Up to 4 million bought and sold in Slave, trade, says US report
WASHINGTON - The United States said Wednesday that, up to four million
people had been bought and sold in the 21st century slave trade in the last
year, and accused 19 countries of doing to little to stamp it out.
In its annual "Trafficking in
Persons" report, the state department added Afghanistan, Armenia, Cambodia,
Tajikistan, Iran and the Kyrgyz Republic to a blacklist of states it blames
for making insufficient efforts to combat the scourge. The list also
includes Russia and Saudi Arabia.
"Every year an estimated 700,000 to four million people around the world
are victimized by traffickers through fraud, coercion and outright
kidnapping," said Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"The overwhelming majority of victims are women and children.
"Traffickers often force them into pornography and prostitution,
subjecting them to terrible mental and physical abuse and putting them at
risk from devastating diseases, such as HIV-AIDS."
Sex trade
The report, which includes input from various US government agencies,
NGOs and embassies overseas, said that some people are trafficked to supply
the international sex trade in prostitution and sex tourism.
Others find themselves working in appalling conditions for low pay in
sweatshops, construction or agriculture.
Most of the countries deemed to not be doing enough to combat
trafficking are in east and central Asia, southern and eastern Europe and
the Middle East.
On the basis of the report, governments in Africa and South America
seem.to be taking the problem seriously,
The report groups countries in three tiers based on the 89 governments'
efforts to combat trafficking, as defined by the Victims of Trafficking and
Violence Protection Act 2000.
Some countries are not included owing to a lack of reliable data.
The law defines trafficking as an offence in which a person is forced,
coerced or transported to commit a sex act, or to indulge in forced labor
or-provision of services.
States in tier three are deemed to be in violation of the Act's minimum
standards and not making significant efforts to bring themselves into
compliance.
In this report, they are: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus,
Bosnia, Burma, Cambodia Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon,
Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey and the United Arab
Emirates.
Sanctions
From 2003, states which remain in tier three will be subject to
sanctions including the halting of non-humanitarian and non-trade related
assistance, and could also see the United States block aid from world
finance bodies.
Several countries placed in tier three last year have moved up,
including South Korea, which the report said had made "extraordinary
strides" to combat trafficking over the last year and is now in tier one.
Romania, Israel, Albania, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan and
Yugoslavia moved up from tier three to tier two, reflecting a judgment
that their governments do not fully comply with the Act but are trying to do
so, the report said.
States and territories in tier one are deemed to fully comply with the
Act's standards, and this year include France, Belgium, Germany,
Switzerland, South Korea and Colombia.
Governments were assessed on whether they vigorously investigate acts of
trafficking, protect victims, and adopt measures to prevent trafficking and
cooperate with other countries to cut down on the trade in humans.
They are also held up for scrutiny on the extent to which they extradite traffickers, monitor immigration patterns for evidence of trafficking and prosecute public officials caught in the trafficking trade.
AFP
