TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS INTERIM ASSESSMENT
Released by the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons January 19, 2007
The following are excerpts from the Trafficking in Persons Interim Assessment released January 19, 2007 by the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons:
Trafficking in Persons Interim Assessment
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President in December 2003, requires the Department of State to submit to the Congress an Interim Assessment of the progress made in combating trafficking in persons (TIP) by those countries placed on the Special Watch List in September 2006. The evaluation period covers the six months since the release of the June 2006 annual report.
This year, 39 countries are on the Special Watch List. These countries either (1) had moved up a tier in the 2006 TIP Report over the last year's Report, or (2) were ranked on Tier 2 in the 2006 TIP Report, but (a) had failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat TIP from the previous year, (b) were placed on Tier 2 because of commitments to carry out additional future actions over the coming year, or (c) had a significant or significantly increasing number of trafficking victims. Thirty-four of the 39 countries on the Special Watch List are in the second category–ranked as Tier 2 Watch List–including two countries initially ranked as Tier 3 in the June 2006 TIP Report, but reassessed as Tier 2 Watch List countries by the State Department in September 2006 (Belize and Laos). Attached to this Interim Assessment is an overview of the tier process.
In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti trafficking progress of countries which may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2007 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2006 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May–the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report–and November. Readers are requested to refer back to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country.
Tier Process
The Department placed each of the countries included on the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report into one of the three lists, described here as tiers, mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA). This placement reflects an evaluation of a government's actions to combat trafficking. The Department first evaluates whether the government fully complies with the TVPRA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Countries whose governments do so are placed in Tier 1. For other countries, the Department considers whether their governments made significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance. Countries whose governments are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2. Those countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3. Finally, the Special Watch List criteria are considered and, if applicable, Tier 2 countries are placed on the Tier 2 Special Watch List.
The Tiers
Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Act's minimum standards.
Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 Special Watch List: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and:
a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is increasing significantly; or
b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.
Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
As required by the TVPA, in making tier determinations between Tiers 2 and 3, the Department considers the overall extent of human trafficking in the country; the extent of government noncompliance with the minimum standards, particularly the extent to which government officials have participated in, facilitated, condoned, or are otherwise complicit in trafficking; and what reasonable measures the government would have to take to come into compliance with the minimum standards within the government's resources and capabilities.
EUROPE
Armenia
The Government of Armenia made some progress in its efforts to combat trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report; however, key deficiencies in the government's anti-trafficking response have yet to be addressed. In July 2006 the government enacted a statute to clarify its trafficking law and strengthen the accompanying penalties, and NGO-run shelters assisted more trafficking victims during the last six months. The government, however, neither developed nor implemented a national referral policy. It also did not aggressively sentence traffickers under its trafficking statute and it failed to investigate vigorously ongoing allegations of corruption and prosecute officials for complicity in trafficking.
The Government of Armenia took some steps to increase awareness on victim identification by assisting in the publication of an IOM manual for Armenian consular officers stationed abroad, and it worked with a local NGO to publish a manual for its health and social workers. While the number of victims assisted by NGO shelters in Armenia almost doubled over the previous year, the rate of law enforcement referrals to these shelters remains low; out of 23 victims assisted since March 1, 2006, about one-third were referred by the government. In July 2006, the government enacted a new statute to ensure that traffickers in Armenia are convicted under trafficking statutes rather than less serious pimping statutes, which carry lower penalties. Since March 2006, the government investigated 14 trafficking cases, resulting in six convictions. All six traffickers received sentences between four and five years; the government utilized its old trafficking statute, which carries penalties lighter than those in the new trafficking statute, under a grandfathering clause because the crimes occurred before enactment of the new statute. Although the government has yet to prosecute any acts of trafficking-related complicity, in December 2006 it restructured its anti-trafficking unit in response to ongoing allegations of high-level corruption.
Russia
The Government of Russia made some progress in its efforts to combat trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report. The federal government publicly announced it will provide some funding to three anti-trafficking NGOs beginning in early 2007 and regional and local governments provided in kind and financial support to some anti-trafficking NGOs; however, it appears the majority of aid to NGOs providing victim assistance, public awareness efforts, and government training was provided by international donors. Law enforcement officials and prosecutors participated in victim referral and anti-trafficking training, and cooperation between local government officials and NGOs appeared to improve. The Primorskiy Krai government in August began discussing the creation of two much-needed trafficking shelters in Vladivostok, although substantive measures to allocate funding and establish the shelters have not yet been taken. Russian law enforcement continues to investigate and prosecute human trafficking and demonstrated progress on collecting trafficking investigation statistics. Comprehensive data on prosecutions, convictions, and efforts to prosecute trafficking-related complicity and official corruption were not available.
The Russian government demonstrated mixed progress in its efforts to provide victim assistance. It reached agreements with NGOs governing cooperation with law enforcement to address human trafficking victim assistance in two cities; formal agreements between police and NGOs concerning victim assistance and protection now exist in four cities. While the majority of NGOs do not yet receive funding from the government, several local and regional governments did provide some financial and in-kind support to anti-trafficking NGOs for rehabilitation and outreach services. The governor of the Primorskiy Krai region funded and sponsored an international anti-trafficking conference in August 2006. The government reports that it has now fully implemented and funded a witness protection program, although some local authorities report they have not yet received financial assistance for witness protection from the national government. While Russia's witness protection program was used to protect and assist some trafficking victims, the vast majority of trafficking victims have not yet been assisted by the program.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Noor T. Umarov
Information Assistant
U.S. Embassy
109A
Ismoili Somoni Ave.
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
cell: (992-93) 570-70-38
phone: (992-37) 229-23-58
email: UmarovNT@state.gov
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