business owners and Congolese exploit most foreign victims in forced domestic service, market vending, and the fishing sector; some hotel owners and criminals exploit adults and children, mostly from the DRC, in sex trafficking; some parents, mostly in West African countries, send their children to the Republic of the Congo expecting the child will send remittances or receive an education, but traffickers exploit the children in sex trafficking or forced labor; internal trafficking primarily involves recruitment from remote rural areas for exploitation in cities; refugees and Indigenous Populations are particularly vulnerable; traffickers, including some from the majority Bantu community, exploit Indigenous people in forced agricultural labor; the majority of internal victims are from the Indigenous population (2023)

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, therefore, Cuba remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, such as amending the penal code to include criminalization of labor trafficking; however, the government continued a policy or pattern to profit from labor export programs with strong indications of forced labor, particularly in its foreign medical missions program; the government continued to deploy Cuban workers to foreign countries using deceptive and coercive tactics, and failed to address an increasing number of allegations from credible NGOs and foreign governments of Cuban officials’ involvement in trafficking crimes; the government used its legal framework to threaten, coerce, and punish workers and their families if they left the labor export and medical programs (2023)



trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cuba and Cubans abroad; individuals are forced or coerced into participating in labor export programs, most notably the foreign medical missions program; sex trafficking and sex tourism, including child victims, occur within Cuba; traffickers exploit Cubans in sex trafficking and forced labor in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, 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; officials identified children, young women, the elderly, and disabled persons as the most vulnerable to trafficking; LGBTQI+ individuals and migrants are vulnerable to sex trafficking; professional baseball players are at risk of labor trafficking; the government uses high school students in some rural areas to harvest crops without pay, claiming that the work is voluntary (2023)

Curacao

tier rating: Tier 3 — Curacao does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Curacao remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including providing shelter and services to two victims, prosecuting two alleged traffickers, and adopting and funding a National Action Plan (NAP) to improve law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking; however, the new NAP did not include provisions to protect victims or prevent crime; the courts did not convict any traffickers, and the government continued to condition foreign victim assistance on cooperation in cases against traffickers; lack of funding remained a primary obstacle to anti-trafficking efforts; officials demonstrated limited familiarity with human trafficking and conflated it with migrant smuggling, hindering effective prosecution, prevention, and protection efforts; government coordination with civil society organizations and internally, across agencies, was inadequate (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Curacao; undocumented migrants, especially the substantial population of Venezuelans, are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking; traffickers exploit women and girls, particularly from Curacao, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, among other countries, in sex trafficking; migrants from other Caribbean countries, South America, China, and India are subject to forced labor in domestic servitude, as well as in construction, landscaping, mini markets, retail, and restaurants (2023)

Djibouti

tier rating: Tier 3 — Djibouti does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Djibouti was downgraded to Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including partnering with international organizations to establish a shelter and provide services to victims, and directing creation of a national coordinating body to combat trafficking; however, officials did not report investigating or prosecuting any cases and did not convict any traffickers for the sixth consecutive year; prosecutors dropped trafficking charges or reclassified cases as other crimes with lower penalties, and judges did not incorporate provisions from the 2016 anti-trafficking law; no victims were identified for the fourth consecutive year, and protection services remained limited; the government lacked coordinated anti-trafficking efforts and did not draft a new National Action Plan to replace the expired plan; some officials continued to deny the existence of sex and labor trafficking in Djibouti (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Djibouti, and to a lesser extent, traffickers exploit victims from Djibouti abroad; traffickers, including family members, exploit local and migrant children in forced begging; homeless Djiboutian and migrant women and children face exploitation in sex trafficking or forced labor; foreign workers—including Ethiopians, Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and Yemenis—may be exploited in forced labor in domestic servitude, construction, and food service sectors; adults and children, primarily undocumented economic migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia, transit Djibouti en route to Yemen and other locations in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia; some of these migrants are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking at their intended destinations; migrants who transit Djibouti to return to their home countries are vulnerable to trafficking, particularly in agricultural labor and sex trafficking; Djibouti hosts approximately 35,000 refugees and asylumseekers, and many of them have endured and remain vulnerable to trafficking; Cuban medical professionals in Djibouti may have been forced to work by the Cuban government (2023)

Dominican Republic

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — the Dominican Republic does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; more traffickers were convicted, two police officers were investigated for trafficking crimes, and cooperation with international law enforcement increased; officials identified more victims and implemented new protections for vulnerable domestic workers; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; the government systemically and persistently failed to screen vulnerable migrant or undocumented populations, failed to refer victims to services, and did not provide these groups with justice in trafficking crimes; officials investigated and prosecuted fewer traffickers, did not adequately investigate labor trafficking cases involving migrants and children, and did not identify victims; the government did not adopt draft amendments to improve anti-trafficking laws, did not adequately fund or provide resources to anti-trafficking efforts, and did not complete a new National Action Plan; therefore, the Dominican Republic was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Dominican Republic, and victims from the Dominican Republic are exploited abroad; Dominican women and children, particularly from impoverished areas, were victims of sex trafficking throughout the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and the US; a 2022 study found family networks, social media recruiting, domestic servitude, inequality, gender-based violence, lack of information and education, and corruption were the primary causes of trafficking of Dominican women and girls in Costa Rica, Spain, and Switzerland; foreign victims, especially from Colombia, Haiti, Venezuela, other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America, and Asia, were trafficked in the Dominican Republic; the Dominican Republic is a destination for sex tourists – primarily from North America and Europe – for child sex trafficking; traffickers increased recruiting of Colombian and Venezuelan women to dance in strip clubs and later coerce them into sex trafficking; children are forced into domestic service, street vending, begging, agricultural work, construction, robbery gangs, and movement of illicit narcotics; traffickers reportedly operate along the Haitian-Dominican border, sometimes with assistance of corrupt government officials who accept bribes to allow undocumented crossings; LGBTQI+ individuals face high levels of violence, which may increase vulnerability to trafficking (2023)

Egypt

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Egypt does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included approving a new national strategy to combat trafficking, increasing convictions of traffickers, more than doubling the training of officials and partners, and issuing presidential directives to improve public awareness and protection; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials identified the fewest victims since 2019 and investigations decreased; the government pursued trafficking charges to prosecute some non-trafficking offenses, undercutting efforts to hold traffickers criminally accountable; officials continued to penalize victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; despite high risks for foreign nationals in Egypt, non-Egyptian victims are rarely identified; victim services and shelter remained insufficient and relied on international organizations and NGOs to provide some services, especially for men and foreign victims; for the third consecutive year, the government did not approve a draft law to expand labor protections to domestic workers; therefore, Egypt was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Egypt, and Egyptians are exploited abroad; Egyptian children are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic service, street begging, drug trafficking, quarrying, and agricultural work in Egypt; traffickers, and some parents, force children, including Egyptian and Syrian children, to beg in the streets or exploit girls in sex trafficking; parents, husbands, and siblings subject women and girls to sex trafficking or forced domestic service to supplement family incomes; child sex tourism occurs primarily in Giza and Cairo, where individuals from the Arabian Gulf, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, purchase women and girls for “temporary” or “summer” marriages for commercial sex, as well as forced labor; parents force underage girls into permanent marriages where they are coerced into domestic servitude or commercial sex, and some husbands coerce their wives into sex trafficking or domestic servitude; some Egyptians attempting to migrate to Europe through Libya were subject to sex trafficking and forced labor; Egyptian children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced begging in Europe, and adults are forced into labor, construction, agriculture, domestic work, and low-paying service jobs in the region; men and women trafficked from South and Southeast Asia and East Africa are subjected to forced labor in domestic service, construction, and begging in Egypt; male refugees and migrants are vulnerable to forced labor; foreign domestic workers primarily from Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and parts of West Africa are highly vulnerable to forced labor; women and girls, including refugees and migrants from Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East are subjected to sex trafficking in Egypt; refugees and migrants from South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen who live in Egypt are at risk of trafficking; undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers, transiting Egypt from the Horn of Africa en route to Europe, face trafficking along the migration route (2023)

