US State Department adds Russia and Belarus to list of state sponsors of human trafficking
Russia and Belarus are included in the list of 13 countries whose authorities finance human trafficking.
According to Censor.NET, citing the Voice of America, this is stated in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report 2024, presented by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
As noted, during the presentation of the report, Blinken paid special attention to the use of digital tools in human trafficking.
"Digital tools have increased the reach, scale, and speed of human trafficking. (Traffickers) use online platforms to sell illegal sexual content. They use encrypted messages and digital currencies to avoid detection," Blinken said.
The Secretary of State stressed that human trafficking is a problem that no country can solve alone.
It is noted that the International Labour Organization estimates that in 2021, 27.6 million people worldwide were engaged in forced labour, which is 2.7 million more than in 2016. Out of these 27.6 million, the ILO estimates that 6.3 million people were in conditions of forced commercial sexual exploitation and 3.9 million were engaged in state-imposed forced labour.
As Ambassador-at-Large Cindy Dyer noted, "Unfortunately, some governments are part of the problem."
The State Department has identified 13 countries whose governments encourage or finance human trafficking. This includes human trafficking within government programmes, forced labour in government healthcare facilities, sexual slavery in government camps, or the use or recruitment of child soldiers, the report says.
Thus, in 2024, Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Turkmenistan were added to the list of violating countries.
According to Dyer, as the migration crisis intensifies around the world, human trafficking is likely to increase as well.
"We urge governments to prevent trafficking and prioritise the screening of migrants, who often borrow from smugglers and then become vulnerable to traffickers when they cannot pay back the money," Dyer said.
