North Korea, Russia and Iran are among the nations cited in a new report as being among the least active in trying to curb the scourge of human trafficking, the form of “modern slavery” that’s ensnared an estimated 40 million victims worldwide.
The comprehensive fifth annual report released this week by the Walk Free Foundation – which endeavors to bring global awareness to the crisis – charges that, while half the globe has stepped up its work to combat trafficking, many other countries haven’t reported any meaningful change and some have even regressed.
North Korea is listed as the worst offender, followed by Eritrea, Libya, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, and Burundi. The top-ten worst list was rounded out by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Russia and Somalia.
These ten countries, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, accounted for more than 6.9 million victims. The reasons for the proliferation of human trafficking differ depending on the country. In places like Iran, there is a lack of political will to address the issue, while Equatorial Guinea is plagued by high levels of corruption, Libya is consumed in a protracted conflict and North Korea’s government uses the threat of violence to force individuals into labor camps, Walk Free stated.
In this undated photo provided on Sunday, June 23, 2019, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reads a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
On the other end of the spectrum, the United States is among the nations working most diligently to stamp out trafficking.
Leading the way is the United Kingdom, followed by the Netherlands, the US, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina and Belgium. The final three spots as determined by Walk Free go to Spain, Croatia and Australia.
Countries such as Mozambique and Ethiopia are also given credit for taking some positive steps to address the crisis — such as officially criminalizing human trafficking — despite a lack of resources.
Yet, the report notes no country is immune to some form of trafficking, be it through forced labor, sex trafficking, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage or the exploitation of children. The number of people currently under the thumb of trafficking in some form, researchers say, is the highest it has ever been in human history.
A raid of the centre, located in Antelias, north of Beirut, on Friday resulted in the arrest of at least two nuns, according to local media, as police rescued the children but were unable to located two newborns.
A video of the raid and arrest of the nuns circulated on social media platforms.
The investigation, which was leaked to Al Akhbar newspaper, reported abuse against children including sexual assault, harassment, forcing them to watch pornographic videos and feeding children expired foods.
The centre had also refused to receive social workers who wanted to assess the well-being of the minors following reports of child abuse, Al Akhbar reported.
Child trafficking was also investigated following reports that children were being sold “according to the colour of their skin”, the newspaper reported.
“$30,000 for a fair child and $15,000 for a child with darker skin” the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources.
Children placed in the centre’s care were unidentified homeless minors found on the street.
UNICEF Lebanon said it was “following up with great concern the terrible news about child abuse and trafficking in Lebanon”.
“We call all residential care institutions and national authorities to protect and safeguard every child at all times.”
WASHINGTON — In a new report, the U.S. State Department says Belarus, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan remain among the worst offenders of human trafficking and forced labor.
The department’s annual Trafficking In Persons report, which is aimed at curbing human trafficking, was unveiled in a ceremony in Washington on June 28 by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump.
It evaluates 187 countries and territories and ranks them into four tiers (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List, and Tier 3), with Tier 1 being the best and Tier 3 the worst.
Russia, Belarus, Iran, and Turkmenistan were among 22 countries ranked as Tier 3. Others included Burma (also known as Myanmar), China, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela.
The Russian government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so,” the 2018 Trafficking In Persons report stated as a reason why Russia remained among the worst offenders for the sixth year in a row.
It said Russian authorities “routinely detained and deported potential forced labor victims without screening for signs of exploitation, and prosecuted victims forced into prostitution for prostitution offenses.”
It urged Moscow to investigate allegations and prevent the use of forced labor in construction projects, screen for trafficking indicators before deporting or repatriating migrants, and to establish formal national procedures to aid law enforcement officials.
The report said Belarus, a Tier 3 country since 2015, “maintained policies that actively compelled the forced labor of its citizens, including civil servants, students, part-time workers, and the unemployed, citizens suffering from drug or alcohol dependency, and, at times, critics of the government, among others.”
In Iran, which has been Tier 3 since at least 2011, “trafficking victims reportedly continued to face severe punishment, including death, for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being subjected to trafficking.”
It also accused the government of providing financial support to militias fighting in Iraq that recruited and used child soldiers.
It said Turkmenistan, which remained on the Tier 3 list for the third consecutive year, continued to use “the forced labor of reportedly tens of thousands of its adult citizens in the annual cotton harvest and in preparation for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games” that the country hosted in September 2017.
Pakistan, meanwhile, was upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2, with the report crediting Islamabad with “making significant efforts” to tackle trafficking.
It said Pakistan, which had been Tier 3 from 2014-17, “demonstrated increasing efforts by increasing the number of victims it identified and investigations and prosecutions of sex trafficking.”