El Salvador

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — El Salvador does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; El Salvador hired more police and prosecutors in specialized anti-trafficking units and provided awareness training for Salvadorans participating in temporary work programs abroad; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous year, to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; the government investigated, prosecuted, and convicted fewer traffickers; less than half of all victims received government services or referrals to care providers, and services provided were inadequate; the government arrested and detained thousands of suspected gang members, disabling criminal networks that fueled demand for sex and labor trafficking, but authorities arrested and detained children affiliated with gangs without screening for trafficking indicators; interagency coordination remained weak, government data was unreliable, and the national anti-trafficking council did not reconcile the data or publish a report on the government’s 2022 efforts; therefore, El Salvador remained on Tier 2 Watch list (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in El Salvador, and traffickers exploit victims from El Salvador abroad; adults and children are exploited in sex trafficking within the country; orphans, adolescent girls, and LGBTQI+ persons are at particular risk; sex trafficking reportedly occurs in the tourism industry; traffickers exploit victims within their own communities or homes, sometimes their own children or other family members; Salvadoran adults and children are exploited in forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, and begging; adults and children from neighboring countries—particularly Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in construction, domestic service, or the informal sector; traffickers recruit victims in regions of El Salvador with high levels of violence and capitalize on fear to coerce victims and their families through threats of violence; in 2022, territorial gang control decreased dramatically across El Salvador, following the arrests of thousands of suspected gang members under the government’s state of exception; reports indicate extortion and violence declined significantly, but no data is available on the state of exception’s impact on trafficking; prior to the state of exception, limited government presence in gang-controlled territory exacerbated trafficking risks among vulnerable groups; many families were displaced fleeing gang exploitation of children; transnational criminal organizations and gangs, including MS-13 and Barrio 18, recruited, abducted, trained, armed, and subjected children to forced labor—including assassinations, extortion, and drug trafficking; these groups subjected women and children, including LGBTQI+ children, to sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service and child care; Salvadoran men, women, and children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, and the US; traffickers exploit some Salvadorans who irregularly migrate to the US in forced labor, criminal activity, and sex trafficking en route or upon arrival; traffickers exploit some victims from Asia, South America, or other Central American countries in sex and labor trafficking in El Salvador; reported corruption and complicity among some government officials may have obstructed anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts (2023)

Equatorial Guinea

tier rating:

Tier 3 — Equatorial Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Equatorial Guinea was downgraded to Tier 3; officials took some steps such as training law enforcement officials on trafficking; however, the government did not prosecute any traffickers and has never convicted a trafficker under its 2004 anti-trafficking law; officials did not identify any victims for the second consecutive year nor screen vulnerable populations; the anti-trafficking law did not criminalize all forms of trafficking; allegations of senior government officials’ complicity in trafficking crimes continued to hinder efforts to combat trafficking (2023)



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 sex trafficking in cities, particularly in the hospitality and restaurant sector; local and foreign women are exploited in commercial sex domestically, while some Equatoguineans may face sex trafficking in Spain; some business owners recruit women from Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, other African countries, and Latin America for work in Equatorial Guinea and exploit them in forced labor and sex trafficking; some children from rural areas have been exploited in forced labor; traffickers fraudulently recruit Equatoguinean and foreign children to attend school or learn a trade but exploit them in domestic servitude and other forced labor; observers report LGBTQI+ youth are often left homeless and stigmatized by family and society, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking (2023)

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, therefore Eritrea remained on Tier 3; the government continued to have a policy or pattern of human trafficking; the government exploited its citizens in forced labor in its compulsory national service and citizen militia by forcing them to serve indefinitely or for arbitrary periods; officials directed policies that perpetuated mobilization of children for forced labor in public works projects, usually within the agricultural sector, during the student summer work program known as Maetot; the government did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking (2023)



trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic victims in Eritrea and abroad, and may exploit foreign victims in Eritrea; National Service is mandatory at age 18 and may take a variety of forms, including military service and physical labor but also the full range of government jobs, as well as teaching; the 18-month limit on compulsory national service was suspended since the 1998-2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian border conflict, blocking the demobilization of most individuals who are forced to serve indefinitely under threats of detention, torture, or familial reprisal; Eritreans who flee the country, usually with the aim of reaching Europe, seek the help of paid smugglers to evade Eritrea’s strict exit controls and are vulnerable to trafficking; Eritreans are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking mainly in Ethiopia, Libya, and Sudan; Eritrean military and security officials reportedly subject young women and girls to domestic servitude and sex trafficking, as well as committing human rights abuses and gender-based violence against women and girls in Tigray; Chinese nationals employed at worksites affiliated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative are vulnerable to forced labor, including in construction and mining (2023)

Eswatini

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Eswatini does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Eswatini established multi-agency emergency response teams to respond to trafficking victim identification; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous year, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; the lack of government coordination and leadership of the Prevention of People Trafficking and Smuggling Secretariat continued to hinder efforts; the government did not allocate funding for the Prevention of People Trafficking and People Smuggling Task Force to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts; the lack of specialized training for front-line officers continued to hamper efforts; serious allegations of trafficking and victim abuse by senior government officials have remained pending for multiple years; the first shelter for victims refurbished in collaboration with foreign donor support remained inoperative for the second consecutive year; therefore, Eswatini remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Eswatini, and traffickers exploit victims from Eswatini abroad; traffickers target vulnerable communities, particularly those with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates; Swati girls, particularly orphans, are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude, primarily in Eswatini and South Africa; some Swati girls in forced domestic work are physically and sexually abused by their employers, and sex traffickers exploit orphaned girls in exchange for food and money; Swati boys and foreign children are forced into labor in agriculture, cattle herding, and market vending within Eswatini; some Mozambican boys who migrate to Eswatini for work are exploited by traffickers in forced labor; Cuban nationals on medical missions in Eswatini may have been forced to work by the Cuban government; traffickers use Eswatini as a transit country to move foreign victims, primarily Mozambicans, to South Africa for forced labor; some Mozambican women reportedly are forced into commercial sex in Eswatini or transported to South Africa; some Swati people, including orphaned girls and girls from poor families who voluntarily migrate in search of work—particularly in South Africa—are exploited in sex trafficking; Swati men recruited in border communities are exploited in forced labor in South Africa’s timber industry (2023)

Gabon

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Gabon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials increased funding and capacity at an NGO-run shelter for victims, and also increased prosecutions and convictions of alleged traffickers; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared to the previous year, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; authorities did not report any referrals of victims to services and did not report efforts to identify, protect, or provide justice for adult victims—potential efforts that have been inadequate for several years; for the fourth consecutive year, the government did not adopt its anti-trafficking National Action Plan and lacked inter-ministerial coordination; officials did not report investigating allegations of judicial corruption related to trafficking crimes; therefore, Gabon remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Gabon, as well as victims from Gabon abroad; Gabon is a primary destination and transit country for West and Central African men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; poverty continues to represent a key risk factor in forced labor and sex trafficking; girls are exploited in forced labor in domestic service, markets, or roadside restaurants, and boys are forced to work as street vendors, mechanics, and laborers in the fishing sector; West African women are coerced into domestic servitude or commercial sex within Gabon; criminals may exploit children in illegal gold mines and wildlife trafficking; Gabonese labor recruiters associated with large agricultural firms exploit English-speaking Cameroonians displaced by violence and insecurity in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, forcing some Cameroonians to work on rubber and palm oil plantations in northern Gabon; West African traffickers reportedly exploit children from other countries to work in markets and urban centers in Gabon; smugglers who assist foreign adults migrating to or through Gabon subject them to forced labor or commercial sex; some families willingly give children to intermediaries promising education or employment who instead subject the children to forced labor; women are exploited in sex trafficking at roadside bars, and brothel owners reportedly conduct child sex trafficking; traffickers often operate outside the capital to avoid detection and take advantage of Gabon’s porous borders and unguarded beaches to import victims by car or boat (2023)

Guinea-Bissau

tier rating: Tier 3 — Guinea-Bissau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Guinea-Bissau remained on Tier 3; despite the lack of efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including implementing procedures in its National Referral Mechanism to refer child victims to services from civil society organizations, providing anti-trafficking training to border officials, and conducting a public awareness radio campaign; however, Guinea-Bissau has never convicted a trafficker and failed to prosecute any alleged traffickers for the fourth consecutive year; the government continued to lack adequate victim identification and services and resources and political will to comprehensively combat trafficking (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Guinea-Bissau and Bissau-Guineans abroad; forced child begging is the most prevalent form of trafficking, with many victims exploited by corrupt Quranic teachers or associated traffickers; the corrupt teachers send large numbers of Bissau-Guinean boys to Senegal, as well as some to Guinea, Mali, and The Gambia; they also force boys from Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia to beg in Bissau; 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 Guinea, Senegal and The Gambia; women are recruited and exploited in domestic servitude abroad; girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are exploited in child sex tourism in the Bijagos, an archipelago off the coast of Guinea-Bissau that is largely devoid of government and law enforcement presence; Cuban nationals in Guinea-Bissau may have been forced to work there by the Cuban Government (2023)

