Trafficking in persons

Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. The International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues, estimated in 2022 that 27.6 million people worldwide were victims of forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude. Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat, depriving people of their human rights and freedoms, risking global health, promoting social breakdown, inhibiting development by depriving countries of their human capital, and helping fuel the growth of organized crime. In 2000, the US Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), reauthorized several times (the latest in 2019 with a 2022 reauthorization pending in Congress), which provides tools for the US to combat trafficking in persons, both domestically and abroad. One of the law's key components is the creation of the US Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which assesses the government response in some 185 countries with a significant number of victims trafficked across their borders who are recruited, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained for forced labor or sexual exploitation. Countries in the annual report are rated in three tiers, based on government efforts to combat trafficking. The countries identified in this entry are those listed in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report as 'Tier 2 Watch List' or 'Tier 3' based on the following tier rating definitions:

Tier 2 Watch List countries do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so, and for which:
-- the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions; or,
-- there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials

Tier 3 countries do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

• Afghanistan

  tier rating:

  Tier 3 — Afghanistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Afghanistan remains on Tier 3; substantial personnel turnover and closing of some ministries after the August 15, 2021 Taliban takeover hindered Afghanistan’s ability to maintain consistent anti-trafficking efforts; although the pre-August 15 government took some training and awareness steps to address trafficking, it employed or recruited child soldiers and sexual slaves in government compounds; after August 15, the Taliban continued recruiting or employing child soldiers and did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers; the Taliban shut down shelters for victims, did not identify or protect victims, and did not make any efforts to prevent trafficking; Taliban undermining the rights of women, minorities, and other vulnerable populations, further exacerbated vulnerabilities to trafficking (2022)

  
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Afghanistan and exploit Afghan victims abroad; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking; since the Taliban takeover, vulnerabilities to exploitation have intensified; traffickers exploit men, women, and a large number of children domestically; victims are subjected to forced labor in agriculture, brick kilns, carpet weaving, domestic servitude, commercial sex, begging, poppy cultivation and harvesting, salt mining, transnational drug smuggling, and truck driving; the Taliban and non-state armed groups, such as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), continue to unlawfully recruit and use child soldiers; sexual exploitation of boys remains pervasive nationwide, and traffickers subject some boys to sexual exploitation abroad; after the Taliban takeover, restrictions on the movement of women and girls, and severely diminished access to employment and education, increased their vulnerability to trafficking; LGBTQI+ individuals are among the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan under the Taliban (2022)
  
  note: The United States has not recognized the Taliban or another entity as the government of Afghanistan. On August 15, 2021, the Taliban culminated its takeover of Kabul, and on September 7, 2021, the Taliban announced a so-called interim government. As of December 2021, the Taliban had not outlined steps or a timeline to establish a new permanent government. All references to “the pre-August 15 government” refer to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. References to the Taliban reflect events both prior to and after August 15.

• Algeria

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Algeria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government made key achievements during the reporting period, therefore Algeria was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; authorities identified more trafficking victims, increased investigations and prosecutions, while continuing to convict traffickers; Algeria partnered with international organizations to train officials and conduct public awareness campaigns; however, government identification of and services for victims remained insufficient; authorities continued to punish some potential victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2022)
  
  trafficking profile:

  human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims; Algerian women and girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking due to financial problems or after running away from home; undocumented sub-Saharan migrants are vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking and are exploited in restaurants, houses, and informal worksites; sub-Saharan men and women needing more funds for their onward journey to Europe work illegally in construction and commercial sex and are vulnerable to sex trafficking and debt bondage; foreign women and girls, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, are subject to sex trafficking in bars and informal brothels; criminal begging rings that exploit sub-Saharan African migrant children are common and reportedly increasing (2022)

• Antigua and Barbuda

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch list – Antigua and Barbuda does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; more trafficking cases were investigated, Family and Social Services officials were trained for the first time, and funding continued for the National Action Plan; however, the government did not identify any victims for the second consecutive year, nor initiate any prosecutions or convictions of traffickers; therefore Antigua and Barbuda was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Antigua and Barbuda, and exploit victims from Antigua and Barbuda abroad; individuals from minority communities are at higher risk; documented and undocumented migrants from the Caribbean, notably Jamaica, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic, were victims of sex trafficking and forced labor; traffickers exploited victims in multiple-destination trafficking, arriving in Antigua and Barbuda for a few months before being exploited in other Caribbean countries such as St. Kitts and Nevis and Barbados; sex trafficking, including girls, occurs in bars, taverns, and brothels; forced labor, including children, occurs in domestic service and retail stores, particularly family-owned businesses; Cuban and PRC nationals working in Antigua and Barbuda may have been forced to work there by their own governments (2022)

• Aruba

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Aruba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government identified more potential victims, investigated more trafficking cases, and produced a new awareness campaign; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared to the previous reporting period, on its anti-trafficking capacity; authorities did not prosecute or convict any traffickers for the third consecutive year and sometimes relied on victims to self-identify; efforts depended on ad hoc funding, limiting key initiatives; officials conflated trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, hindering the effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts; because the government has devoted significant resources to a plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet minimum standards, Aruba was granted a waiver per the TVPA and thus remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for a third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile:

  human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims; traffickers exploit Venezuelan women in sex trafficking, and foreign men and women are subject to forced labor in Aruba’s services and construction sectors; Venezuelans overstaying visas are at risk of forced labor in domestic service, construction, and commercial sex; Chinese men and women and Indian men are subject to forced labor in retail businesses and domestic service; Arubans force Caribbean and South American women into domestic servitude; officials reported increases in forced criminality, where traffickers compel victims to commit unlawful acts, such as robberies and drug-related offenses (2022)

• Belarus

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Belarus does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Belarus was downgraded to Tier 3; nonetheless, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including conducting investigations and prosecutions and identifying and referring victims to services; however, the government did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting traffickers under its trafficking statute nor provide adequate protection to victims; officials reportedly returned many migrants and asylum seekers to their countries of origin without comprehensively screening them for trafficking; the government did not report conducting awareness activities, and its efforts to prevent labor trafficking remained inadequate; for the 5^th consecutive year, Belarus did not report investigating or filing charges related to illegal recruitment of migrant workers (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims and exploit Belarusians abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are men subjected to forced labor, primarily in Russia; most Belarusian victims are trafficked in Belarus and Russia, but also in Poland, Turkey, and other European, Eurasian and Middle Eastern countries; some Belarusian women traveling for foreign employment in the adult entertainment and hotel industries are subjected to sex trafficking; most traffickers are Belarusian citizens, and traffickers increasingly use online methods to coerce victims into forced labor and sex trafficking (2022)

• Bhutan

  tier rating:

  Tier 2 Watch List — Bhutan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making efforts to do so; the government increased convictions of traffickers and the number of victims identified and referred to services; officials drafted and launched an anti-trafficking National Action Plan; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared with the previous year; the government reported only one investigation and did not initiate any new prosecutions, and the overall identification efforts remained insufficient; because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Bhutan was granted a waiver per the TVPA from a downgrade to Tier 3; therefore Bhutan remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)

  
  
  trafficking profile:

  Trafficking profile:  human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bhutan and exploit victims from Bhutan abroad; unregistered foreign employment recruitment agencies increasingly operate through social media to target unemployed or economically disadvantaged individuals; Bhutanese citizens working in hospitality, retail, and services sectors in the Gulf, including in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, and in India, Thailand, and the United Kingdom, reported indicators of trafficking; in recent years traffickers sent Bhutanese women to Iraq and Oman for forced labor in domestic work; traffickers have exploited Bhutanese women and girls in sex and labor trafficking, including in forced domestic labor and caregiving; reports indicate an increase in commercial sex by Bhutanese and Indian women in the Bhutan-India border’s growing hospitality and entertainment districts—including hotels, massage parlors, and nightclubs—some of which might be forced; traffickers reportedly have exploited Indian child domestic workers and male Indian migrants working in the construction and hydropower sectors; rural Bhutanese transported to urban areas may be involved in forced domestic work, and child labor in restaurants and automotive workshops may involve forced labor (2022)

• Brunei

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Brunei does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Brunei was downgraded to Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including initiating a labor trafficking prosecution, increasing investigations, and continuing construction of shelters; however, officials did not convict any traffickers under its trafficking statute, for the fifth consecutive year, nor did it identify any victims; the government continued to detain, deport, and charge potential victims without attempting to discern if traffickers compelled the victims to engage in unlawful acts (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Brunei; some men and women who migrate to Brunei to work in domestic service, retail, or construction work are subject to involuntary servitude, debt-based coercion, contract switching, non-payment of wages, passport confiscation, physical abuse, or confinement; some female migrants entering Brunei on tourist visas are forced into prostitution; some traffickers use Brunei as a transit point for victims used for sex and labor trafficking in Malaysia and Indonesia; Anti-LGBTQI+ laws place some LGBTQI+ individuals at higher risk; Trafficking experts in Brunei have received threats from traffickers (2022)