It cautioned, though, that the country’s overall law enforcement efforts on labor trafficking remained “inadequate compared with the scale of the problem.”
The State Department ranked Georgia as the only former Soviet republic to be a Tier 1 country, a category that comprises 39 countries.
In the middle are the Tier 2 countries, defined as those that do not fully meet the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.
These include Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Pakistan, Romania, and Serbia.
The report listed 43 countries in danger of being downgraded to Tier 3 in future years. The Tier 2 Watch List includes Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, along with EU member Hungary.Nuns
At least two infants are missing from an orphanage run by nuns in Lebanon, after authorities carried out an overnight raid of the Couvent Mission De Vie following reports of child trafficking and child abuse, local media reported.
A court had ordered the centre to hand over children in its care, following months-long investigation that revealed child trafficking and child abuse, but the nuns had refused to release the children.
North Korea, Russia and Iran are among the nations cited in a new report as being among the least active in trying to curb the scourge of human trafficking, the form of “modern slavery” that’s ensnared an estimated 40 million victims worldwide.
The comprehensive fifth annual report released this week by the Walk Free Foundation – which endeavors to bring global awareness to the crisis – charges that, while half the globe has stepped up its work to combat trafficking, many other countries haven’t reported any meaningful change and some have even regressed.
North Korea is listed as the worst offender, followed by Eritrea, Libya, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, and Burundi. The top-ten worst list was rounded out by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Russia and Somalia.
These ten countries, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, accounted for more than 6.9 million victims. The reasons for the proliferation of human trafficking differ depending on the country. In places like Iran, there is a lack of political will to address the issue, while Equatorial Guinea is plagued by high levels of corruption, Libya is consumed in a protracted conflict and North Korea’s government uses the threat of violence to force individuals into labor camps, Walk Free stated.
The Walk Free Foundation also condemned most nations – with only 40 countries exempt – for failing to investigate public or business supply chains who may rely on labor exploitation.
Moreover, experts believe the figure of 40.3 million people caught up in human trafficking, is only the tip of the iceberg.
“Even the best estimates likely remain conservative due to the challenge of quantifying such a hidden crime. There are far more victims of modern slavery than those identified and reported,” Forrest said. “Some countries don’t have any data on slavery, while others seek to measure it and put a lot of effort into training law enforcement and first responders to identify victims. Even then, the number of people identified as living in modern slavery is still only a fraction of our estimates.”
- Iran has deported at least 1,000 Afghan refugee children in the past two months
- These children have been roaming in Islam Qala and Nimroz crossing points over the past two months
- Many of the expelled children face the dangers of human trafficking on their way back to Afghanistan
- 30 to 50 children were reportedly deported every day from Iran
Iran has deported at least 1,000 Afghan refugee children into western Herat and southwestern Nimroz provinces in the past two months, local officials said Monday.
The children were deported through the Islam Qala border crossing in Herat and via the border of Nimroz with Iran, said the officials.
Herat Labor and Social Affairs Director Abdul Qayoum Afghan said these children have been haplessly roaming in Islam Qala and Nimroz crossing points over the past two months despite being vulnerable to many threats.
He said many of the expelled children had gone to Iran for work. “The deported children include some of those whose families are living in Iran. The children were collected from streets in Iran and then deported to Afghanistan.”
He said the deportation process was underway and was likely to accelerate in the next few days.
He asked the Iranian and Afghan governments to stop the forced expulsion of children from the country.
On the other hand, Abdul Qader Rahimi, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) head for Herat, put the number of the deportees higher than what Abdul Qayoum Afghan mentioned.
He said 30 to 50 children were daily deported via Islam Qala and Nimroz crossing points.
He said most of the deportees belonged to far-away provinces in the east and south that lacked resources to transfer the children to their own areas.
He said organizations working for children’s rights couldn’t cope with the issue.
The provincial government also expressed concern over the deportation of children, asking the Iranian authorities to stop the process.
Jilani Farhad, the governor’s spokesman, said: “The deportation of children and unsupervised women is a matter of concern.”
“We have always demanded serious steps to end deportation of children without families by Iran keeping in view the cordial relations between the two countries.”
AIHRC Herat chapter says besides expulsion, the children faced many other issues on their way from Iran to Afghanistan as they were tortured by traffickers and forced to walk hundreds of kilometers on foot.
Tier 3 trafficking classification for Iran.
I’m sure it’s nothing though, and should totally not be used to judge them…especially during this time while they mourn over what’s left of their Shabbos goy martyr who helped dictators suppress their people in the Latin 3rd world.
