As mentioned in a previous post, the US State Department as released the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for 2013. The current report revealed that China, Russia and Uzbekistan were automatically downgraded to the lowest rank of Tier 3 this year. This puts them in the same category as countries, like North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria, among others. It is estimated that there are currently 27 million slaves worldwide and a Tier 3 rating means these countires are considered home to some of the worst perpetrators in the world of human trafficking.
The downgrade of Russia and China does not come without objection from their government. You can read more about that Here
It is also important to note when reviewing the TIP report that a Tier 1 rating does not mean that human trafficking is non-existant in that county. It simply means that the country fully complies with the minimum anti-trafficking standards.
China:
China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Russia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas, are reportedly trafficked to China for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Forced labor remains a problem,
including in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories, some of which operate
illegally and take advantage of lax labor supervision. Forced labor, including
forced begging by adults and children. State-sponsored forced labor is
part of a systematic form of repression known as “re-education through labor.”
The government reportedly profits from this forced labor, and many prisoners
and detainees in at least 320 of these facilities were required to work, often
with no remuneration. The prisoners were sometimes beaten for failing to
complete work quotas.
Chinese women and girls are
subjected to sex trafficking within China; they are often recruited from rural
areas and transported to urban centers. China is also a destination for women
and girls, largely from neighboring countries, who are sometimes
subjected to forced marriage and forced prostitution upon arrival.
Well-organized international criminal syndicates and local gangs play key roles
in both the outbound trafficking of Chinese women and girls and the inbound trafficking
of foreign women and girls into China.
The Chinese government’s birth
limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons, create a skewed sex ratio
of 118 boys to 100 girls in China, which served as a key source of demand for
the trafficking of foreign women as brides for Chinese men and for forced
prostitution. Women from Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Mongolia are
transported to China after being recruited through marriages brokers or
fraudulent employment offers, where they are subsequently subjected to forced
prostitution or forced labor.
China remains a significant source
of girls and women subjected to forced prostitution throughout the world.
During the year, Chinese sex trafficking victims were reported on all of the
inhabited continents. Traffickers recruited girls and young women, often from
rural areas of China, using a combination of fraudulent job offers, imposition
of large travel fees, and threats of physical or financial harm, to obtain and
maintain their service in prostitution.
Russia:
Russia
is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who
are subjected to forced labor and sex
trafficking. Labor trafficking remains the predominant human trafficking
problem within Russia; the Migration Research Center estimates that one million
people in Russia are exposed to “exploitative” labor conditions characteristic
of trafficking cases, such as withholding of documents, nonpayment for
services, physical abuse, or extremely poor living conditions.
Construction, manufacturing, agriculture, repair shop, grocery store, and
domestic service industries, as well as forced begging and narcotics
cultivation; there were a number of cases discovered during the last year in
textile or garment factories. In some of the labor trafficking cases throughout
the country, foreign workers died the Moscow suburbs, textile workers were
beaten, poorly fed, refused medical care, and prohibited from leaving the
factory.
Reports of Russian women and
children subjected to sex trafficking both in Russia and abroad continued in
2012. Russian citizens are reportedly victims of sex trafficking in many
countries, including in Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle
East. There were also reports of citizens of European, African, and Central
Asian countries being forced into prostitution in Russia.
Prosecutions in Russia during the
reporting period remained low compared to estimates of Russia’s
trafficking problem. While the government issued a brochure to raise
awareness on trafficking, no other efforts were made to fund a national
awareness campaign. An interagency committee was established to address human
trafficking issues, but it has not yet met.
Uzbekistan:
Uzbekistan is a source
country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and
children subjected to sex trafficking. Internal labor trafficking remains
prevalent during the annual cotton harvest, in which children and adults are
victims of government-organized forced labor. According to a variety of
sources, including UNICEF, the government vigorously implemented for the first
time a decree banning the use of labor by school children up to 15 years of age
in the annual cotton harvest; however, the government continued to force older children
and adults to harvest cotton. As in previous years, the government set a quota
for national cotton production and paid farmers artificially low prices for the
cotton produced, making it almost impossible for farmers to pay wages that would
attract a voluntary workforce.
Uzbekistani women and
children are subjected to sex trafficking, often through fraudulent offers of
employment, in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, India, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Russia, Turkey, Thailand, Lebanon, Ukraine, Greece, Pakistan, Malaysia, the
Republic of Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and within Uzbekistan.
For the full country narratives visit US State Department
So what happens now?
President Obama now has up to 90 days to decide whether the three countries will be subjected to sanctions that include an end to many forms of foreign aid and the withholding of American support in institutions like the World Bank. The big question is whether or not the White House is prepared to execute the sanctions.
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