Haiti

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Haiti does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials initiated two prosecutions under the anti-trafficking law and assigned investigative judges in two additional high-profile cases; the government also identified and provided services to 11 adult trafficking victims, and also provided support to an unknown number of child victims and conducted an audit of judicial and child protection cases; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous year, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; impunity and complicity, particularly in high-profile cases, remained problems; Haiti lacked sustained law enforcement efforts and did not pursue investigations following victim identification; improvements in law enforcement or victim protection efforts were unclear because the government did not disaggregate information on anti-trafficking law enforcement or victim protection efforts; anti-trafficking agencies did not cooperate effectively, and the government did not make sufficient efforts to combat child domestic servitude; because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Haiti was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3; therefore, Haiti remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Haiti, as well as Haitians abroad; in 2023, officials estimated three million Haitians were at risk of trafficking; during the reporting period, Haiti suffered multiple crises, including gang violence, fuel shortages, irregular migration outflows, internal population displacements, a cholera epidemic, the breakdown of basic infrastructure, and the government’s inability to provide basic services—all of which increased vulnerability to trafficking and reduced government capacity to address it; most of Haiti’s trafficking cases involve children in forced labor and sex trafficking in domestic service; NGOs estimate that between 150,000 and 300,000 children work in domestic servitude, of which about two-thirds are girls and one-third boys—mostly victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking, respectively; female foreign nationals, especially citizens of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, are particularly at risk for sex and labor trafficking in Haiti; commercial sex typically takes place in upscale neighborhoods and resort areas to cater to foreigners; NGOs report child sex tourism occurs in Haiti, with most sex tourists coming from Canada, the US, and Europe; traffickers target Haitian children in private or NGO-sponsored residential care centers, children working in construction, agriculture, fisheries, domestic work, begging, and street vending, IDPs including those displaced by natural disasters, stateless people, LGBTQI+ youth, and those affected by gang violence; risks to migrants remained high, including from migrant smugglers who exploit migrant women in commercial sex to repay alleged debts; among all Haitian migrant groups, those traversing the Dominican Republic-Haiti border seeking economic opportunities were the largest and most vulnerable to trafficking; cross-border trafficking of Haitians include forced labor in the Dominican construction, service, and agricultural industries and sex trafficking in the Dominican tourism industry; Haitian adults and children also are at risk of fraudulent recruitment and forced labor in other Caribbean countries, South America, and the US; Cuban medical workers in Haiti may have been forced to work by the Cuban government (2023)

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 on Tier 3; the government took some steps that may prevent trafficking of some vulnerable populations, including providing access to schools, basic services, and temporary immigration relief for some Afghan children and adult refugees or migrants who registered for the government’s headcount initiative; however, the government continued a policy or pattern of employing or recruiting child soldiers and facilitating human trafficking; officials continued to perpetrate and condone trafficking crimes with impunity, both in Iran and overseas; the government did not report law enforcement efforts to address trafficking, and it brought spurious charges against LGBTQI+ activists; officials did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting officials complicit in the recruiting and use of child soldiers coerced to fight for Iranian-led militias in Syria; the government forced or coerced children to join Iranian security and anti-riot forces to suppress ongoing political protests, and coerced former Afghan Special Forces members to fight for Iranian-backed militia in Yemen; authorities failed to identify and protect trafficking victims among vulnerable populations and continued to deport or detain Afghan adults and children without screening for trafficking indicators (2023)



trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Iran, and Iranians are exploited abroad; the continuing decline of the Iranian economy has significantly exacerbated human trafficking, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and migrants, LGBTQI+ persons, women, and children; Iranian and some foreign women and girls, as well as some men and LGBTQI+ persons, are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking in Iran; although commercial sex is illegal, the government reportedly condones and sometimes directly facilitates commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of adults and children, which are endemic throughout the country; Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi, Bahraini, and Lebanese women are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking in large urban centers; Iranian women, boys, and girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates; Iranian and Afghan refugee and migrant children, orphans, and homeless children are highly vulnerable to forced labor in Iran; criminal groups reportedly play a significant role in human trafficking in Iran, including kidnapping or purchasing Iranian and migrant—especially Afghan—children for forced labor and sexual exploitation; foreign workers, including Pakistani migrants and Afghans, are highly vulnerable to abuse and forced labor in Iran; Iranian authorities continue to force and coerce Afghans, including children, as well as Pakistani migrants, Syrian nationals, and Iranian children, into armed groups to fight in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen or serve in Iran in paramilitary forces (2023)

Iraq

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Iraq does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; more traffickers were convicted and officials improved oversight of recruitment agencies in Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR); Iraq implemented an action plan to address recruitment or use of children in armed conflict and developed another action plan to prevent recruitment or use of children by the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF); however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials identified fewer trafficking victims and the Kurdistan Regional Government did not report any enforcement or victim data; deficient procedures, and some officials’ limited understanding of trafficking, continued to prevent some victims from receiving protection services; some victims continued to receive inappropriate punishment for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; the government lacked adequate protection services for victims of all forms of trafficking and did not have shelters for adult males or LBGTQI+ victims; therefore, Iraq was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Iraq, as well as Iraqi’s abroad; insecurity throughout Iraq increased the population’s vulnerability to trafficking; more than a million Iraqis remained internally displaced as a result of ISIS, and as of March 2023, more than 260,000 Syrian refugees were displaced in Iraq; refugees and IDPs face heightened risk of forced labor and sex trafficking, and women and girls in IDP camps with family ties to ISIS faced potential sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, and abuse by security and military officials; criminal gangs continued to force women into prostitution and children to beg and sell and transport drugs and weapons; Iraqi refugees in Jordan are vulnerable to labor trafficking; thousands of women and children who escaped ISIS captivity in 2015-2019 remain highly vulnerable to exploitation; children remain vulnerable to forcible recruitment or use by armed groups operating in Iraq, including ISIS, tribal forces, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and non-PMF Iran-backed militias; Iraqi, Iranian, and Syrian women and girls, as well as LGBTQI+ persons in the IKR and federal Iraq are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking; traditional practices, including fasliya—the exchange of family members to settle tribal disputes—and forced child and “temporary” marriages also place women and girls at increased risk of trafficking within Iraq; some men and women from Asia and Africa who migrate—both legally and illegally—to Iraq are subjected to forced labor as construction workers, security guards, cleaners, handymen, and domestic workers; the IKR continued to be a destination for trafficking victims primarily from South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Philippines, and neighboring countries; some foreign migrants recruited for work in other countries in the region are forced, coerced, or deceived into working in Iraq and the IKR (2023)

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, therefore, North Korea remained on Tier 3; the government did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking; during the reporting period, a government policy or pattern of human trafficking existed in prison camps, in labor training centers, in massed mobilizations of adults and children, and through forced labor by North Korean workers overseas; proceeds from state-sponsored forced labor funded government operations (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers—including government officials—exploit North Koreans at home and abroad; forced labor is part of an established system of political repression and a pillar of the economic system; the government subjects its nationals to forced labor in prison and labor camps, through mass mobilizations, and in overseas work; prisoners are subject to forced labor in logging, mining, manufacturing, farming, and other areas for long hours under harsh conditions; many prisoners do not survive; some children in prison camps face forced labor for up to 12 hours per day; traffickers exploit women and children in sex trafficking within North Korea; officials forcibly mobilize adults and school children to work in various sectors, including factories, agriculture, logging, mining, infrastructure, information technology, and construction; North Koreans sent to work abroad, including through bilateral agreements with foreign businesses or governments, face forced labor conditions; NGOs report overseas workers are managed as a matter of state policy and are under constant surveillance by government security agents; the government often appropriates and deposits worker salaries into government-controlled accounts; in 2017, the UN Security Council prohibited members from issuing or renewing work authorizations for North Koreans and, with limited exceptions, required repatriation; nonetheless, an estimated 20,000-100,000 North Koreans are working in China, primarily in restaurants and factories; North Korean women, lured by promises of jobs in China, are subjected to commercial sex, forced labor, abuse, or forced marriages; many North Koreans also continue to enter Russia to work informally, and some North Koreans are reportedly working in dozens of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia (2023)