• Bulgaria

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Bulgaria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials prosecuted significantly more suspected traffickers, ordered restitution, and drafted an annual national program with increased funding for combating trafficking and protecting victims; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; authorities investigated and convicted significantly fewer traffickers, the fewest since the government began reporting trafficking data; courts continued to issue suspended sentences for most convicted traffickers; victim identification and assistance data remained unreliable, making it difficult to accurately assess trafficking; authorities penalized victims for crimes traffickers compelled them to commit; lack of resources, legal authority, and training impeded law enforcement; corruption in law enforcement and the judiciary hindered progress, and alleged complicity in trafficking crimes persisted; therefore, Bulgaria was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bulgaria, and traffickers exploit victims from Bulgaria abroad; Bulgaria remains one of the primary source countries of human trafficking in the EU; vulnerable groups include the unemployed, children in residential care, individuals working in commercial sex, and members of the Romani community; most victims are individuals with disabilities and those with mental health conditions; Bulgarian women and children are exploited in sex trafficking throughout Western Europe and Bulgaria; Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity and Romani women and girls account for most of the sex trafficking victims in Bulgaria; traffickers typically exploit Bulgarian women and girls from poorer regions and increasingly use the internet or social media to recruit victims; family- or clan-based organizations and independent traffickers are overwhelmingly of Romani ethnicity and usually know the victims, who are also Roma; traffickers exploit Bulgarian men and boys in forced labor across Europe, predominantly in agriculture, construction, and the service sector; Romani children are exploited in forced labor, particularly begging and pick-pocketing in Austria, France, and Sweden; child trafficking cases reportedly are increasing; children are exploited in small family-owned shops, textile production, restaurants, and construction businesses, and some face sexual exploitation in government-run institutions; Ukrainian refugees are highly vulnerable to trafficking (2022)

• Burkina Faso

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Burkina Faso does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government has established child protection units throughout the country, identifying potential victims, and continued working with teachers to prevent forced child begging; officials collaborated with international organizations and foreign donors to implement a humanitarian response plan to assist vulnerable people in conflict-affected areas, including potential trafficking victims; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; substantial personnel turnover, related to the January 2022 coup d’état and formation of a transition government, hindered Burkina Faso’s ability to maintain consistent anti-trafficking efforts; officials did not report any prosecutions or convictions for the third consecutive year nor effectively screen vulnerable populations; the national anti-trafficking committee did not meet or coordinate anti-trafficking activities; the government did not adequately address complicity in trafficking crimes, including allegations of local officials exploiting internally displaced persons (IDPs) in sex trafficking; therefore, Burkina Faso remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Burkina Faso, and traffickers exploit victims from Burkina Faso abroad; traffickers fraudulently recruit Burkinabe children under the pretext of educational opportunities and exploit them as farm hands, laborers in artisanal mines, street vendors, and domestic servants; some parents knowingly allow their children to be exploited in domestic servitude to supplement family income; girls are exploited in sex trafficking in Ouagadougou and mining towns; some Quranic teachers force students to beg, sometimes with their parents’ knowledge; traffickers transport Burkinabe children—including homeless children—to Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, and Niger for forced labor in artisanal mining, forced begging, cocoa production, and sex trafficking; traffickers recruit women with fraudulent employment offers to work in Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and—to a lesser extent—Europe then exploit them in sex trafficking or domestic servitude; more than 1.4 million IDPs are vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking; violent extremist groups exploit women and children in forced labor and sex trafficking, recruit and use child soldiers, and reportedly coerce victims to carry out attacks or act as accomplices; traffickers exploit children from neighboring countries, including Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, in forced labor and sex trafficking; women from other West African countries are falsely recruited for employment in Burkina Faso and then exploited in forced labor in restaurants or domestic service; Nigerian women and girls are recruited for work in shops and salons and instead exploited in sex trafficking in mining regions; Cubans, including medical professionals, working in Burkina Faso may have been forced to work by the Cuban government; Burkina Faso is a transit country for traffickers moving children from Mali to Cote d’Ivoire and women and girls from Cote d’Ivoire to Saudi Arabia, as well as Ghanaian migrants traveling to Libya and Italy, some of whom are trafficking victims (2022)

• Burma

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Burma does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Burma remained on Tier 3; the military continued the use of children and adults for forced labor; the regime did not prosecute any military or deposed government officials for the forced labor, and it prevented civil society organizations from assisting trafficking victims; displacement resulting from military conflict, exacerbated by the February 2021 military coup that deposed the democratically elected government, made Rohingya and other ethnic groups more vulnerable to human trafficking (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit men, women, and children through forced labor, and women and children in sex trafficking in Burma and abroad; Burmese men are forced to work domestically and abroad in fishing, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, and construction; fishermen are lured into forced labor in remote waters and offshore by recruitment agencies in Burma and Southeast Asia; Burmese women increasingly are lured to China for marriage under false pretenses and are subjected to sex trafficking, forced concubinism and childbearing, and forced domestic labor; men, women, and children in ethnic minority areas are at increased risk of sex trafficking and forced labor in farming, manufacturing, and construction; men and boys are recruited locally by traffickers for forced labor in oil palm and rubber plantations, in mining, fishing, and bamboo, teak, and rice harvesting; some military personnel, civilian brokers, border guard officials, and ethnic armed groups continue to recruit child soldiers, particularly in conflict areas; discriminatory laws and hiring practices put LGBTQI+ individuals at higher risk for trafficking (2022)

• Cambodia

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Cambodia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Cambodia was downgraded to Tier 3; authorities took some steps to address trafficking, including continuing to arrest, prosecute and convict some traffickers, and identifying and assisting some victims; however, corruption continued to impede law enforcement efforts, legal actions, and provision of services to victims; authorities did not investigate or take legal action against any officials involved in the large majority of credible reports of complicity; officials failed to proactively identify victims among the highly vulnerable groups of men, women, and children subjected to human trafficking throughout the country; authorities did not provide adequate protection for victims domestically or overseas and relied heavily on foreign donors and NGOs to provide care (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit Cambodian men, women, and children in forced labor and sex trafficking in Cambodia and abroad, and foreign nationals are trafficked in Cambodia; Cambodian adults and children migrate to other countries in the region or increasingly to the Middle East where traffickers force them to work in agriculture, fishing, construction, manufacturing, and domestic servitude; significant numbers of Cambodian men and boys are subject to forced labor on Thai ships in international waters and may experience physical abuse, nonpayment or underpayment of wages, and confinement at sea; brick kiln owners exploit thousands of Cambodians, including children, through debt-based coercion; children from poor families are vulnerable to forced labor, often with the complicity of their parents, in domestic servitude, forced begging, or street vending in Thailand and Vietnam; traffickers recruit Cambodian women and girls from rural areas under false pretenses, or sometimes through complicit parents, to travel to the PRC to marry PRC-national men where they are subject to sex trafficking or forced labor; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls from rural areas move to cities and tourist areas where they are sex trafficked (2022)

• Cameroon

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Cameroon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities prosecuted and convicted more alleged traffickers; the government extended the 2020-2021 national action plan for an additional two years and conducted trafficking awareness  activities; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to improve anti-trafficking capacity; officials investigated fewer trafficking cases and identified fewer victims, and did not investigate allegations of security forces involvement in sexual exploitation of women; officials prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers; standard operating procedures for the identification and referral of trafficking victims were not widely disseminated; the government did not pass draft anti-trafficking legislation pending since 2012 to address victim and witness protection in conformity with international law; nonetheless, because the government devoted sufficient efforts to meet the minimum standards, Cameroon was granted a waiver per the TVPA from a downgrade to Tier 3, therefore Cameroon remained on Tier 2 Watch List for a third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cameroon, and traffickers exploit victims from Cameroon abroad; deteriorating economic and education conditions and diminished police and judicial presence caused by conflict in the Northwest and Southwest has left displaced persons vulnerable to trafficking; parents may be lured by promises of education or a better life for their children in urban areas, and then the children are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking; teenagers and adolescents may be lured to cities with promises of employment and then become victims of forced labor and sex trafficking; children from neighboring countries are forced to work in spare parts shops or cattle grazing by business owners and herders; Cameroonians, often from rural areas, are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and African countries (2022)

• Chad

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Chad does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials investigated trafficking cases and finalized a National Action Plan for 2021-2022 and began implementation of standard operating procedures and a National Referral Mechanism for identifying and referring victims for care; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increased efforts to increase anti-trafficking capacity; government turnover hindered Chad’s ability to maintain consistent anti-trafficking efforts and reporting; authorities did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers, identifying victims, or conducting awareness campaigns; nonetheless, because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Chad was granted a waiver per the TVPA from downgrade to Tier 3; therefore, Chad remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Chad, and traffickers exploit Chadian victims abroad; most trafficking is internal; some children are sent by their parents to relatives or intermediaries to receive education, an apprenticeship, goods, or money and are then forced to work in domestic service or cattle herding; children are also forced to work in agriculture, gold mines, charcoal vending, and fishing, and those attending Koranic schools are forced into begging and street vending; girls from rural areas who search for work in larger towns are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude; terrorist groups abduct children to serve as soldiers, suicide bombers, brides, and forced laborers (2022)

