State Department adds Russia and Belarus to list of state sponsors of human trafficking
Kyiv • UNN
Russia and Belarus, as well as North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Syria, have been added to the list of 13 states whose governments finance human trafficking, according to the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report 2024.
On Monday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken submitted the State Department's annual report on human trafficking. Russia and Belarus, along with North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Syria, are on the list of 13 countries whose governments finance human trafficking. This is stated in the annual Human Trafficking Report for 2024, which was presented on Monday by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. This is reported by the Voice of America, according to UNN.
Details
During the presentation of the report, Secretary Blinken paid special attention to the use of digital tools in human trafficking.
Digital tools have increased the reach, scale and speed of human trafficking. Traffickers use online platforms to sell illegal sexual content. They use encrypted messages and digital currencies to avoid detection
Blinken noted that the use of online tools has made it possible for traffickers to expand their reach.
Human trafficking is a problem that no country can solve alone
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The International Labor Organization estimates that in 2021, 27.6 million people worldwide were engaged in forced labor, an increase of 2.7 million compared to 2016. Out of these 27.6 million, the ILO estimates that 6.3 million people were in conditions of forced commercial sexual exploitation and 3.9 million were engaged in state-imposed forced labor.
Unfortunately, some governments are part of the problem
The State Department has identified 13 countries whose governments encourage or finance human trafficking. This includes human trafficking in government programs, forced labor in government healthcare facilities, sexual slavery in government camps, or the use or recruitment of child soldiers, the report says.
In 2024, Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Turkmenistan were added to the list of offending countries.
According to Dyer, as the migration crisis intensifies around the world, the growth of human trafficking is likely to increase as well.
We call on governments to prevent human trafficking and prioritize screening migrants who often borrow from smugglers and then become vulnerable to traffickers when they cannot pay back the money