Kuwait

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Kuwait does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials assisted more vulnerable migrant workers at the government shelter, launched an online platform for domestic workers to file grievances, and continued to hold fraudulent recruitment agencies accountable; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared to the previous year, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; there were fewer investigations of alleged trafficking crimes and no prosecutions or convictions of traffickers; fewer victims were identified, and some officials continued to use arbitration and administrative penalties instead of investigating cases as potential human trafficking crimes; Kuwait did not implement procedures to identify and prevent trafficking, nor regularly use standard operating procedures to identify and refer victims to services; officials continued to detain, prosecute, and deport potential trafficking victims, including those fleeing forced labor or in commercial sex, without screening for trafficking indicators; the government did not take any new steps to reform its visa sponsorship system, leaving migrant workers highly vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking; therefore, Kuwait remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Kuwait; men and women migrate primarily from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and other countries in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East to work predominantly in the service, sanitation, construction, transportation, security, hospitality, and domestic service sectors, and, most recently, nurses working for medical supply companies; unskilled laborers and female domestic workers are especially vulnerable to forced labor and physical and sexual abuse; undocumented Bidoon (stateless residents of Arab heritage) face challenges gaining lawful employment and remain vulnerable to trafficking; many labor-source countries, including Bhutan, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe continue to restrict their female nationals from domestic employment in Kuwait due to the high risk they face; some visa sponsors subject migrants to forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, sex trafficking; some officials allegedly take bribes or sell work permits to illegal recruiting companies or directly to migrants; Cuban nationals working in Kuwait may have been forced to work by the Cuban government; Kuwait’s sponsorship law restricts workers’ movements and penalizes them for leaving abusive workplaces; domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to forced labor inside private homes; reports indicate some workers fleeing abusive employers are exploited in sex trafficking by recruiters or criminals (2023)

Lebanon

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Lebanon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials modestly increased investigations and continued to allow an NGO to screen migrants in the government detention center for trafficking; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; a caretaker government, judicial sector strike, and widespread civil service work stoppages limited Lebanon’s ability to establish effective anti-trafficking policies and impacted anti-trafficking efforts; efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims remained woefully inadequate; officials relied on NGOs and civil society to provide shelter and services to victims and did not report providing financial or in-kind support to those organizations; the parliament did not approve a labor law amendment, pending since 2009, to extend legal protections to foreign workers, nor did it approve a draft standardized contract for migrant workers; the lack of formal victim identification and referral procedures placed victims at risk of arrest, detention, or deportation for committing unlawful acts while being trafficked; the government did not reform its visa sponsorship system despite extreme trafficking vulnerabilities inherent in the system; officials rarely convicted traffickers for exploiting domestic servants, the prevalent form of trafficking in Lebanon; therefore, Lebanon was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Lebanon, as well as Lebanese abroad; women and girls from South and Southeast Asia, and increasingly East and West Africa, are subjected to domestic servitude in Lebanon; recruitment agencies continued to aggressively recruit foreign national domestic workers—sometimes through fraudulent or false job offers—particularly from Nigeria and the Philippines; most employers withhold domestic workers’ passports, and some withhold wages, force excessive work hours, restrict freedom of movement, and physically or sexually abuse them; NGOs and international organizations reported increased exploitation of Lebanese adults by Lebanese nationals, particularly in industries such as custodial services; women, primarily from Belarus, Moldova, Morocco, Russia, and Ukraine, enter Lebanon legally under the artiste visa program—which restricts the women from leaving the hotel where they live—and face physical and sexual abuse and domestic servitude; adults and children among the estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon are at high risk of sex and labor trafficking, sometimes at the hands of Syrian traffickers; refugee adults and children are held in bonded labor to pay for food, shelter, and transit and are sometimes contracted as groups to work in agriculture in the Beka’a Valley; forced child labor within the Syrian refugee population continued to rise, particularly in agriculture, construction, and street vending and begging; some of the children are forced or coerced to conduct criminal activity; Syrian refugee LGBTQI+ persons, women, girls, and some men are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking; some of the refugee women and girls are forced by family members into commercial sex acts or early marriage, and they are highly vulnerable to trafficking; Syrian and Lebanese nationals fleeing the economic crisis are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Turkey; non-state armed groups, including Hizballah, Fatah al-Islam, Jund Ansar Allah, Saraya al-Muqawama, and ISIS, recruited or used child soldiers in recent years; refugee children, particularly in Palestinian refugee camps, were especially vulnerable to recruitment or use as child soldiers (2023)

Macau

tier rating: Tier 3 — Macau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Macau remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including investigating five suspected cases of traffickers using Macau residents in cyber scams in Southeast Asia, training police officers on anti-trafficking efforts, and initiating one prosecution; however, the government did not report proactively screening at-risk populations, such as commercial sex workers, for trafficking indicators; for the fourth consecutive year, officials did not identify or provide services to any victims; Macau has not convicted a trafficker since 2019 and has never identified a victim of forced labor exploitation domestically (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Macau and may exploit victims from Macau abroad; traffickers recruit most victims from China, Russia, and Southeast Asia using false job offers; adult and child victims are forced into commercial sex in massage parlors, illegal brothels, nightclubs, casinos, hotels, and private homes, where they are monitored, threatened with violence, forced to work long hours, and sometimes have their documents confiscated; Casinos and other establishments reportedly allow staff to partner with criminal networks to facilitate sex trafficking; migrant construction and domestic workers, primarily from China, Indonesia, and the Philippines, may be vulnerable to forced labor in Macau; traffickers operating cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia may recruit and exploit Macau victims in forced labor (2023)

Madagascar

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Madagascar does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials identified and provided services to more victims, launched an updated National Action Plan, took steps to reduce the demand for child sex tourism, and worked with an international organization to monitor Malagasy migrant workers’ conditions in Jordan; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous year, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials investigated fewer trafficking cases and did not report any prosecutions or convictions of suspected traffickers for the second consecutive year; the government did not hold complicit officials accountable nor investigate reports of officials facilitating child sex trafficking within Madagascar or labor trafficking of Malagasy workers abroad; for the third consecutive year, the government did not disburse funds to the National Office to Combat Human Trafficking, hindering nationwide progress and coordination; efforts to address internal crimes, including domestic servitude, forced begging, and child sex trafficking, remained inadequate, and officials continued to conflate human trafficking with other crimes including gender-based violence and sexual exploitation; therefore, Madagascar remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Madagascar, as well as victims from Madagascar abroad; traffickers exploit Malagasy children in child sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service in homes and businesses, mining, street vending, agriculture, textile factories, and fishing; most child sex trafficking occurs in tourist destinations, urban cities, vanilla-growing regions, and around mining sites with the involvement and encouragement of family members; tourist operators, hotels, taxi drivers, massage parlor owners, and local adults involved in commercial sex also facilitate child sex trafficking; girls and boys as young as 12 are exploited in child sex tourism in coastal areas and major cities, often openly in bars, nightclubs, massage parlors, hotels, and private homes; Malagasy men exploit the majority of child sex trafficking victims, while most foreign sex tourists are French and Italian nationals, or to a lesser extent from other Western European countries and Comoros; government officials are reportedly complicit in providing false documents to facilitate illicit recruitment of Malagasy women to work in Gulf states; many Malagasy women are employed as domestic workers in China, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, where they are at risk of trafficking; traffickers acting as labor recruiters send Malagasy women to China with false identity cards, where they are exploited in forced labor in agriculture or domestic servitude; Malagasy men may be exploited in forced labor in the services and construction industries in the Middle East and domestic servitude in China; Chinese nationals working at China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects in Madagascar were vulnerable to forced labor (2023)