• China

  tier rating: Tier 3 — China does not fully meet the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore China remained on Tier 3; the government initiated its first prosecution of a domestic trafficking case, approved a new national action plan for 2021-2030, and conducted some anti-trafficking training; however, there was a government policy or pattern of widespread forced labor, including continued mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other Turkic and Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; the government also implemented similar policies against other religious minorities and Tibetans in other provinces; Chinese nationals reportedly suffered forced labor in several countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe hosting Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects; for the fifth consecutive year, the government did not report complete law enforcement data, nor did it identify any trafficking victims or refer them to protection services  (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in China, as well as Chinese people abroad; Chinese men, women, and children are victims of forced labor and sex trafficking in more than 80 countries; traffickers also use China as a transit point to subject foreign individuals to trafficking in other countries throughout Asia and in international maritime industries; state-sponsored forced labor persists under the government’s mass detention and political indoctrination campaign against Muslim and Turkic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; authorities in some localities subject families of men arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang to forced labor; highly organized criminal syndicates and local gangs subject Chinese women and girls to sex trafficking within China; women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and several countries in Africa experience forced labor in domestic service, forced concubinism leading to forced childbearing, and sex trafficking via forced and fraudulent marriage to Chinese men; African and Asian men reportedly experience conditions indicative of forced labor aboard Chinese-flagged fishing vessels; many North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers living in China illegally are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, while some of the women are forced into commercial sex, forced marriage, or forced labor; North Korea exploits some of its citizens in forced labor in China as part of its proliferation finance system (2022)

• Comoros

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Comoros does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials have made key achievements, and therefore, Comoros was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; the government has investigated trafficking crimes for the first time since 2014 and initiated its first trafficking prosecution; authorities have been identifying victims and referring them to protective services; Comoros partnered with an international organization and implemented standard operating procedures for victim identification and provided training for officials; the government also conducted anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; despite these achievements, the government has never reported convicting a trafficker, lacks a national referral mechanism, did not finalize a national action plan to combat trafficking, and did not allocate funds for anti-trafficking efforts (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Comoros and Comorians abroad; some Comorian women and children are subject to forced labor and may be vulnerable to sex trafficking; adults may be forced to work in agriculture, construction, or as domestics on Mayotte, a French department, and continental Africa; children on Anjouan, including some abandoned by parents who left to seek jobs abroad, are vulnerable to exploitation in domestic service, vending, baking, fishing, and agriculture; children from poor families whose parents place them with a relative or acquaintance for educational opportunities are vulnerable to domestic servitude and physical and sexual abuse; some children in Koranic schools may experience forced labor in agriculture or domestic servitude; inadequate border controls; government corruption, and international crime networks leave Comorians vulnerable to international trafficking (2022)

• Congo, Democratic Republic of the

  tier rating:

  Tier 2 Watch List — The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government finalized standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral for services and partnered with NGOs to identify more trafficking victims; the DRC investigated, prosecuted, and convicted traffickers, including complicit officials; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year; Congolese National Army officers continued coordinating with an armed group allegedly engaged in forcibly recruiting and using children; authorities penalized victims for committing unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit, and official complicity in trafficking crimes remains a significant concern; the government did not adopt comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation for the third consecutive year; because the DRC has devoted sufficient resources to a plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, it was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3, therefore the DRC remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)

  
  
  trafficking profile:

  human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congolese abroad; most trafficking is internal and involves the forced labor of men, women, and children in artisanal mining, agriculture, domestic servitude, sex trafficking, or child recruitment by armed groups; some traffickers are family members or others who promise victims or victims’ families educational or job opportunities and instead force victims to work as domestic servants, street vendors, gang members, or in commercial sex; some Congolese women and girls who migrate to other countries in Africa or the Middle East are exploited in sex trafficking or forced labor in agriculture, diamond mines, or domestic service; they may be fraudulently recruited by traffickers with false promises of jobs or education (2022)

• Cuba

  tier rating:

  Tier 3 — Cuba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government made some efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict sex traffickers, and identify victims; however, there was a government policy or pattern to profit from labor export programs with strong indications of forced labor, particularly in its foreign medical missions program; the government continued to deploy Cuban workers to foreign countries using deceptive and coercive tactics, and failed to address an increasing number of allegations from credible NGOs and foreign governments of labor violations and trafficking, and of Cuban officials’ involvement in abuses; Cuban law did not explicitly prohibit labor trafficking as defined in international law (2022)

  
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cuba and Cubans abroad; individuals are forced or coerced into participating and threatened to stay in labor export programs, most notably foreign medical missions; sex trafficking and sex tourism, including child victims, occur within Cuba; traffickers exploit Cubans in sex trafficking and forced labor in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Latin America, and the United States; foreigners from Africa and Asia are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor in Cuba to pay off travel debts; officials identified children, young women, elderly, and disabled persons as the most vulnerable to trafficking; the government uses high school students in some rural areas to harvest crops without pay, claiming that the work is voluntary (2022)

• Curacao

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Curacao does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Curacao was downgraded to Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including providing pre-trial support to three victims participating in legal proceedings against traffickers, awarding restitution to two victims, and extending the national action plan that expired in December 2021; however, authorities did not convict any traffickers or identify any victims, and continued to condition assistance to foreign victims on their cooperation with law enforcement in cases against traffickers; officials conflated trafficking with migrant smuggling, and the lack of funding remained a primary obstacle to anti-trafficking efforts; limited judiciary familiarity with trafficking contributed to frequent acquittals in trafficking cases (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Curacao; undocumented migrants, especially the substantial population of Venezuelans, are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking; traffickers exploit women and girls, particularly from Curacao, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, in sex trafficking; migrants from other Caribbean countries, South America, China, and India are subject to forced labor in construction, domestic servitude, landscaping, minimarkets, retail, and restaurants (2022)

• Djibouti

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Djibouti does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Djibouti partnered with international experts to expand training, formalized standard operating procedures for victim identification, enhanced a partnership with an international organization to develop victim referral procedures for transiting migrants, appointed a government focal point and inter-ministerial task force to combat human trafficking, and conducted awareness campaigns; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; the government did not convict any traffickers for the fifth consecutive year, and judges continue to use outdated versions of the penal code that do not include the 2016 anti-trafficking law; officials did not identify any trafficking victims for the third consecutive year and lacked formal services for victims; despite training, some front-line officials’ limited understanding of trafficking continued to inhibit law enforcement and victim identification; for the seventh consecutive year, the government only partially implemented its 2015-2022 national action plan; therefore, Djibouti remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Djibouti, and to a lesser extent, traffickers exploit victims from Djibouti abroad; adults and children, primarily undocumented economic migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia, transit Djibouti en route to Yemen and other locations in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia; a number of these migrants are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking at their intended destinations, and they are also vulnerable to trafficking at various transit points, particularly Yemen; economic migrants who transit Djibouti to return to their home countries are vulnerable to trafficking; Djibouti—with a population of less than one million—hosts more than 35,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, and many of them have endured and remained vulnerable to trafficking; Djiboutian and migrant women and children living in the streets face exploitation in sex trafficking or forced labor; traffickers, including family members, may exploit local and migrant children in forced begging; foreign workers—including Ethiopians, Yemenis, Indians, Pakistanis, and Filipinos—may be exploited in forced labor in domestic servitude, construction, and food service sectors; Cuban medical professionals in Djibouti may have been forced to work by the Cuban government (2022)

• El Salvador

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — El Salvador does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials convicted more traffickers and identified more victims; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; the government significantly reduced the number of specialized prosecutors; less than half of all victims received government services or referrals to care providers; officials did not implement procedures to identify potential victims among children apprehended for gang-related activity or persons forcibly displaced from their homes; the government did not initiate any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes or report progress on investigations from previous years; the anti-trafficking council was inactive and did not draft a new national anti-trafficking action plan, report on the government's 2021 efforts, or compile data across agencies; therefore, El Salvador was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in El Salvador, and traffickers exploit victims from El Salvador abroad; adults and children are exploited in sex trafficking within the country; children without parents, adolescent girls, and LGBTQI+ persons—especially transgender persons—are at particular risk; sex trafficking reportedly occurs in the tourism industry; traffickers exploit victims within their own communities, sometimes their own children or other family members; Salvadoran adults and children are exploited in forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, and begging; adults and children from neighboring countries—particularly Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua—are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in construction, domestic service, or the informal sector; traffickers recruit victims in regions of El Salvador with high levels of violence; limited government presence in gang-controlled territory exacerbates trafficking risks; gangs use the pretense of domestic employment to lure women into forced labor; transnational criminal organizations and gangs including MS-13 and Barrio 18 recruit, abduct, train, arm, and subject children to forced labor—including assassinations, extortion, and drug trafficking; these groups subject women and children, including LGBTQI+ children, to sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service and child care; Salvadoran men, women, and children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States; traffickers exploit some Central and South American, African, and Asian migrants who transit El Salvador to Guatemala, Mexico, the United States, and Canada in sex and labor trafficking; endemic corruption and complicity, including within law enforcement, the judiciary, the prison system, and local government, hinder anti-trafficking efforts (2022)

• Equatorial Guinea

  tier rating:

  Tier 2 Watch List — Equatorial Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government increased anti-trafficking awareness campaigns, as well as finalized and began implementing an updated 2022-2024 national action plan and standard operating procedures on victim protection and care; officials improved internal coordination, trained local leaders and law enforcement officials in trafficking indicators, victim identification, and investigation; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increased anti-trafficking efforts compared with the previous year; officials have never convicted a trafficker under its 2004 anti-trafficking law, did not prosecute traffickers or identify victims during the reporting period, and the law did not criminalize all forms of trafficking; senior government officials allegedly were complicit in trafficking crimes; because the government devoted sufficient resources to a plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet minimum standards, Equatorial Guinea was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3, and therefore remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)

  
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Equatorial Guinea and Equatoguineans abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are subjected to forced domestic service and commercial sex in cities, particularly in the hospitality and restaurant sector; local and foreign women, including Latin Americans, are exploited in commercial sex domestically, while some Equatoguinean women are sex trafficked in Spain; some children from rural areas have been forced into domestic servitude; children from nearby countries are forced to labor as domestic workers, market workers, vendors, and launderers; individuals recruited from African countries and temporary workers from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are sometimes exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking; observers report LGBTQI+ youth are often left homeless and stigmatized by family and society, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking (2022)

