U.S. Report Decries 'Modern-Day Slavery'

By Grant Podelco

Seventeen-year-old Maryam traveled from Kazakhstan to Russia to work as a shop assistant. A man paid her parents $300 and forged her passport so she could work. When she arrived in Russia, armed guards kept Maryam locked in a cell with barred windows, where she was forced to work as a prostitute.

Mara, a 30-year-old mother with a husband and two children, left Ukraine to work as a housekeeper in Italy, after employment recruiters had promised her a high salary.

When she arrived, Mara was taken to a brothel owned by a man who said he had purchased her for several hundred dollars. She was beaten if she refused a client.

These are two of the individual stories included in the U.S. State Department's "Trafficking In Persons Report 2007." The report was released in Washington on June 12 by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"We are helping to lead a global movement, not just to confront this crime, but to abolish it," Rice said. "More and more countries are coming to see human trafficking for what it is -- a modern-day form of slavery that devastates families and communities around the world."

Fighting Human Trafficking

Human trafficking involves the sale of people across international borders for forced prostitution or labor.Some 80 percent of trafficking victims are female, and up to half are children.

"Every day, all over the world, people are coerced into bonded labor, bought and sold in prostitution, exploited in domestic servitude, enslaved in agricultural work and in factories, and captured to serve unlawfully as child soldiers," said Ambassador Mark Lagon, the director of the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in presenting the report on June 12.

"Estimates of the number vary widely," he added. "According to U.S. government estimates, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year and about 80 percent of them are female. Up to half are minors."

The State Department's report classifies 164 countries into four categories of compliance with the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

The worst category, Tier 3, includes nations that are seen as not complying and not making any significant efforts to do so.

A total of 16 states are listed as Tier-3 countries, including Iran, Uzbekistan, and North Korea. Also joining the worst offenders this year are U.S. allies Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

"It's especially disappointing that so many wealthy countries in the Near East that aren't lacking adequate resources to make significant progress are on Tier 3," Lagon said. "For instance, Saudi Arabia is on Tier 3 for the third year. These are countries in that region that rely extensively on foreign migrant laborers."

Lagon said Tier-3 countries can be sanctioned if they do not take "serious antislavery action" in the next 90 days.

Room For Improvement

Tier-2 states do not fully comply but are seen as making significant efforts to do so, which this year include Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, and Turkey.

Many women are lured abroad and forced into prostitution (AFP file photo)A "Tier-2 Watch List" of nations deserve special attention, usually because of poor antitrafficking records for numerous consecutive years. This year, these countries include Armenia, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, too many major countries on the Tier-2 Watch List have ignored this warning year after year," Lagon said. "India, Mexico, and Russia are on the Tier-2 Watch List for the fourth consecutive year. Armenia, China, and South Africa are on Tier-2 Watch List for a third consecutive year."

Tier-1 countries are seen as fully complying with the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act. In the 2007 report, Tier-1 states include the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, and, for the first time, Georgia.

"Georgia's performance is particularly notable, considering it's the only Tier-1 country in a region struggling to strengthen rule of law," Lagon told reporters on June 12. "Georgia has shown an admirable political commitment to confronting human trafficking. Its improvement includes efforts to prevent girls and women from being lured into the global sex trade, where exploiters turn women and girls into mere commodities with their bodies for sale."

U.S. Judged As Well

As for the United States itself, Lagon said the State Department estimates some 14,500 to 17,500 people per year are trafficked across the U.S. border.
So where does the State Department place the United States on its list? Lagon said the United States is "not perfect," but has not been assigned a tier rating. While the United States is not included in the individual country analyses, he said, the State Department report does contain a summary of the United States' record.

"It is very important that the United States be seen as a partner and that we have a problem at home. We are not just standing with our arms folded, judging others, because this is a transnational problem," Lagon said.

"There's serious trafficking in persons into the United States from East Asia, from Latin America, from Europe, and there's trafficking within the United States," he continued. "And we're ready to be judged because we offer our hand as a partner to try and solve this problem of modern-day slavery."

The report says Iraq was in "political transition" during the reporting period and was not included.

Turkmenistan also is not listed because it says available information was insufficient to substantiate a significant number of victims in the country.

Source : RFERL

^* Condoleezza Rice presenting this year's report in Washington on June 12. Image : US State Department.

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