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 made key achievements during the reporting period, therefore Malaysia was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; officials initiated more investigations, prosecuted and convicted more traffickers, and prosecuted complicit officials; the government identified more victims, funded efforts to raise awareness of trafficking and increase victim access to services and shelters, and increased training for officials and victim service providers; however, the government did not sufficiently press criminal prosecution of labor traffickers in several sectors; Standard Operating Procedures were not systematically implemented countrywide to identify victims, including those who came in contact with officials during law enforcement raids or other situations; authorities likely detained, arrested, and deported some victims; delays in prosecution, insufficient interagency coordination, and inadequate services for victims discouraged victim participation in criminal proceedings and hindered anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Malaysia and Malaysians abroad; most victims in Malaysia are documented and undocumented migrant workers from Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam; employers and agents exploit some migrants through debt-based coercion, and large organized crime syndicates are involved in some trafficking; Chinese nationals working for Chinese state-affiliated construction projects in Malaysia are vulnerable to forced labor; some young foreign women and girls—mainly from Southeast Asia, although also from Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda—are forced into commercial sex work in Malaysia after false recruitment for work in restaurants, hotels, beauty salons, or brokered marriages; refugees, Rohingya and other asylum-seekers, and stateless individuals are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking; traffickers force Malaysian orphans and children to beg, and exploit Malaysian women and children in forced labor; corrupt immigration officials facilitate trafficking by accepting bribes from brokers and smugglers at the borders and airports, and other government officials profit from bribes or extortion from and exploitation of migrants  (2023)

Marshall Islands

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Marshall Islands does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials identified a labor trafficking victim, conducted awareness-raising activities, and continued to investigate a government official allegedly complicit in trafficking; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; the government did not prosecute any traffickers for the third consecutive year and has not convicted any traffickers since 2011; officials did not use standard operating procedures to identify trafficking victims and penalized victims for immigration offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked; law enforcement officials, who have a limited understanding of trafficking, did not receive anti-trafficking training, nor did the government provide adequate financial and technical resources for anti-trafficking efforts; therefore, Marshall Islands was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Marshall lslands, as well as Marshallese victims abroad; traffickers, including hotel and bar staff and family members, recruit and transport Marshallese and East Asian women and girls and exploit them in sex trafficking in the Marshall Islands with foreign construction workers and crew members of foreign fishing and commercial ships; traffickers exploit some foreign fishermen under conditions indicative of forced labor on ships in Marshallese waters; foreign women, including some Chinese nationals, are recruited with promises of work, are forced into commercial sex in establishments frequented by crew members of China-affiliated and other foreign fishing vessels; traffickers exploit Chinese nationals in Chinese-owned businesses; some wealthier or more powerful family members use traditional cultural practices to exploit impoverished Marshallese from outer Islands to serve as indentured labor; limited reports indicate some Marshallese searching for work in the US experience indicators of trafficking, such as passport confiscation, excessive work hours, and fraudulent recruitment, while some Marshallese children are transported to the US and exploited in situations of sexual abuse with indicators of sex trafficking (2023)

Mauritius

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mauritius does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; these efforts included partnering with an international organization to adopt standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral, enhancing screening for trafficking indicators during labor inspections, and adopting a 2022-2026 National Action Plan; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not prosecute any suspected traffickers, did not convict any traffickers, nor report initiating any investigations for the second consecutive year; the government provided minimal services to victims and did not identify any victims for the third consecutive year; officials continued to compel some adult foreign victims to participate in criminal proceedings using threats of deportation and arrest; police regularly investigated potential trafficking cases as other crimes, and prosecutors routinely pursued lesser offenses with lesser penalties in cases initially investigated as trafficking; courts continued to provide lenient sentences to first-time offenders, weakening deterrence; therefore, Mauritius was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Mauritius; girls across the country—particularly from low-income communities—are exploited in child sex trafficking; taxi drivers, sometimes involved in commercial sex networks, knowingly transport child sex traffickers and victims; traffickers may exploit children in sex trafficking on Rodrigues Island, an autonomous territory of Mauritius; members of underserved communities, including individuals in commercial sex, women and children of African descent (Creoles), and LGBTQI+ persons, are vulnerable to sex trafficking, particularly in urban areas; traffickers, including gang members, force Mauritian children and foreign migrants to carry drugs; foreign migrants, particularly Malagasy women, are recruited under false pretenses of employment or tourism but forced into sex trafficking and domestic servitude; previous reports indicate traffickers, in partnership with criminal networks in Russia and Kazakhstan, recruit Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian women to move to Mauritius, under the guise of a marriage agency, then exploit them in sex trafficking; traffickers exploit migrants—primarily from Bangladesh, India, Madagascar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka—in labor trafficking in the garment, textile, manufacturing, and construction industries; labor trafficking is more common in small- and medium-sized businesses that employ migrant workers, primarily from Bangladesh, often recruited by former migrant workers who returned to their country of origin; traffickers may exploit migrant workers aboard foreign-owned fishing vessels in Mauritius’ territorial waters and ports (2023)

Montenegro

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Montenegro does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government prosecuted more defendants and identified more trafficking victims, adopted the National Action Plan for 2022, and coordinating bodies met consistently; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not convict any traffickers and reorganized the police office dedicated to investigating trafficking, reducing its ability to conduct proactive investigations; the government did not act quickly to protect victims after experts published credible allegations of abuse by an employee with management duties for the government-funded NGO-run anti-trafficking shelter, including physical violence, intimidation, and blackmail; although civil society and international organizations ceased victim referrals to the shelter, the government did not suspend its license and funding, continued to refer two child victims, and funded the shelter until the grant ended in December 2022; afterwards, Montenegro did not renew the shelter’s grant and decided to start renovating a government-run shelter for child trafficking victims; the government attempted to organize accommodations for child victims in foster families, but it did not develop a plan to provide protection for adult victims; therefore, Montenegro was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Montenegro, and Montenegrins abroad; traffickers are predominantly men between the ages of 25 and 49 and members of organized criminal groups that operate in the Western Balkans; victims in Montenegro are primarily women and girls from Montenegro, neighboring Balkan countries, and, to a lesser extent, other countries in Eastern Europe; traffickers exploit victims in the hospitality industry, including bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and cafes; children, particularly Romani, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian children, are forced to beg; Romani girls from Montenegro reportedly have been sold into marriages and forced into domestic servitude in Romani communities in Montenegro and, to a lesser extent, in Albania, Germany, and Kosovo; migrants from neighboring countries are vulnerable to forced labor, particularly during the summer tourism season; transnational organized criminal groups exploit some Montenegrin women and girls in sex trafficking in other Balkan countries (2023)

Mozambique

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mozambique does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government increased investigations and prosecutions, trained law enforcement and front-line officials, published and disseminated draft standard operating procedures (SOPs) for victim referral and care and raising public awareness; officials convened government and civil society stakeholders and coordinated with neighboring governments; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; despite increased investigations, Mozambique did not report identifying any victims and lacked adequate procedures to screen vulnerable populations for trafficking; for the seventh consecutive year, the government failed to adopt its draft National Referral Mechanism and SOPs for care and referral of victims; Mozambique did not report providing financial or in-kind support to the civil society organizations that identify and assist victims; the lack of a formally adopted National Action Plan, including dedicated resources for preventing trafficking, reduced integration of anti-trafficking efforts; reports of low-level official complicity in trafficking crimes persisted; the government did not provide sufficient resources to victim protection services, relying on NGOs and international organizations to provide the majority of services to victims; the government lacked effective policies or laws to regulate foreign labor recruiters and hold them liable for fraudulent recruiting; therefore, Mozambique was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Mozambique, as well as Mozambicans abroad; forced child labor occurs in agriculture, mining, and market vending in rural areas, often with the complicity of family members; migrants, especially women and girls from rural areas in neighboring countries such as Malawi, are lured to cities in Mozambique, Eswatini, or South Africa   with promises of employment or education but are exploited in domestic servitude or sex trafficking; individuals with albinism may be vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking by traditional healers; Mozambican girls are exploited in bars, roadside clubs, overnight stopping points, and restaurants along the southern transport corridor that links Maputo with Eswatini and South Africa; girls are exploited in sex trafficking in and around mining worksites; women and girls are recruited online with false employment promises, then exploited in sex trafficking or forced labor; children from vulnerable families are at risk of trafficking, including children from Gaza province who migrate to Maputo and work in street vending; child sex trafficking is prevalent in the cities that have highly mobile populations and large numbers of long-distance truck drivers; individuals in displacement camps or otherwise affected by cyclones were vulnerable to trafficking; non-state armed groups exploited women and children, among the over one million IDPs in northern and central Mozambique displaced by violent extremism, in forced labor and sex trafficking; non-state armed groups also recruited or used child soldiers; extremists lure youth with promises of employment in the fishing sector, and then force them to fight with non-state armed groups; Mozambican men and boys are exploited in forced labor on South African farms and mines before being turned over to police for deportation as undocumented migrants; Mozambican boys who migrate to Eswatini are at risk of forced labor; Mozambican adults and girls are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking abroad, including in Angola, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Portugal; traffickers allegedly bribe officials to move victims within the country and across borders to Eswatini and South Africa (2023)