• Eritrea

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Eritrea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; a government policy or pattern of human trafficking existed; the government continued to exploit its nationals in forced labor in its compulsory national service and citizen militia by forcing them to serve indefinitely or for arbitrary periods; the government did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic victims in Eritrea and abroad; National Service is mandatory at age 18 and may take a variety of forms, including military service and physical labor but also government office jobs and teaching; the 18-month limit on compulsory national service was suspended since the 1998-2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian border conflict, blocking the demobilization of most individuals who are forced to serve indefinitely under threats of detention, torture, or familial reprisal; Eritreans who flee the country, usually with the aim of reaching Europe, seek the help of paid smugglers and are vulnerable to trafficking when they cross the border clandestinely into Sudan and Ethiopia; Eritreans are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking mainly in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya (2022)

• Eswatini

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Eswatini does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials convicted more traffickers and identified more victims; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; the lack of government coordination and leadership by the Inter Agency Task Force and Prevention of People Trafficking and the People Smuggling Secretariat, dedicated funding, and training for front-line officers continued to hamper anti-trafficking efforts; serious allegations of trafficking and victim abuse against senior government officials have remained pending for multiple years; the government failed to refer all victims to services, and the first shelter for victims refurbished in collaboration with foreign donor support remained inoperative; therefore, Eswatini was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Eswatini, and traffickers exploit victims from Eswatini abroad; traffickers target vulnerable communities, particularly those with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates; Swati girls, particularly orphans, are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude, primarily in Eswatini and South Africa; Swati boys and foreign children are forced into labor in agriculture, cattle herding, and market vending within Eswatini; some Mozambican boys who migrate to Eswatini for work are exploited by traffickers in forced labor; Cuban nationals on medical missions in Eswatini may have been forced to work by the Cuban government; traffickers use Eswatini as a transit country to move foreign victims, primarily Mozambicans, to South Africa for forced labor; some Mozambican women reportedly are forced into commercial sex in Eswatini or transported to South Africa; some Swatis, including orphaned girls and girls from poor families who voluntarily migrate in search of work—particularly in South Africa—are exploited in sex trafficking; Swati men recruited in border communities are exploited in forced labor in South Africa’s timber industry (2022)

• Ethiopia

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Ethiopia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included prosecuting more potential trafficking crimes, convicting more traffickers, increasing training for law enforcement officials, drafting regulations to create a victim protection fund, and conducting awareness campaigns at the federal and regional levels; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns; protection services for victims remained limited and the government continued to rely on civil society organizations to provide most victim services without financial support; officials continued to focus mostly on transnational trafficking rather than on internal trafficking crimes, including domestic servitude and child sex trafficking; many officials continued to conflate human trafficking and migrant smuggling; government efforts to protect Ethiopian trafficking victims abroad remained minimal, and protection services for returning victims were inadequate; therefore, Ethiopia remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Ethiopia, as well as Ethiopians abroad; girls from rural areas are exploited in domestic servitude and sex trafficking within the country and boys in forced labor in weaving, construction, agriculture, forced begging, and street vending; girls are exploited by brothel owners in Addis Ababa; traffickers fraudulently recruit vulnerable populations and exploit them in forced labor; several million internally displaced persons are vulnerable to trafficking; nearly 60,000 Ethiopians fleeing conflict in northern regions to seek asylum in Sudan and other neighboring countries are increasingly vulnerable to trafficking; international organizations report armed actors, including Eritrean forces, regional forces, Ethiopian National Defense Force, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front have committed human rights abuses and gender-based violence against women and girls in Tigray, including potential trafficking crimes; Ethiopian girls are exploited in domestic servitude and sex trafficking in neighboring countries, particularly Djibouti and Sudan; Ethiopian boys face forced labor or criminal activity in Djibouti; Ethiopian women and children are exploited in forced begging in Saudi Arabia, and some women suffer forced labor in Romania’s hotel industry; Ethiopia hosts more than 840,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea, who are increasingly vulnerable to trafficking; Cuban medical professionals in Ethiopia may have been forced to work by the Cuban government (2022)

• Gabon

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Gabon does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials investigated more trafficking crimes and convicted more traffickers; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; for the third consecutive year, the government did not adopt its anti-trafficking national action plan and lacked inter-ministerial coordination; fewer potential victims were identified and efforts to identify, protect, and provide justice for victims remained inadequate; the government did not amend its law to ensure penalties for adult sex trafficking were commensurate with penalties for other grave crimes, nor report investigating allegations of judicial corruption related to trafficking crimes; therefore, Gabon was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Gabon, as well as victims from Gabon abroad; Gabon is a primary destination and transit country for West and Central African men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; poverty continues to represent a key risk factor in forced labor and sex trafficking; girls are exploited in forced labor in domestic service, markets, or roadside restaurants, and boys are forced to work as street vendors, mechanics, and laborers in the fishing sector; West African women are coerced into domestic servitude or commercial sex within Gabon; criminals may exploit children in illegal gold mines and wildlife trafficking; Gabonese labor recruiters force some Cameroonians to work on rubber and palm oil plantations in northern Gabon; West African traffickers reportedly exploit children from other countries to work in markets and urban centers in Gabon; shopkeepers force or coerce Gabonese children to work in markets; smugglers who assist foreign adults migrating to or through Gabon subject them to forced labor or commercial sex; some families willingly give children to intermediaries promising education or employment who instead subject the children to forced labor; women are exploited in sex trafficking at roadside bars, and brothel owners reportedly conduct child sex trafficking (2022)

• Guinea

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government initiated more investigations, identified and referred more victims to services, and issued an emergency anti-trafficking national action plan (NAP) to supplement the 2020-2022 NAP; officials established a hotline and allocated resources to the anti-trafficking committee; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increased efforts compared to the last year; substantial personnel turnover related to the September 2021 coup d’état hindered anti-trafficking efforts; no data was provided on prosecution of trafficking cases, and while more traffickers were convicted than previously, their sentences did not serve to deter the crime; fines in lieu of imprisonment for sex trafficking remain in the penal code; shelter services for victims remained insufficient, and NGO’s providing victim services did not receive government support; Quranic teachers have not been prosecuted for allegedly forcing child begging; Guinea was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgraded to Tier 3, therefore Guinea remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Guinea and Guineans abroad; Guinea is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; vulnerable populations include adults and children working in the informal labor sector, homeless and orphaned children, artisanal miners, children and adults with albinism, and the mentally ill; Guinean women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation, while boys are forced to beg, work as street vendors and shoe shiners, or work in mining, herding, fishing, and agriculture; North Koreans working in mining, construction, fishing, and health sectors and Cuban medical professionals working in Guinea may have been forced to work by their respective governments, while Chinese women are reportedly forced into prostitution in Guinea; Guinean women and girls have been exploited in domestic service and sex trafficking in West Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States (2022)

• Guinea-Bissau

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Guinea-Bissau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Guinea-Bissau remained on Tier 3; despite the lack of efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including investigating cases, identifying potential victims, launching a national referral mechanism, and convening its anti-trafficking committee; however, Guinea-Bissau has never convicted a trafficker and failed to prosecute alleged traffickers for the third consecutive year; the government continued to lack adequate victim identification and services, and has lacked sufficient resources and political will to comprehensively combat trafficking (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Guinea-Bissau and Bissau-Guineans abroad; forced child begging is the most prevalent form of trafficking; boys reportedly were transported to southern Senegal for forced manual and agricultural labor; girls may be subjected to forced domestic service and child prostitution in Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia; women are recruited and exploited in domestic servitude abroad; girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are exploited in child sex tourism in the Bijagos, an archipelago off the coast of Guinea-Bissau that is largely devoid of government and law enforcement presence; Cuban nationals in Guinea-Bissau may have been forced to work by the Cuban government (2022)

• Haiti

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Haiti does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Haiti adopted national standard operating procedures for victim identification and support, improved oversight of vulnerable children in orphanages, completed a new national action plan, conducted extensive anti-trafficking training, and collaborated with NGOs on victim identification; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; traffickers operated with impunity and complicity, particularly in high-profile cases; no anti-trafficking law enforcement or victim protection efforts were reported apart from those involving children; the government did not fund the National Committee for the Fight Against Human Trafficking or adult victim services in fiscal year 2021 and made insufficient efforts to combat child domestic servitude; therefore, Haiti remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Haiti, as well as Haitians abroad; most of Haiti’s trafficking cases involve children in forced labor and sex trafficking in domestic service; NGOs estimate between 150,000 and 300,000 children work in domestic servitude, of which about two-thirds are girls and one-third boys--mostly victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking, respectively; Haitian women and girls seeking jobs are instead exploited in commercial sex in the Dominican Republic or for sex tourism; child sex tourism reportedly takes place in Haiti, with most tourists coming from the United States, Canada, and Europe; traffickers target Haitian children in private or NGO-sponsored residential care centers, children working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, internally displaced persons—including those displaced by natural disasters and gang violence—stateless people, Haitian migrants traveling from or returning to Haiti, and LGBTQI+ youth; female foreign nationals, especially from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, are particularly at risk for sex and labor trafficking in Haiti; Cuban medical workers in Haiti may have been forced to work by the Cuban government (2022)

