KUWAIT CITY, June 28, (Agencies): Kuwait has been blacklisted and placed on Tier 3 for the fifth consecutive year for making minimal efforts to prevent trafficking in persons, according to the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report released by the US State Department recently.

The department identified 23 nations that failed to meet minimum standards to address the problem —  up from 13 last year. The report said most of the victims are women and children. It analyzed conditions in 184 nations, including the United States, and ranked them in terms of their effectiveness in fighting what many have termed modern-day slavery. The State Department estimates that as many as 27 million men, women and children are living in such bondage around the world.

Other countries on the blacklist are Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and Sudan, along with frequent US foes Eritrea, Libya and Zimbabwe. Papua New Guinea was cited as a repeat offender and only one country, the Dominican Republic, was removed from the list.

The 11 new countries on the blacklist are Algeria, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Madagascar, Micronesia, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.

On the ranking of other GCC nations, the department also put Saudi Arabia on Tier 3, while Qatar on Tier 2 “watch list”, and Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tier 2.

Tier 1 includes countries whose governments fully comply with the minimum standards stipulated in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) for the elimination of trafficking.

Tier 2 includes countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 Watch List includes counties whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and:
- the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;
-  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, prosecution, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or  the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standard was based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over the next year.

Tier 3 includes countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

Governments of countries on Tier 3 may be subject to certain sanctions, whereby the US government may withhold or withdraw nonhumanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance. These countries may not receive funding for government employees’ participation in educational and cultural exchange programs. Governments subject to sanctions would also face US opposition to assistance (except for humanitarian, trade-related and certain development-related assistance) from international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

“All countries can and must do more,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in presenting the report. “More human beings are being exploited today than ever before.”
“We’re at critical moment in this fight,” she said. “The problem of modern trafficking may be entrenched, and it may seem like there is no end in sight. But if we act on the laws that have been passed and the commitments that have been made, it is solvable. If we increase the pressure on traffickers and the networks they thrive in, we can set ourselves on a course to one day eradicate modern slavery.”
Republican Rep. Chris Smith, an author of the law that established the report and offered protection to trafficking victims, said he was “deeply disappointed” that China was given a political waiver despite its contining and expanding problem of human trafficking, particularly sex-trafficking of women and girls.
“This political waiver for China is totally unacceptable,” Smith said. “The Obama administration has again abandoned trafficking victims in China, who are predominantly women. It’s shameful.”

Also:
MANILA, Philippines: The Philippines has pledged to intensify its battle against human trafficking and welcomed a US State Department report crediting its recent efforts to combat the problem.
The country has been upgraded to Tier 2 in the annual US Trafficking in Persons report, indicating it does not fully comply with minimum standards to eliminate trafficking but is making progress.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Tuesday the Philippines is committed to ensuring that Filipino workers overseas are given full protection and to strengthening its efforts against human traffickers.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda also welcomed Monday’s report, which noted a rise in convictions of offenders to 25 from nine the previous year.