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, therefore, Nicaragua remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including passing a new National Action Plan; however, the government continued to minimize the severity of the trafficking problem, did not have shelters, and did not allocate funding for victim services; authorities made negligible efforts to address labor trafficking—which remained a serious concern—and victim identification efforts remained inadequate; officials did not convict any traffickers and did not support Nicaraguan trafficking victims identified in foreign countries; the government did not cooperate with civil society to fund their work or refer victims to them for support (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Nicaragua, as well as Nicaraguans abroad; women, children, and migrants in Nicaragua are most at risk; women and children are subject to sex trafficking within the country and in other Central American countries, Mexico, Spain, and the US; victims’ families are often complicit; Nicaraguans who migrate or are forcibly displaced to other Central American countries and Europe risk sex and labor trafficking, both in transit and after reaching their destinations; traffickers use social media and other means to recruit victims with promises of higher-paying jobs in restaurants, hotels, domestic service, construction, and security outside of Nicaragua, where they are subjected to sex or labor trafficking; victims often are recruited from rural areas or border regions, and children whose parents leave to work abroad often are exploited in sex and labor trafficking; Nicaraguan women and children are subjected to sex and labor trafficking in the two Caribbean autonomous regions, where the lack of strong law enforcement, rampant poverty, high crime rates, and the impacts of past natural disasters increase the vulnerability of the local population; traffickers force children to participate in illegal drug production and trafficking, while others are forced to work in artisanal mines and quarries; children and persons with disabilities are subjected to forced begging; Cuban nationals working in Nicaragua may have been forced to work there by the Cuban Government; Nicaragua is a destination for child sex tourists from Canada, the US, and Western Europe (2023)

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; therefore, Papua New Guinea was downgraded to Tier 3; officials took some steps such as investigating government complicity in a sex trafficking syndicate; however, the government did not prosecute or convict any traffickers or identify and assist victims, and it often deported potential victims without screening them; endemic corruption and complicity among officials, particularly in the logging and fishing sectors, left foreigners and locals vulnerable to trafficking; the lack of resources for anti-trafficking efforts, low awareness among officials and the public, and lack of training and awareness activities continued to hinder progress (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Papua New Guinea, and Papua New Guineans are exploited abroad; traffickers use Papua New Guinea as a transit point to exploit foreign victims in other countries; foreign and local women and children are exploited in sex trafficking and in forced labor in domestic service, the tourism sector, manual labor, begging, and street vending; families or tribe members reportedly exploit children in sex trafficking or forced labor; some parents force their daughters into marriages or child sex trafficking to resolve debts or disputes, or force children to beg or sell goods on the street; young women and girls face exploitation in sex trafficking and domestic service as part of marriages that involve a “bride price” of money or chattel; traffickers force some children into criminal gold panning; adolescent boys are increasingly involved in intercommunal armed conflict, possibly via forced recruitment by local leaders; LGBTQI+ individuals are vulnerable to trafficking; asylum seekers detained in Papua New Guinea while attempting to reach Australia may face increased vulnerability to forced labor or sex trafficking; Chinese, Malaysian, and local men are forced to work in logging and mining camps; migrant women from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand are recruited by Chinese and Malaysian-based logging companies and subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude at logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites; local and foreign men and boys seeking work on fishing vessels are at risk of debt bondage, harsh working and living conditions, and physical violence; government officials reportedly facilitate trafficking by accepting bribes or ignoring trafficking in return for political favors (2023) 

Russia

tier rating: Tier 3 — Russia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Russia remained on Tier 3; despite the lack of significant efforts, the government facilitated the return of Russian children from Syria, some of whom may have been trafficking victims; however, a government policy or pattern of trafficking of Ukrainian citizens and North Korean workers continued; officials reportedly forced, deceived, or coerced foreign national adults to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine or subjected some to forced labor in detention; the government continued to perpetuate North Korea’s imposition of forced labor on North Korean workers and circumvented UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korean overseas labor; officials did not identify any trafficking victims, and efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers decreased; the government offered no funding or programs to provide services for trafficking victims and routinely penalized victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; officials did not draft a national strategy or assign roles and responsibilities within the government to combat human trafficking; the government's forced transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia—including separating some children from parents or guardians—greatly increased their vulnerability to trafficking; Russia’s war against Ukraine has created millions of Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons who are highly vulnerable to trafficking (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Russia and Russians abroad; although labor trafficking is the predominant problem, sex trafficking also occurs; victims from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and North Korea are subjected to forced labor in Russia’s construction, manufacturing, textile, agriculture, farming, maritime, grocery and retail store, restaurant, and domestic services industries, among many other tasks; traffickers also exploit victims in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, facilitation of illegal migration, and production of counterfeit goods; undocumented migrants and refugees reportedly face particularly high risk of trafficking; the government increased the use of convict labor to offset a shortage of labor migrants; women and children from Europe (predominantly Ukraine and Moldova), East and Southeast Asia (primarily China and the Philippines), Africa (particularly Nigeria), and Central Asia are victims of sex trafficking in Russia; Russian women and children reportedly are victims of sex trafficking in Russia and abroad, including Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the US, and the Middle East; some corrupt officials facilitate victims’ entry into Russia, protect traffickers, and in some cases engage directly in trafficking crimes; observers note a growing use of non-labor visas to bring North Korean workers to Russia, where the North Korean Government subjects many of these citizens to forced labor conditions; Russian-led forces in Ukraine reportedly forcibly conscript adults to fight against their country and recruit children for fighting or support roles in eastern Ukraine; Ukrainians forcibly displaced to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and Ukrainians in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine are highly vulnerable to forced labor; widespread reports indicate Russian authorities transported without consent Ukrainian orphans and foster children to Russia and gave them to Russian families; the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group reportedly recruited and used children in the Central African Republic, and Russian-led forces reportedly recruit Syrian child soldiers to guard installations and fight in Libya (2023)

Serbia

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Serbia 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 and its Center for Protection of Trafficking Victims (CPTV) established a panel with a psychologist, educator, and social worker to conduct victim assessments within 24 hours of a referral; a court seized a house built from the profits of forced begging and gave ownership of the house to the victim as restitution; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; fewer investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of traffickers took place; officials decreased resources for the CPTV, despite its lack of staff, skills, and resources to assess victims, coordinate care, and run the CTPV shelter; standard operating procedures on victim identification remained unclear, and implementation was “recommended” rather than required; authorities inappropriately penalized victims with imprisonment, probation, and fines for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; the Anti-Trafficking Council has not met in three years, and the government has not adopted the 2021-2022 National Action Plan; official complicity in trafficking or inaction remained significant concerns; the government did not fully protect victims or fully investigate credible allegations that approximately 500 Vietnamese workers were subjected to forced labor at a factory owned by China; therefore, Serbia remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Serbia, as well as Serbians abroad; Serbian women and girls are exploited in sex trafficking in Serbia, neighboring countries, and throughout Europe; Serbian nationals, primarily men, are exploited in forced labor in labor-intensive sectors, such as construction, in European countries—including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Russia, and Switzerland—and the UAE; children, particularly Roma, are victims within the country in sex trafficking, forced labor, forced begging, and petty crime; foreign victims in Serbia have been identified from Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cameroon, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, and Vietnam; thousands of migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia transiting through or stranded in Serbia are vulnerable to trafficking; the government has not reported fully investigating credible allegations during the past several years of Vietnamese victims of forced labor in a Chinese-owned factory and instead has stated that the workers are not trafficking victims; Chinese workers at the same factory conducted a strike during the reporting period over claims that they had not been paid (2023)