• Hong Kong

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Hong Kong does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government trained more officials, prosecuted more employers of foreign domestic workers for crimes including assault, and reported increased actions against illegal brothels and perpetrators who solicit child sex trafficking victims; however, officials did not demonstrate overall increased efforts in anti-trafficking capacity and did not prosecute or convict any traffickers; criminals convicted for sex trafficking crimes received inadequate penalties, and the government did not enact legislation to fully criminalize all forms of trafficking; fewer victims were identified, and ineffective implementation of victim identification continued to result in inadequate victim identification and penalizing victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit; because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Hong Kong was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3; therefore, Hong Kong remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Hong Kong, and traffickers exploit victims from Hong Kong abroad; victims include citizens from mainland China, Indonesia, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, Uganda, and other Southeast Asian countries, as well as countries in South Asia, Africa, and South America; foreign women, including from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia are exploited in sex trafficking; traffickers exploit migrant workers in shipping, construction, electronic recycling, nursing homes, and private homes; foreign women are coerced to carry drugs into Hong Kong; some women in Hong Kong–often with the assistance of their families–deceive Indian and Pakistani men into arranged marriages involving forced domestic service, bonded labor in construction, and other physically demanding industries; traffickers recruit victims from the Philippines, South America, and mainland China under false pretenses and forced them into commercial sex (2022)

• Indonesia

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Indonesia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Indonesia supported the repatriation of migrant workers—including some who were exploited in trafficking abroad—referred some victims to social services, implemented the 2017 Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers law, concluded a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia on worker protections, and increased funding for victim and witness protection services; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; investigations and convictions decreased for the fifth and fourth consecutive years, respectively; officials did not take steps to address official complicity in trafficking crimes; the lack of systematic identification procedures hindered proactive identification of victims; protection services remained inadequate; the government did not fully prioritize staffing or funding for effective oversight of sectors with pervasive trafficking problems; the 2007 anti-trafficking law was inconsistent with international law on what constitutes child sex trafficking crimes; therefore, Indonesia was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Indonesia, as well as Indonesians abroad; officials estimate that more than two million Indonesians working abroad—many of whom are women working in the domestic sector—are undocumented or overstayed their visas, increasing their risk to trafficking; traffickers exploit many Indonesians through force and debt-based coercion in Asia (particularly in China, South Korea, and Singapore) and the Middle East (particularly in Saudi Arabia), primarily in domestic work, factories, construction, and manufacturing, as well as on Malaysian oil palm plantations and fishing vessels throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans; Indonesian labor traffickers exploit adults and children in fishing, fish processing, construction, on oil palm or other plantations, and in mining and manufacturing; women and girls are exploited in forced labor in domestic service, and children may be subject to forced criminality in the illicit drug industry; sex traffickers use spas, hotels, bars, and other businesses to facilitate sex trafficking, and up to 30 percent of individuals in commercial sex in Indonesia are female child sex victims; women and girls are also exploited in sex trafficking near mining operations, and Bali is a destination for Indonesians and foreigners engaged in child sex tourism; sex traffickers exploit Indonesian women and girls abroad primarily in Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Middle East (2022)

• Iran

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Iran does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Iran remained in Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including forming an anti-trafficking committee to develop strategies and programs to combat trafficking; however, the government continued a policy of recruiting and using child soldiers and coercing adults to fight for Iranian-led militias in Syria; officials continued to perpetrate and condone trafficking crimes; authorities failed to identify and protect trafficking victims among vulnerable populations and continued to treat trafficking victims as criminals; victims continued to face severe punishment or death for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Iran, and Iranians are exploited abroad; the continuing decline of the Iranian economy has significantly exacerbated human trafficking, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups such as ethnic minorities, refugee and migrants, women, and children; women and girls, as well as some men, are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking in Iran; Iranian and Afghan boys and girls are forced into prostitution domestically; Iranian women, boys, and girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates; Iranian and Afghan refugee and migrant children, orphans, and homeless children increasingly are vulnerable to forced labor in Iran; criminal groups reportedly play a significant role in human trafficking in Iran, including kidnaping or purchasing Iranian and migrant children for forced labor and sexual exploitation; Afghan refugees and migrants, as well as Pakistani migrants, are vulnerable to abuse and labor exploitation (2022)

• Korea, North

  tier rating: Tier 3 — the government of North Korea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking; during this reporting period there was a government policy or pattern of human trafficking in prison camps, in labor training centers, in massed mobilizations of adults and children, and through forced labor by North Korean overseas workers; proceeds from state-sponsored forced labor funded government functions and illicit activities (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers—including government officials—exploit North Koreans at home and abroad; women and children are exploited in sex trafficking within North Korea; forced labor is part of an established system of political repression and a pillar of the economic system; children in prison camps are subject to forced labor for up to 12 hours per day; officials forcibly mobilize adults and school children to work in factories, agriculture, logging, mining, infrastructure work, information technology, and construction sectors; North Koreans sent to work abroad, including through bilateral agreements with foreign businesses or governments, face forced labor conditions; NGOs report overseas workers are managed as a matter of state policy; the government often appropriates and deposits worker salaries into government-controlled accounts; in 2017, the UN Security Council prohibited members from issuing or renewing work authorizations for North Koreans and, with limited exceptions, required repatriation; nonetheless, an estimated 20,000-100,000 North Koreans are working in China, primarily in restaurants and factories; North Korean women and girls lured by promises of jobs in China are forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements; many North Koreans continue to work or enter Russia, and some workers are reportedly working in African, Middle Eastern, an Southeast Asian countries (2022)

• Kuwait

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Kuwait does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials reported disaggregated data for the first time, including data on a forced labor conviction and identification of male victims; Kuwait also implemented a program to increase oversight of foreign worker recruitment and provide greater protections to vulnerable migrants; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; there were fewer investigations of alleged trafficking crimes and significantly fewer convictions and prosecutions of traffickers; the government decreased funding for victims and domestic worker protection programs for the second consecutive year; no steps were taken to reform the visa sponsorship program that continued to leave migrant workers highly vulnerable to exploitation; some officials routinely used arbitration and administrative penalties rather than investigate cases as human trafficking crimes; the government did not regularly use standard procedures to proactively identify victims and refer them to protection services, and it continued to detain, prosecute, and deport potential trafficking victims; therefore, Kuwait was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Kuwait; men and women migrate primarily from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and other countries in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East to work predominantly in the service, sanitation, construction, transportation, hospitality, and domestic service sectors; unskilled laborers and female domestic workers are especially vulnerable to forced labor and physical and sexual abuse; many labor-source countries, including Bhutan, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe continue to restrict female nationals from domestic employment in Kuwait due to the high risk they face; some visa sponsors subject migrants to forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, sex trafficking; Cuban nationals working in Kuwait may have been forced to work by the Cuban government; Kuwait’s sponsorship law restricts workers’ movements and penalizes them for leaving abusive workplaces; reports indicate some workers fleeing abusive employers are exploited in sex trafficking by recruiters or criminals (2022)

• Macau

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Macau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Macau was downgraded to Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including investigating one potential case, disseminating awareness-raising materials, and maintaining guidelines for identifying and referring victims to services; however, for the third consecutive year officials did not identify or provide services to any victims, nor initiate any prosecutions; Macau has not convicted a trafficker since 2019 and has never identified a victim of forced labor (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Macau; traffickers recruit most victims from mainland China, Russia, and Southeast Asia using false job offers; adult and child victims are forced into commercial sex in casinos, hotels, and private homes, and sometimes have their documents confiscated; Casinos and other establishments reportedly allow staff to partner with criminal networks to facilitate sex trafficking; migrant construction and domestic workers, primarily from mainland China, Indonesia, and the Philippines may be vulnerable to forced labor in Macau (2022)

• Madagascar

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Madagascar does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials investigated slightly more trafficking crimes, cooperated with foreign governments on a trafficking investigation, and established a new mechanism to promote fair recruitment for potential migrants and raise awareness of trafficking indicators; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; there were no reports of prosecutions or convictions of traffickers; the government did not hold complicit officials accountable nor investigate reports of officials facilitating child sex trafficking; officials identified the fewest number of trafficking victims since 2016 and only provided services to half of the victims; the government lacked standard operating procedures for identifying victims and referring them to care; efforts to address internal crimes, including domestic servitude, forced begging, and child sex trafficking, remained inadequate; the government failed to allocate adequate resources to agencies responsible for anti-trafficking efforts and lacked a national action plan; therefore, Madagascar was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Madagascar, as well as victims from Madagascar abroad; traffickers exploit Malagasy children in child sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service in homes and businesses, mining, street vending, agriculture, textile factories, and fishing; most child sex trafficking occurs in tourist destinations, urban cities, vanilla-growing regions, and around mining sites with the involvement and encouragement of family members; tourist operators, hotels, taxi drivers, massage centers, and local adults involved in commercial sex also facilitate this crime; girls as young as 13 are exploited in child sex tourism, often openly in bars, nightclubs, massage parlors, hotels, and private homes; Malagasy men exploit the majority of child sex trafficking victims, while most foreign sex tourists are French or Italian nationals; government officials are reportedly complicit in providing false identification documents to traffickers that facilitate child sex trafficking in Madagascar and forced labor in domestic service by Malagasy women abroad; many Malagasy women are employed as domestic workers in China, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, where they are at risk of trafficking; traffickers acting as labor recruiters send Malagasy women to China with false identity cards, where they are exploited in forced labor in agriculture or domestic servitude; Malagasy men may be exploited in forced labor in the services and construction industries in the Middle East and domestic servitude in China; Chinese nationals working at China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects in Madagascar were vulnerable to forced labor (2022)

