The United States has recently declared China as among the world’s worst offenders in human trafficking and forced labour.
The annual report of U.S. State Department downgraded China to its lowest Tier 3 rating, saying it has not met “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.” The report said Chinese women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking within China.
TIER 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) 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.
TIER 2 Watchlist:
Tier 2 countries in which:
a) The number of victims is very significant or is significantly increasing;
b) There is no evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking; or
c) The Tier 2 ranking is based on commitments to take additional 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 report listed 22 other countries in the lowest Tier 3 category: Belarus, Belize, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea, Mali, Mauritania, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
Countries placed in Tier 3 can be penalized with sanctions barring them from participating in cultural exchanges with the United States.
Iceland was downgraded to the second tier of countries for failing to prosecute any suspected traffickers for the sixth consecutive year while also decreasing the number of investigations into suspected trafficking.
The rankings of Bangladesh, Guatemala, Hungary, Iraq, Liberia and Nicaragua were also downgraded.
The report dropped Iraq and Myanmar from a list of countries that recruit and use child soldiers, a change from 2016.