Sint Maarten

tier rating: Tier 3 — Sint Maarten does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Sint Maarten remained on Tier 3; officials took some steps to address trafficking, including passing a National Action Plan and upholding three trafficking convictions; however, the government did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers nor identifying any victims for the third consecutive year; Sint Maarten could not provide services to trafficking victims due to its lack of shelters, funding, and formal arrangements with service providers; interagency coordination was severely lacking; officials consistently conflated human trafficking with migrant smuggling (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims and, to a lesser extent, domestic victims in Sint Maarten; women and girls from Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Russia are vulnerable to sex trafficking; women from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking in Sint Maarten; government officials report a significant number of migrant workers are vulnerable to forced labor in domestic service and housekeeping, construction, Chinese national-owned markets, retail shops, food services, and landscaping; criminals, including smugglers, may exploit migrants who transit Sint Maarten en route to the US and Canada—especially Brazilian and Cuban nationals—in forced labor or sex trafficking (2023)

Solomon Islands

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Solomon Islands does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; these efforts included developing a communication and implementation strategy for its National Action Plan and raising awareness of trafficking; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; authorities did not identify or assist victims, and protection services remained inadequate; officials did not initiate any trafficking investigations or prosecutions and, for the third consecutive year, did not convict any traffickers; the government did not conduct anti-trafficking training for its police or judicial officials who lack an understanding of trafficking; for the fourth consecutive year, authorities did not conduct systematic monitoring and inspection activities at logging sites or in the fishing or mining sectors, despite clear indicators of trafficking; therefore, Solomon Islands was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Solomon Islands, and traffickers exploit Solomon Islanders abroad; traffickers also use Solomon Islands as a transit point to move victims to other countries; local, South Asian, and Southeast Asian men and women are exploited in labor and sex trafficking in Solomon islands; local children are especially vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking; women from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines often pay large recruitment fees for jobs in Solomon Islands but are forced or coerced into commercial sex upon arrival; men from Indonesia and Malaysia are exploited in the logging, fishing, palm oil, and mining industries, while fisherman from Fiji, Indonesia, North Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam are at risk of exploitation on Taiwan-flagged vessels in Solomon Islands’ territorial waters; Chinese workers may be forced to work for Chinese companies in Solomon Islands; women and girls may be at risk of debt-based coercion in sex trafficking and domestic servitude; some official corruption may facilitate trafficking through irregular migration and involvement in the fishing and forestry sectors; some boys, girls, and young women are recruited for domestic work but then exploited in commercial sex at logging camps; Solomon Islander children may be exploited in labor trafficking in the agricultural sector, forced harvesting of seafood, and forced criminality in drug production and transportation and pickpocketing; widespread social stigma against LGBTQI+ individuals increases their vulnerability to trafficking (2023)

South Africa

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — South Africa does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government increased investigations and convictions of traffickers, investigated and prosecuted some allegedly complicit government officials, coordinated with foreign governments on trafficking investigations and the repatriation of victims, and increased inspections to investigate forced labor; officials adopted an anti-trafficking National Action Plan, accredited two shelters, and expanded awareness-raising activities; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; while the government approved regulations under the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act on immigration, the regulations had not been put into effect at the end of the reporting period; a lack of inter-agency coordination in identifying, referring, and certifying victims most likely hindered protection efforts; law enforcement personnel lacked the capacity and training to effectively identify and refer victims; victims were inappropriately penalized for offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked, even after officials identified them as trafficking victims; reports of low-level official complicity persisted; because the government has devoted significant resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, South Africa was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3; therefore, South Africa remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Africa, as well as South Africans abroad; traffickers recruit victims from neighboring countries and rural areas within South Africa and exploit them in sex trafficking locally and in urban centers; adults and children, particularly from poor and rural areas, and migrants are forced into labor in domestic service, mining, food services, construction, criminal activities, agriculture, and the fishing sector; high unemployment and socioeconomic stratification increased the vulnerability of exploitation, particularly of youth, Black women, and foreign migrants; traffickers recruit victims who are unemployed and struggle with drug use, and commonly use substance abuse to control victims, including children; parents with substance abuse problems sometimes exploit their children in sex trafficking to pay for drugs; despite high unemployment, migrants travel from East, Central, and Southern Africa to South Africa looking for economic opportunity, particularly from Ethiopia and Mozambique, and are vulnerable to exploitation; official complicity in trafficking crimes, especially by police and immigration officials, facilitated trafficking; syndicates, often dominated by Nigerians, force women from Nigeria and countries bordering South Africa into commercial sex; South African trafficking rings exploit girls as young as 10 years old in sex trafficking; some brothels, previously identified as locations for sex trafficking, continue to operate with officials’ tacit approval; syndicates also recruit South African women to go to Europe, where some are forced into commercial sex, domestic service, or drug smuggling; Chinese business owners exploit Chinese, South African, and Malawian adults and children in factories, sweatshops, and other businesses; the Cuban government may have forced Cuban medical workers to work in South Africa (2023)

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, therefore, South Sudan remains on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including convening its anti-trafficking inter-ministerial task force and conducting training in partnership with international organizations; however, a government policy or pattern of employing or recruiting child soldiers existed; government security and law enforcement officers continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers and did not hold any members of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces or South Sudan National Police Services criminally accountable for these unlawful acts; for the eleventh consecutive year, authorities did not report investigating or prosecuting any trafficking crimes; the government did not report identifying or assisting any victims and continued to penalize victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2023)



trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Sudan, as well as South Sudanese abroad; South Sudanese women and girls, particularly from rural areas or who are internally displaced, are vulnerable to domestic servitude, sometimes by prominent individuals in state capitals and rural areas; males in the households sexually abuse some of these women and girls and may exploit them in commercial sex; South Sudanese and foreign businesspeople exploit South Sudanese girls in sex trafficking in restaurants, hotels, and brothels—sometimes involving corrupt law enforcement officials; some children are coerced to work in construction, market vending, begging, herding, and a wide range of physically demanding labor sectors; men and women from neighboring countries—including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Republic of the Congo, and Uganda—as well as South Sudanese women and children are recruited with fraudulent employment offers in hotels, restaurants, and construction and exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking; child and forced marriages remain a problem, and husbands and their families may subject these girls to sex trafficking or domestic servitude; East African migrants transiting through South Sudan are vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking; government and opposition forces continue to use children to fight or serve in support roles; several million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and South Sudanese refugees living in neighboring countries are at risk of trafficking, and unaccompanied children in the IDP camps are vulnerable to abduction by sex and labor traffickers (2023)

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, therefore, Syria remained on Tier 3; a government policy or pattern of human trafficking and employing or recruiting child soldiers continued; Syrians were exploited in forced labor under compulsory military service for indefinite periods under threat of detention, torture, familial reprisal, or death; the government did not hold any traffickers criminally accountable nor identify or protect any victims; government actions directly contributed to the population’s vulnerability to trafficking, and it continued to perpetrate human trafficking crimes; government and pro-Syrian militias forcibly recruited and used child soldiers; the government did 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 committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Syria, as well as Syrians abroad; more than half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million have been internally displaced or are refugees in other countries and extremely vulnerable to traffickers; the government continues to force military conscripts to serve indefinitely or risk detention, torture, familial reprisal, or death; children are vulnerable to forced marriages—including by terrorist groups such as ISIS—which can lead to sexual slavery and forced labor; armed groups, community members, and criminal gangs exploit women, girls, and boys in Syria—particularly populations such as IDPs or disabled individuals—in sex trafficking in exchange for food or money; foreign domestic workers from Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia and the Philippines, are subject to forced labor and in some cases victims of fraudulent recruitment; Syrian Government forces, pro-regime militias, and opposition forces use Syrian children in combat and support roles, and sometimes as human shields; terrorist groups reportedly force, coerce, or fraudulently recruit foreigners to join them, including migrants from Central Asia and Western and other women, who are vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor; Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, particularly  Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor; Syrian women, girls, and boys are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Turkey by commercial sex rings or traffickers (2023)