• Malaysia

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Malaysia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Malaysia remained on Tier 3; officials took some steps to address trafficking, including expanding the legal definition of forced labor, increasing assistance for victims in government-funded shelters and judicial processes, and adopting a five-year national action plan against forced labor; however, the government continued to conflate trafficking and migrant smuggling crimes, impeding law enforcement and victim identification; anti-trafficking investigations declined, and no officials allegedly complicit in trafficking were prosecuted or convicted; officials continued to inadequately address allegations of labor trafficking in the rubber manufacturing and palm oil sectors, allowing abusive employers to sometimes operate with impunity; the government identified fewer victims, did not consistently implement procedures to identify victims, and penalized trafficking victims for immigration and prostitution violations (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Malaysia and, to a lesser extent, Malaysians abroad; most victims in Malaysia are documented and undocumented migrant workers from Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam; employers and agents exploit some migrants through debt-based coercion, and large organized crime syndicates are involved in some trafficking; Chinese nationals working for Chinese state-affiliated construction projects in Malaysia are vulnerable to forced labor; some young foreign women and girls—mainly from Southeast Asia, although also from Nigeria—are forced into commercial sex work in Malaysia after false recruitment for work in restaurants, hotels, beauty salons, or brokered marriages; refugees, Rohingya and other asylum-seekers, and stateless individuals are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking; traffickers force Malaysian orphans and children to beg, and increasingly exploit Malaysian women and children in forced labor; corrupt immigration officials facilitate trafficking by accepting bribes from brokers and smugglers at the borders and airports, and other government officials profit from bribes or extortion from and exploitation of migrants (2022)

• Mali

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mali does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the transition government adopted a national referral mechanism with standard procedures to identify and refer services for victims, increased efforts to prevent armed groups from recruiting child soldiers, and allocated more funding for anti-trafficking; however, Mali did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to expand its anti-trafficking capacity, in part due to substantial personnel turnover related to the May 2021 consolidation of military power and upheaval of the previous transition government; for the third consecutive year, officials did not amend laws to explicitly define hereditary slavery as a form of trafficking and continued to treat hereditary slavery cases as misdemeanors; despite widespread allegations of complicity in hereditary slavery and forced recruitment of child soldiers, no law enforcement or government officials were investigated; because the transition government has devoted significant resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Mali was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3, therefore Mali remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Mali and, to a lesser extent, Malians abroad; boys from Mali and neighboring countries are exploited in agriculture, artisanal gold mines, domestic work, transportation, begging—sometimes at the hands of corrupt Quranic teachers—and the informal commercial sector; men and boys, primarily of Songhai ethnicity, are subjected to debt bondage in the salt mines of Taoudeni in northern Mali; some members of Mali's Tuareg community are subjected to slavery-related practices, where communities rather than individuals or families exploit the enslaved; women and girls are forced into domestic servitude, agricultural labor, and support roles in gold mines, as well as subjected to sex trafficking in Mali; other women and girls are exploited in sex trafficking in Gabon, Libya, Lebanon, and Tunisia and in domestic servitude in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia; women and girls lured from other West African countries with offers of jobs in Bamako, Europe, and the United States are exploited locally in sex trafficking; Africans transiting Mali to Europe are vulnerable to trafficking; terrorist organizations and armed groups, particularly in northern and central regions lacking significant government presence, continue to recruit child combatants, and some groups use girls in combat, support roles, or for sexual exploitation; widespread reports implicate officials in corruption and complicity in trafficking and hereditary slavery cases (2022)

• Mauritania

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mauritania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government implemented a new law allowing anti-slavery NGOs to operate more freely, established a permanent anti-trafficking coordinating committee, and increased funding for its national action plan; officials conducted public awareness campaigns, helped organize a sub-regional symposium on combating slavery, and initiated three hereditary slavery investigations; however, Mauritania did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; the government did not prosecute or convict any alleged traffickers, courts effectively dismissed all pending cases against alleged slaveholders from the previous reporting period, and officials did not identify any victims for the fourth consecutive year; because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Mauritania was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 and, therefore, remained on the Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Mauritania, as well as Mauritanians abroad; adults and children from traditional slave castes are subjected to slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships; Mauritanian and other West African boys are trafficked within the country by religious teachers for forced begging; West African women and girls, especially Senegalese and Ivoirians, are exploited in domestic labor and sex trafficking in Mauritania; Sub-Saharan African migrants transiting the port city of Nouadhibou en route to Morocco and Europe are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking; Mauritanian women and girls, fraudulently recruited for jobs abroad, are transported to Gulf states and subjected to domestic servitude and sex trafficking (2022)

• Nicaragua

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Nicaragua does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government took some steps to address trafficking, prosecuting eight alleged traffickers and convicting four sex traffickers; however, the government continued to downplay the severity of the trafficking problem, denying that traffickers exploited Nicaraguans in foreign countries; officials did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees, despite endemic corruption and widespread official complicity; the government did not cooperate with NGOs and civil society in a national anti-trafficking coalition seeking to identify and provide services to victims (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Nicaragua and Nicaraguans abroad; women, children, and migrants are most at risk; women and children are subject to sex trafficking within the country and its two Caribbean autonomous regions, as well as in other Central American countries, Mexico, Spain, and the United States; traffickers used social media to recruit victims with promises of higher-paying jobs in restaurants, hotels, domestic service, construction, and security outside of Nicaragua where they are subjected to sex or labor trafficking; traffickers force children to participate in illegal drug production and trafficking, while others are forced to work in artisanal mines and quarries; children and persons with disabilities are subjected to forced begging; Nicaragua is a destination for child sex tourists from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe (2022)

• Palau

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Palau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Palau convicted a trafficker for the first time since 2018, convicted a government official for corruption in trafficking-related crimes, initiated two prosecutions, established an interagency working group, and conducted public awareness campaigns; it also finalized and implemented a national action plan and hired an investigator and victim advocate for its Anti-Human Trafficking Unit; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials lacked standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral to services; a lenient sentence for a convicted trafficker weakened deterrence, undercut efforts to fight trafficking, and placed victims who cooperated with the investigation and prosecution at risk; therefore, Palau remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Palau; foreigners in Palau number about one-third of the population of nearly 22,000, and those with little education or English language proficiency are particularly at risk of trafficking; Filipino, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Thai, Korean, and Chinese adult nationals pay thousands of dollars in recruitment fees to migrate to Palau for jobs in domestic service, agriculture, restaurants, or construction, but some become trafficking victims; some women from the Philippines and China, recruited to work as waitresses or clerks, are exploited in sex trafficking; some foreign workers on fishing boats experience conditions indicative of human trafficking; Cubans working in Palau may have been forced to work by the Cuban government; official complicity facilitates some trafficking; government officials--including labor, immigration, law enforcement, and elected officials—have been investigated for complicity in trafficking crimes (2022)

• Papua New Guinea

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Papua New Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; for the first time in four years, the government initiated prosecutions against four alleged traffickers, and identified and provided protective services to a child sex trafficking victim; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year; officials did not convict any traffickers, nor provide shelter or services to victims or help NGOs do so; endemic corruption and complicity, particularly in the logging and fishing sectors, left foreigners and locals vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor; the lack of resources for anti-trafficking efforts, low awareness among officials and the public, and lack of training activities continued to hinder progress; the government did not update standard operating procedures for victim identification or allocate funding to its national action plan; therefore, Papua New Guinea remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Papua New Guinea, and Papua New Guineans are exploited abroad; traffickers use Papua New Guinea as a transit point to exploit foreign victims in other countries; foreign and local women and children are exploited in sex trafficking and in forced labor in domestic service, the tourism sector, manual labor, begging, and street vending; families or tribe members reportedly exploit children in sex trafficking or forced labor; some parents force their daughters in to marriages or child sex trafficking to resolve debts or disputes; Chinese, Malaysian, and local men are forced to work in logging and mining camps; migrant women from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude at logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites (2022)

• Russia

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Russia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, is not making significant efforts to do, and remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking by prosecuting and convicting more traffickers, extending work and residence permits for foreign workers in response to the pandemic, and facilitating the return of Russian children from Iraq and Syria; however, there was a government policy or pattern of trafficking, including forced labor of North Korean workers; officials did not identify any trafficking victims and efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers remained weak; authorities penalized potential victims and prosecuted sex trafficking victims for crimes without screening for signs of trafficking; the government offered no funding or programs to provide services for trafficking victims and took steps to limit or ban such action by civil society groups; no national anti-trafficking strategy has been drafted, and government agencies have not been assigned roles or responsibilities; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created significant risks of trafficking for the millions of refugees fleeing Ukraine (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Russia, and Russians abroad; although labor trafficking is the predominant problem, sex trafficking also occurs; victims from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and North Korea are subjected to forced labor in Russia’s construction, manufacturing, agriculture, maritime, grocery and retail store, restaurant, and domestic services industries, as well as forced begging and drug manufacturing and trafficking; the government increased the use of convict labor to offset a shortage of labor migrants; Russian women and children were reported to be victims of sex trafficking in Russia, Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the United States, and the Middle East; Russian-led forces in Syria reportedly recruit Syrian children to fight in Libya, and Russian-led forces in Ukraine reportedly forcibly conscript adults to fight against their country and recruit children for fighting or support roles in eastern Ukraine; Ukrainians forcibly displaced to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainians in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, are highly vulnerable to trafficking (2022)

