Washington: US State Department released its 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report. The comprehensive report evaluated the effects of worldwide human trafficking.
The report examined 184 countries and their fight against modern-day slavery.
According to the report, trafficking cases are rising in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, but there is little evidence that these countries are doing anything to combat the issue.
According to CNN, the report breaks down into three categories. For instance, Iran qualifies as all three, because it is “a source, transit, and destination country.”
The State Department report also examined human trafficking operations and which people are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. It also evaluated that what countries were doing to fight trafficking and what countries were not doing enough.
The report described the tactics used by traffickers to solicit victims into sex trade. Says the report, “They recruit vulnerable women or girls, pretend to be in love with them, ply them with alcohol and drugs, build their dependencies for basic needs or chemical escapes, place other women in supervisory roles over them and encourage them to compete for affection and favor, use an interlocking system of reward and punishment reminiscent of a battering relationship, and threaten their recruits with the shame of their families and a punitive, rather than protective, law enforcement response.”
The US State Department gathered this data from “US Embassies, government officials, nongovernmental and international organizations, published reports, e-mailed tips, and research trips to every region.”
However, the US State Department does acknowledge “special cases.” These special case countries suffer under conditions that prevent them from responding effectively to human trafficking. Haiti has been a special case country for six years in a row, because of the crippling effects of the earthquake the country experienced in 2010. Haiti is joined on this list by the Ivory Coast and Somalia.
The Trafficking in Persons Report also notes the prevalence of human trafficking in the US. There are 27 million victims of human trafficking, 100,000 of which reside in the US.
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton described her visit to a human trafficking victims shelter. “I was embraced by children who should have been in grade school, but were instead recovering from having been enslaved in a brothel,” she said.
The US has seen progress since the report’s original release 11 years ago. The United Nations created the Palermo Protocol to combat human trafficking, and it has now been signed by 148 countries.
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