Trinidad and Tobago

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Trinidad and Tobago does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials implemented new standard operating procedures for victim referral and care, opened a government-funded and operated shelter for female child victims, provided the first government shelters for adult victims; and increased the size of the Counter-Trafficking Unit; officials took steps to prevent trafficking among vulnerable populations, including migrants, Cuban medical workers, and Venezuelan refugees and migrants; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared to the previous year, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; courts have never convicted a trafficker under the 2011 anti-trafficking law, and corruption and complicity among officials, including at senior levels, inhibited law enforcement action; victim identification, referral, and services remained weak, and interagency coordination was poor; because the government has devoted significant resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Trinidad and Tobago was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3; therefore, Trinidad and Tobago remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Trinidad and Tobago, and also exploit victims from Trinidad and Tobago abroad; the country serves as a transit point for Venezuelan refugees and migrants en route to Europe, North Africa, and elsewhere in the Caribbean who are at high risk for trafficking; sex trafficking is the most prevalent form of trafficking in the country, victimizing women and girls primarily from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Venezuela; however, the government reported an increase in male Venezuelan labor trafficking victims and domestic child sex trafficking victims; unaccompanied Venezuelan children are at risk for sex trafficking; Trinidad remains the primary hub for most sexual exploitation, but traffickers move some victims to Tobago during the tourist season; migrants from the Caribbean region and from Asia are at risk for forced labor in domestic service and the retail sector; traffickers also exploit victims from China, India, Kenya, Nepal, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; migrants from the Caribbean region and Asia are at risk for forced labor in domestic service and the retail sector; LGBTQI+ persons are at risk for sex trafficking; Cuban medical professionals may have been forced to work in Trinidad and Tobago by the Cuban government; corruption by police, immigration and customs, and coast guard officials has been associated with facilitating labor and sex trafficking; transnational organized crime may increasingly be involved in trafficking; Trinidad and Tobago is a sex tourism destination, according to NGOs, and most sex tourists come from Canada, China, the US, and Western Europe (2023)

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, therefore, Turkmenistan remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including granting access to an international organization to monitor the cotton harvest, providing support for anti-trafficking campaigns, and training officials in collaboration with international organizations; however, a government policy or pattern of forced labor, including mobilization of adults for forced labor in the annual cotton harvest, public works, and other sectors, continued; the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions, nor hold any officials accountable for complicity in forced labor crimes; authorities did not identify victims or fund victim assistance programs (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit Turkmen citizens in Turkmenistan and abroad; state policies continue to perpetuate government-compelled forced labor in the cotton sector, as well as in public works and community cleaning and beautification projects; police reportedly force the homeless into agricultural work or domestic servitude in the homes of law enforcement families; some children are reportedly forced to work in cotton and potato fields during summer educational camps; residents of rural areas are at highest risk for trafficking both in country and abroad; LGBTQI+ communities are vulnerable to police abuse, extortion, coercion, and possibly sex trafficking or forced labor; Turkmen men and women are subjected to forced labor abroad in textile, agricultural, construction, and domestic service sectors; some migrant men are forced into criminal drug trafficking, and some migrant women are exploited by sex traffickers; most Turkmen migrant victims are in India, Russia, and Turkey, as well as other countries in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Europe (2023)

Vanuatu

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Vanuatu does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; these efforts included sentencing four traffickers to prison, following their conviction in the previous reporting period; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; for the fourth consecutive year, authorities did not identify any trafficking victims and did not provide protection services to victims; for the third consecutive year, officials did not investigate any trafficking crimes; the government also did not conduct public awareness campaigns or administer anti-trafficking training for law enforcement officials; therefore, Vanuatu was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Vanuatu, and traffickers exploit victims from Vanuatu abroad; individuals from Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, and Thailand are exploited in Vanuatu; workers from China may have been forced to work in Vanuatu at projects run by Chinese companies; traffickers target migrant women in the hospitality and tourism sectors and low-skilled foreign workers in high-risk sectors, such as agriculture, mining, fishing, logging, construction, and domestic service; Chinese and South Asian migrant women are at risk for labor trafficking in bars, beauty salons, and massage parlors; Bangladeshi criminal groups lure Bangladeshis with false promises of jobs in Australia, then exploit them in forced labor in construction in Vanuatu; women and girls may be at risk of debt-based coercion in sex trafficking and domestic servitude to pay back the husband’s family for the “bride-price payments” they made to the bride’s family; children are exploited through “child-swapping” used to pay off debts, or by taxi drivers who may facilitate their exploitation in commercial sex; forced labor and child sex trafficking occur on fishing vessels in Vanuatu; LGBTQI+ individuals are vulnerable to trafficking; children may experience conditions indicative of forced labor in the illegal logging industry and in newspaper sales (2023)

Venezuela

tier rating: Tier 3 — Venezuela does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making any efforts to do so, therefore, Venezuela remained on Tier 3; the Maduro regime (which is not recognized by the US) took some steps to address trafficking, arresting some traffickers and identifying some victims; however, the regime did not report assisting victims or prosecuting or convicting traffickers; the Maduro regime continued to provide support and a permissive environment for non-state armed groups and other armed groups that forcibly recruited and used children for armed conflict or forced criminality; the armed groups also engaged in sex trafficking and forced labor while operating with impunity; the regime did not make sufficient efforts to curb the armed groups’ forced recruitment and exploitation of children (2023)

trafficking profile:

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Venezuela, as well as Venezuelans abroad; more than six million Venezuelans, facing continued economic, political, and humanitarian crises, have fled to neighboring countries and are at risk of human trafficking; traffickers exploit Venezuelans in Aruba, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Guyana, Haiti, Iceland, Macau, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay; Venezuelan women and girls are particularly at risk of sex trafficking in neighboring countries; women, including transgender women, have been lured to Spain and Germany with fraudulent employment offers and subjected to forced surgical procedures before being exploited in commercial sex; Venezuelan men are exploited in forced labor in other countries, including Aruba and Curacao; within Venezuela, Venezuelan women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking and child sex tourism; children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor, including in farming, domestic service, construction, mining, and criminal groups; non-state armed groups—including illegal Colombian groups near border regions—force some Venezuelans into criminal acts, use as child soldiers, and exploitation in sex trafficking and forced labor; members of the Maduro regime most likely tolerate or sometimes collude with the armed groups’ trafficking; sex and labor trafficking victims from South American, Caribbean, Asian, and African countries have been reported in Venezuela; the Cuban Government may be exploiting Cuban workers in medical missions in Venezuela (2023)

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; the government made key achievements during the reporting period, therefore Vietnam was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; Vietnam initiated more investigations, prosecuted and convicted more traffickers, increased international law enforcement cooperation, and initiated criminal proceedings against allegedly complicit officials; officials also identified and assisted more victims and implemented protection for overseas workers; despite these achievements, the government did not proactively identify trafficking victims forced to work in cyber scams or provide services, including foreign national victims in Vietnam; authorities inspected thousands of the most at-risk establishments for sex trafficking but only identified two victims (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Vietnam, as well as Vietnamese abroad; 55% of workers work in the informal economy where labor laws are not effectively enforced, increasing vulnerability to trafficking; Vietnamese men and women who migrate abroad, using illicit brokerage networks operated by Vietnamese nationals based abroad or state-owned or state-regulated recruitment enterprises, are vulnerable to debt bondage or other forms of exploitation; victims are subjected to forced labor in construction, agriculture, mining, maritime industries, logging, and manufacturing primarily in Japan, Laos, Malaysia, South Korea, and in some parts of the Middle East, the UK, and other countries in Europe; reports have increased of Vietnamese labor trafficking victims in Taiwan, continental Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and in Pacific maritime industries; Vietnamese traffickers, including members of Vietnam’s diplomatic service, reportedly have exploited Vietnamese nationals in forced labor in Saudi Arabia; many Vietnamese are subjected to forced labor under the auspices of Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program and in agricultural education programs in Israel; other Vietnamese are exploited at Chinese-owned factories associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Balkan region; widespread social stigma increases LGBTQI+ individuals’ vulnerability to trafficking; traffickers lure Vietnamese women and children with fraudulent job opportunities and send them to brothels on the borders of Cambodia, China, and Laos or elsewhere in Asia, West Africa, and Europe; Vietnamese women and girls are also exploited in sex trafficking in Vietnam, as well as Burma; sometimes family members or small-scale networks exploit Vietnamese men, women, and children—including street children and children with disabilities—in forced labor; child sex tourists from Asia, the UK, other countries in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the US exploit children in Vietnam (2023)

World

tier rating:

Tier 2 Watch List:
(26 countries) Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Eswatini, Gabon, Haiti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Montenegro, Mozambique, Serbia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu, Vietnam (2023)

Tier 3: (24 countries) Afghanistan, Algeria, Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, Chad, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Curacao, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Macau, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Sint Maarten, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Venezuela (2023)

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)