• Saint Lucia

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Saint Lucia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government passed an amendment to remove the option for a fine in lieu of imprisonment, increased public awareness of a hotline to report trafficking, and worked with an international partner to investigate a potential child sex trafficking case; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials have not initiated a prosecution since 2015 and have never convicted a trafficker; the government did not identify any victims for the second consecutive year or report providing any services to victims, and it did not enact or fund a new national action plan; therefore, Saint Lucia was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Saint Lucia, as well as victims from Saint Lucia abroad; children from economically disadvantaged families are at risk of sex trafficking, often forced by parents or caretakers in exchange for goods or services; disadvantaged young women from rural areas are vulnerable to sex trafficking, and children from poor communities are vulnerable to sexual exploitation; documented and undocumented migrants from the Caribbean and South Asia, including domestic workers, are vulnerable to trafficking; foreign women working in strip clubs and in commercial sex are at risk of sex trafficking; the government reports business owners from Saint Lucia, India, China, Cuba, and Russia are the most likely traffickers in the country; Cuban medical professionals working in Saint Lucia may have been forced to work by the Cuban Government (2022)

• Senegal

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Senegal does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included increasing trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions, as well as training judicial and law enforcement officials; the Minister of Justice released instructions to prosecutors urging them to seek harsher penalties consistent with the 2005 anti-trafficking law; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to increase its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not investigate, prosecute, or convict traffickers exploiting children in forced begging for the second consecutive year, and did not consistently prosecute alleged traffickers or apply penalties consistent with the 2005 law; the government identified significantly fewer victims and made minimal efforts to identify and refer adult victims to services; because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Senegal was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 and, therefore, remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Senegal, and Senegalese abroad; forced begging is the most prevalent form of trafficking in Senegal; corrupt Quranic teachers, or men claiming to be Quranic teachers, force children to beg in the major cities; children and women are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic servitude and gold mining; although internal trafficking is most prevalent, boys from Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali are exploited in forced begging as well as forced labor in artisanal gold mines; Nigerian women are exploited in sex trafficking in southeastern Senegal’s gold mining region, where women from Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Guinea, and Sierra Leone are also exploited; West African women and girls are forced into domestic servitude and sex trafficking in Senegal, including sex tourism for tourists from Belgium, France, Germany, and other countries; Senegalese women and girls are exploited as domestic servants in neighboring countries, Europe, and the Middle East (2022)

• Serbia

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Serbia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Serbia investigated more suspects, revised indicators to identify victims among schoolchildren, and increased resources for the Center for Protection of Trafficking Victims; officials developed a coordination body to support victims during criminal proceedings, formed four Special Working Groups for anti-trafficking issues, and designated an Ombudsman on trafficking; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; there were no proactive efforts to identify victims, and implementation of standard operating procedures remained inadequate; an anti-trafficking council did not meet, and the government did not adopt the 2021-2022 National Action Plan; official complicity in trafficking crimes remained a concern; therefore, Serbia was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Serbia, as well as Serbians abroad; Serbian women are exploited in sex trafficking in Serbia, neighboring countries, and throughout Europe, particularly in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Turkey; Serbian nationals, primarily men, are exploited in forced labor in labor-intensive sectors in European countries—including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Russia, and Switzerland—and the United Arab Emirates; children, particularly Roma, are victims within the country in sex trafficking, forced labor, forced begging, and petty crime; foreign victims in Serbia are from Albania, Cameroon, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Mali, Nigeria, North Macedonia, and Pakistan; thousands of migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia transiting through or stranded in Serbia are vulnerable to trafficking; the government has not reported fully investigating credible allegations of Vietnamese victims of forced labor and instead states the workers are not trafficking victims (2022)

• Sint Maarten

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Sint Maarten does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Sint Maarten was downgraded to Tier 3; officials took some steps to address trafficking, including investigating a potential trafficking case; however, the government did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers nor identify any victims for the second consecutive year; Sint Maarten was not equipped to provide services to trafficking victims due to its lack of shelters, funding, and formal arrangements with service providers; the government did not update its national action plan, which expired in 2018, and interagency coordination was severely lacking; officials consistently conflated human trafficking with migrant smuggling (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Sint Maarten; some brothel and dance club owners exploit women and girls from Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Russia in sex trafficking; women from Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking in Sint Maarten; government officials report a significant number of migrant workers are vulnerable to coercive schemes in domestic service, construction, Chinese national-owned markets, retail shops, food service, landscaping, and housekeeping; criminals, including smugglers, subject migrants—specifically Cuban and Brazilian nationals—who transit Sint Maarten en route to the United States and Canada to forced labor or sex trafficking; traffickers may exploit, under false pretenses, Colombian and Venezuelan women traveling to the islands in forced labor or sex trafficking (2022)

• South Africa

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — South Africa does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government convicted and sentenced traffickers to significant prison terms, including government officials complicit in human trafficking; it also increased the number of victims identified and the number of shelters; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; some victims were unable to access emergency services due to a lack of inter-agency coordination in identifying, referring, and certifying victims; for the ninth consecutive year, the government failed to promulgate implementing regulations for the 2013 Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Person Act’s immigration provisions, leaving foreign victims unable to access immigration remedies; therefore, South Africa remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Africa, as well as South Africans abroad; traffickers recruit victims from neighboring countries and rural areas within South Africa and exploit them in sex trafficking locally and in urban centers; both adults and children, particularly those from poor and rural areas and migrants, are forced into labor in domestic service, mining, food services, construction, criminal activities, agriculture, and the fishing sector; high unemployment, low wages, and pandemic-related restrictions increased the vulnerability of exploitation, particularly of youth, Black women, and foreign migrants; traffickers recruit victims who are unemployed and struggle with substance addiction, and commonly use substance abuse to control victims, including children; parents with substance abuse addiction sometimes exploit their children in sex trafficking to pay for drugs; migrants travel from East and Southern Africa to South Africa looking for work or fleeing conflict, particularly from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Mozambique, and are vulnerable to exploitation; official complicity in trafficking crimes, especially by police, facilitated trafficking; syndicates, often dominated by Nigerians, force women from Nigeria and countries bordering South Africa into commercial sex; South African trafficking rings exploit girls as young as 10 years old in sex trafficking; syndicates also recruit South African women to go to Europe and Asia, where some are forced into commercial sex, domestic service, or drug smuggling; Chinese business owners exploit Chinese, South African, and Malawian adults and children in factories, sweatshops, and other businesses; the Cuban government may have forced Cuban medical workers to work in South Africa (2022)

• South Sudan

  tier rating:

  Tier 3 — South Sudan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore it remains on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including convening an inter-ministerial task force, finalizing a National Action plan, and conducting awareness activities; however, there was a government policy or pattern whereby security and law enforcement officers continued to forcibly recruit child soldiers and did not hold any members criminally accountable for these unlawful acts; for the tenth consecutive year, there were no reported investigations into or prosecutions for forced labor or sex trafficking; officials did not report identifying or assisting any victims and continued to penalize victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2022)

  
  
  trafficking profile: traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in South Sudan and South Sudanese abroad; women and girls, particularly from rural areas or internally displaced, are vulnerable to domestic servitude, and some are exploited by males in the households in sexual abuse or trafficking; South Sudanese girls are exploited in sex trafficking in restaurants, hotels, and brothels—sometimes involving corrupt law enforcement officials; some children are coerced to work in begging, herding, construction, and a wide range of physically demanding labor sectors; men and women recruited from neighboring countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Republic of the Congo, and Uganda, as well as South Sudanese women and children are recruited with fraudulent employment offers in hotels, restaurants, and construction and forced to work for little or no pay or coerced into commercial sex; government forces use children to fight or serve in support roles; several milliion internally displaced persons and South Sudanese refugees living in neighboring countries are at risk of trafficking, and unaccompanied children in the camps are vulnerable to abduction by sex and labor traffickers (2022)

• Syria

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Syria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Syria remained on Tier 3; during the reporting period, there was a government policy or pattern of human trafficking and employing or recruiting child soldiers; Syrians were exploited in forced labor under compulsory military service for indefinite periods under threat of torture, familial reprisal, or death; the government did not hold any traffickers criminally accountable nor identify or protect any victims; government and pro-Syrian militias continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers; the government did not prevent armed opposition forces and designated terrorist organizations from recruiting children; authorities continued to arrest, detain, and severely abuse trafficking victims, including child soldiers, and punished them for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Syria, as well as Syrians abroad; more than half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million have been internally displaced or are refugees in other countries and extremely vulnerable to traffickers; children are vulnerable to forced marriages, sexual slavery, and forced labor; armed groups, community members, and criminal gangs exploit women, girls, and boys in Syria in sex trafficking; Syrian government forces, pro-regime militias, and opposition forces use Syrian children in combat and support roles and as human shields; foreign domestic workers from Southeast Asian countries are subject to forced labor; terrorist groups reportedly force, coerce, or fraudulently recruit foreigners, including migrants from Central Asia and Western and other women, who are vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking; Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, particularly Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey, are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor (2022)

