Over 105,000 Victims of Trafficking Identified Worldwide in 2019 - US State Dept. Report

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2020) The total number of identified victims of trafficking worldwide last year surpassed 105,000, teh US State Department said in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report on Thursday.

The 2019 data reveals an increase of 20,000 identified victims compared with 2018, including almost 10,000 who have been victimized as labor slaves, the report said.

In addition, more than 11,500 traffickers were prosecuted and more than 9,000 of them convicted last year, the report added.

The report included Russia in the so-called Tier 3 group of countries together with Belarus, China, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela, among others. The State Department said the Tier 3 countries do not fully meet US standards of combating trafficking and are not making significant efforts to do so.

"The government of 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," the report said.

The State Department pointed out the Russian authorities took steps to address trafficking, including convicting some traffickers, facilitating the return of Russian children from Iraq and Syria and identifying some of the trafficking victims.

"However, during the report period there was a government policy or pattern of forced labor; the total number of victims identified by the government remained negligible compared with the estimated scope of the issue," the report said.

US Ambassador-at-Large John Cotton Richmond said in the report that traffickers continue to harm people, finding ways to innovate and even capitalize on the chaos, and called on all countries to do more in combatting trafficking.

More than 30 countries, including the United States, fully meet US standards and remain in Tier 1 group, while almost 100 others only partially fulfill the standards, according to the report.