Friday, June 20, 2014

The United States Releases Extensive Report on Human Trafficking

"There is no greater assault on human dignity than human trafficking." 
US Secretary of State John Kerry
June 20, 2014


Moments ago, the US Department of State released it's annual Trafficking In Persons Report. It finally has a strong focus on forced and exploited labor rather than just commercial sexual exploitation which usually gets most of the attention

Another improvement is that the report finally lists the United States as the primary "source" nation for victims in America. Yes, victims are brought in from other countries, but most American victims of human trafficking are American. If you don't understand that, then you don't understand trafficking.

Of course, the report has a few huge problems. For instance, it still rates Nigeria as a Tier 2 Nation in Human Trafficking. The worst rating is Tier 3 (Saudi Arabia, Russia, Thailand are all on the 2014 Tier 3 List). Nigeria's ongoing, unchecked terrors of Boko Haram holding 300 girls with a promise that they will be "sold in the marketplace" illustrates the dreadfully slow pace at which the State Department responds to urgency. The report only mentions Boko Haram once and not in relation to the kidnappings in April, but in a reference to an incident in 2013.

The entire report is available here. I will be posting more observations in the next few days.

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