• Tonga

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Tonga does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; these efforts included providing funding to an NGO to assist trafficking victims; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not identify any victims, develop procedures to do so, or investigate any cases of trafficking; therefore, Tonga remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Tonga, as well as Tongans abroad; East Asian women, especially from China, are recruited for legitimate work but charged excessive recruitment fees and are vulnerable to sex trafficking; some Tongan women and children are vulnerable to forced labor in domestic work, and children are vulnerable to sex trafficking; Fijians working in Tonga’s domestic service industry may experience mistreatment indicative of trafficking; Chinese nationals working in construction on government infrastructure projects in Tonga are vulnerable to trafficking; Tongan adults working overseas, including in Australia and New Zealand, are vulnerable to labor trafficking (2022)

• Trinidad and Tobago

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Trinidad and Tobago does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; officials increased investigations and prosecutions, identified more victims, and expanded training; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous year to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; the government has never convicted a trafficker under its 2011 anti-trafficking law; corruption and official complicity in trafficking remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement, and the government did not take action against senior officials alleged in 2020 to be involved in trafficking; victim identification and services remained weak, and the government did not formally adopt the National Action Plan for 2021-2023; therefore, Trinidad and Tobago remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Trinidad and Tobago, and also exploit victims from Trinidad and Tobago abroad; the country serves as a transit point for Venezuelan refugees and migrants en route to Europe, North Africa, and elsewhere in the Caribbean, and large numbers of Venezuelans in particular continued to arrive in large numbers on a daily basis; unaccompanied or separated Venezuelan children are at increased risk for sex trafficking; migrants from the Caribbean region and from Asia are at risk for forced labor in domestic service and the retail sector; women and girls primarily from Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Guyana are at risk of sex trafficking; traffickers also exploit victims from Puerto Rico, the Philippines, China, India, Nepal, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and they increasingly target vulnerable foreign women and girls; LGBTQI+ persons are at risk for sex trafficking; Cuban medical professionals may have been forced to work in Trinidad and Tobago by the Cuban government; Corruption by police, immigration and customs, and coast guard officials has been associated with facilitating labor and sex trafficking; transnational organized crime may increasingly be involved in trafficking; Trinidad and Tobago is likely a sex tourism destination (2022)

• Turkmenistan

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Turkmenistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Turkmenistan remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, including participating in anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; however, there was a government policy or pattern of forced labor, including mobilization of adults and children for forced labor in annual harvest, public works, and other sectors; officials denied access to independent monitors seeking to observe the cotton harvest; the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions, nor hold any officials accountable for complicity in forced labor crimes; authorities did not identify victims nor fund victim assistance programs (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic victims in Turkmenistan, and Turkmen men and women are exploited abroad; state policies continue to perpetuate government-compelled forced labor in the cotton sector, as well as in public works and community cleaning and beautification projects; officials reportedly force the homeless into agricultural work or domestic servitude in the homes of law enforcement families; children are reportedly forced to work in cotton and potato fields during summer educational camps; residents of rural areas are at highest risk for trafficking both in country and abroad; LGBTQI+ communities are vulnerable to police abuse, extortion, and coercion, as well as sex trafficking or forced labor; Turkmen men and women are subjected to forced labor after migrating abroad; some migrant men are forced into criminal drug trafficking, and some migrant women are exploited by sex traffickers; most Turkmen migrant victims are in Turkey, Russia, and India, as well as other countries in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Europe (2022)

• Venezuela

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Venezuela does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making any efforts to do so, therefore Venezuela remained on Tier 3; the Maduro regime (which is not recognized by the United States) took some steps to address trafficking, arresting some complicit individuals and issuing a decree to develop a national action plan; however, the regime did not report assisting victims or prosecuting or convicting traffickers; the regime continued to provide support and a permissive environment to non-state armed groups that recruited and used child soldiers and engaged in sex trafficking and forced labor with impunity; representatives did not make sufficient efforts to curb forced recruitment of children by non-state armed groups (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Venezuela, as well as Venezuelans abroad; more than six million Venezuelans, facing deteriorating economic conditions at home, have fled to neighboring countries are at risk of human trafficking; traffickers exploit Venezuelans in Aruba, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Guyana, Haiti, Iceland, Macau, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago; Venezuelan women and girls are at risk of sex trafficking in Colombia, Ecuador, and Trinidad and Tobago; women, including transgender women, have been lured to Spain and Germany with fraudulent employment offers and exploited in commercial sex; men are exploited in forced labor in other countries, including Aruba and Curacao; Venezuelan women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking and child sex tourism; children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor, including in farming, domestic service, construction, mining, and criminal groups; non-state armed groups—including illegal Colombian groups near border regions—force some Venezuelans into criminal acts, forced labor, sex trafficking, and use as child soldiers, which is reportedly tolerated by the Maduro regime; sex and labor trafficking victims from South America, Caribbean, Asian, and African countries have been reported in Venezuela; the Cuban government may be exploiting Cuban workers in medical missions in Venezuela (2022)

• Vietnam

  tier rating: Tier 3 — Vietnam does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore Vietnam was downgraded to Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, addressing inconsistencies in preexisting laws, increasing international cooperation, achieving the first modest increase in identifying victims in five years, and assisting more victims; however, fewer traffickers were convicted or prosecuted; officials did not hold accountable two Vietnamese diplomats who were allegedly complicit in trafficking abroad nor make sufficient effort to protect the victims; authorities reportedly harassed and pressured survivors and their families to silence allegations of official complicity (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Vietnam, as well as Vietnamese abroad; Vietnamese men and women migrate abroad, using illicit brokerage networks operated by Vietnamese nationals based abroad or state-owned or state-regulated recruitment enterprises, are vulnerable to debt bondage or other forms of exploitation; victims are subjected to forced labor in construction, agriculture, mining, maritime industries, logging, and manufacturing primarily in Malaysia, South Korea, Laos, Japan, and—to a lesser extent—in parts of the Middle East,  the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe; Vietnamese labor trafficking victims are reportedly in Taiwan, continental Europe, the Middle East, and in Pacific maritime industries; many Vietnamese are subjected to forced labor under the auspices of Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program and within agricultural education programs in Israel; other Vietnamese are exploited at Chinese-owned factories in the Balkan region; traffickers lure Vietnamese women and children with fraudulent job opportunities and send them to brothels on the borders of China, Cambodia, and Laos or elsewhere in Asia, West Africa, and Europe; sometimes family members or small-scale networks exploit Vietnamese men, women, and children—Including street children and children with disabilities—in forced labor; child sex tourists from Asia, the United Kingdom, other countries in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States exploit children in Vietnam (2022)

• World

  tier rating:
  
  Tier 2 Watch List: (34 countries) Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Zambia, Zimbabwe (2022)
  
  Tier 3:  (22 countries) Afghanistan, Belarus, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Curacao, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Russia, Sint Maarten, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Vietnam (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: approximately 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked annually across national borders, not including millions trafficked within their own countries; at least 80% of the victims are female and up to 50% are minors; 75% of all victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; almost two-thirds of the global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East Asia and the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia (170,000 to 210,000 people)

• Zambia

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Zambia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included increasing investigations, prosecutions, and convictions in trafficking crimes, launching a national action plan for trafficking in persons and implementing a national referral mechanism, and increasing screening and identification of victims among migrants; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to expand anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not amend laws to criminalize all forms of child sex trafficking, nor approve guidelines for funding or shelter operations; because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Zambia was granted a waiver per the TVPA from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 and, therefore, remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Zambia as well as Zambians abroad; most trafficking occurs within Zambia’s borders, with traffickers exploiting women and children from rural areas in domestic servitude or forced labor in agriculture, textile production, mining, construction, small businesses, and forced begging; Jerabo—small illegal mining gangs—may force Zambian children into illegal mining operations, such as loading stolen copper or crushing rocks; orphans and children from rural areas are vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor; truck drivers exploit Zambian boys and girls in sex trafficking in towns along the Zimbabwean and Tanzanian borders, and miners exploit them in Solwezi; Zambian boys are exploited for sex trafficking in Zimbabwe, women and girls face sex trafficking in South Africa, and some women are recruited for domestic servitude in Lebanon and Oman; women and children from neighboring counties are exploited in force labor and sex trafficking in Zambia; some Chinese women and girls brought to Zambia by Chinese traffickers are sexually exploited in brothels and massage businesses; traffickers exploit victims from Tanzania and Malawi in the Zambian timber industry (2022)

• Zimbabwe

  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Zimbabwe does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government investigated and prosecuted human trafficking cases and conducted training for law enforcement, immigration, and other key officials; however, Zimbabwe did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts to increase anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not amend laws to criminalize all forms of trafficking, did not identify or provide care for any trafficking victims, nor convict any traffickers; therefore Zimbabwe remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year (2022)
  
  trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Zimbabwe, as well as Zimbabweans abroad; internal trafficking is prevalent and underreported, with adults and children exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in cattle herding, domestic service, and the mining sectors; most child labor occurs in the agricultural sector; Zimbabwean women and girls from towns bordering South Africa, Mozambique, and Zambia are subjected to forced labor, including domestic servitude, and sex trafficking catering to long-distance truck drivers; Zimbabwean men and children are exploited in illegal diamond and gold mining, and some children are exploited by sex traffickers in illegal mining areas; Zimbabwean women and men are lured into forced labor in neighboring countries, particularly South Africa and the Middle East; women are sex trafficked in South Africa by international criminal syndicates, while traffickers force others into domestic servitude, forced labor, and sex trafficking in Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, China, and Uganda, often under the guise of legitimate employment; Zimbabwe is a transit country for Somalis, Ethiopians, Malawians, and Zambians en route to South Africa, and is also a destination country for forced labor and sex trafficking (2022)