Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report 2013

 

The U.S. State Department recently released its annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP)

report for 2013. 

For the full report visit:  US State Department

 

 

 

What is the TIP report?

The TIP report helps to identify countries where trafficking is most problematic.  It rates 188 countries and gives each nation a tier rating based on their compliance with standards outlined in the TVPA. These tiers are:

• Tier 1 Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards.
• Tier 2 Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
• Tier 2 Watchlist Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’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 significantly increasing; 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.

The 2013 Report:

• There are 21 countries with a Tier 3 rating.  China, Russia, Uzbekistan and 18 other countries that are found not to be taking the affirmative steps necessarty to fight human trafficking.
• There are 44 countries on the Tier 2 Watch List that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.
• This is the first year a country has been automatically downgraded to Tier 3.  To prevent a country from remaining stagnant on the Tier 2 Watch list there was a time limit established.  When a country is placed on the Tier 2 Watch list they can request a waiver provision if they have a written plan and resources dedicated towards meeting the concerns addressed in the report.  Those waivers were only available for two years. There were six countries that were facing automatic downgrade this year:  Azerbaijan, Irag, the Congo, Russia, China, and Uzbekistan.  Three of them were downgraded:  China, Russia, and Uzbekistan. 

If you want to learn more about what human trafficking looks like globally this is a great place to start.  Choose a country (they are all listed alphabetically) and read what trafficking looks like in that country.