Progress made in anti-trafficking effort, State reports

By Tom Strode - Jun 15, 2005

The campaign to combat sex trafficking and other forms of forced servitude globally is advancing, according to the U.S. State Department.

The State Department’s fifth annual Trafficking in Persons report, which was released June 3, provides an analysis of the efforts by 150 countries to deal with an issue that involves prostitution and child sex tourism, as well as forced labor and coercive military service. The problem is widespread—an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders yearly, and that does not include millions who are traded within their own country;

“Shining through this global tragedy are many rays of hope,” said Ambassador John Miller, senior advisor on trafficking in persons. “[G]overnments around the globe are awakening to this issue and taking action to end this form of modern-day slavery.”

New anti-trafficking measures were enacted in 39 countries last year, and there were more than 3,000 convictions worldwide related to trafficking, according to the report, which covers from April 2004 to March 2005.

The report includes a classification by “tiers” of countries’ compliance with the 2000 federal, anti-trafficking law. There are 14 countries on Tier 3, which is reserved for governments that do not comply with the minimum standards of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and are not making notable efforts to do so. They are Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kuwait, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Barrett Duke, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s vice president for public policy and research, called the report “an extremely useful tool.”

“If anyone wants to know just how much a country cares about modern-day slavery, he just needs to look at the tier rankings in the report,” said Duke, who encouraged individuals and businesses to consider the rankings when making purchasing and commerce decisions. “I pray that we Southern Baptists will find ways to work with the [State Department’s] trafficking office to help end the disgrace of human trafficking in our own country and around the world.”

The trafficking report may be accessed on the State Department’s website at www.state.gov/g/tip .

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