Section 4 contains the justifications for such waivers. While hopeful that were turning the corner on the pandemic, we know that different countries are at different stages in their pandemic response and recovery. Brazil Page 49: Matilde Simas All three elements are essential to form a human trafficking violation. The Embassy will press the Nigerian government to improve the education of its armed forces on the laws and policy against the unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers and to pay particular attention to remote outposts where such incidents are more likely to occur. As an Assistant Undersecretary within the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor, and Social Affairs, he has initiated or executed many of the policies and programs that have had significant impacts for trafficking victims. #RealNumbersPH data (Courtesy of PDEA). Melissa Verlaque U.S. and global data show human traffickers disproportionately target those in positions of socioeconomic or political vulnerability due to discriminatory policies, who are often people of color or part of a racial minority. Innovative AML compliance solutions that use big data, advanced analytics, network analysis, and, increasingly, artificial intelligence to monitor transactions and identify and report suspicious transactions can assist governments and the private sector in identifying and combating human trafficking networks. In 2019, Congress amended the TVPA to acknowledge that governments can also act as traffickers, referring specifically to a government policy or pattern of human trafficking, human trafficking in government-funded programs, forced labor in government-affiliated medical services or other sectors, sexual slavery in government camps, or the employment or recruitment of child soldiers. Removing the ability to profit from the crime disincentivizes traffickers and serves as a crucial deterrent to prevent the crime altogether. Digital identity solutions and access to digital financial services can help victims securely obtain financial assistance from governments or NGOs, access victim support services, repair their credit, and receive restitution payments when appropriate and available. Many of these migrant workers must abide by the kafala system, in effect mostly in the Gulf states (Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), Jordan, and Lebanon. Page 36: Getty-Ina Fassbender/Contributor In other cases, the default method of conducting interviews virtually may not have been optimal for victims, who have reported feeling more comfortable developing a relationship with investigators before sharing their experience. Mai Shiozaki-Lynch Liam and Jakob were experiencing homelessness in northern Europe when a person they thought was a prospective employer offered them a job in construction, along with room and board, in a neighboring country. The U.S. governments current security assistance goals with Nigeria are to: 1) increase the professionalism of the Nigerian armed forces, including respect for human rights and mitigating civilian harm; 2) reduce the threats violent extremist organizations pose to Nigeria and the Lake Chad region; and 3) increase security in the Gulf of Guinea. 7. As the DRCs principal partner in ending its devastating almost 2-year Ebola outbreak in the East and a major contributor to humanitarian assistance overall, the United States can leverage existing relationships to multiply and synergize the impact of PKO assistance. The Philippine Department of Justice noted an increase of nearly 300 percent in referrals for potential online sex trafficking and OSEC cases from March to May 2020, the period during which the Philippines was under lockdown or quarantine measures. Accordingly, it is in the United States national interest to continue to pursue these lines of effort. Between April 2020 and March 2021, Comoros and Nepal became States Parties to the Protocol. The Embassy will continue to collaborate with UNICEF and other NGOs and encourage the government to view them as a resource in the joint effort to eliminate the unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers. Josiane Lina Bemaka-Soui has developed the Central African Republics national anti-trafficking response from the ground up. Their employer forced the men to work long hours, continually reduced their wages, and physically abused them. Disrespecting survivor leaders and their experiences hurts and further exploits survivors, who are key stakeholders in the anti-trafficking movement, and it ultimately perpetuates a harmful and deficient understanding of what it means to be survivor-informed. These delays decreased victims access to justice and legal assistance, which hampered victims emotional well-being, recovery, and repatriation, while allowing traffickers to continue their criminal activities and intimidate victims from pressing charges. Benilda was 12 when her neighbor, Joriz, offered to provide her with an education and ajob to pay her siblings school fees if she moved with him to Manila. Sex trafficking encompasses the range of activities involved when a trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person to engage in a commercial sex act or causes a child to engage in a commercial sex act. While acknowledging these leaders, we recognize that many of us have also been touched by trauma, whether through loss of a loved one, our own illness, or dealing with large-scale lockdowns and extreme uncertainty. Critically, this focused support would increase Yemeni capacity to counter malign Iranian activity, including the smuggling of lethal weapons that are contributing to the continuation of the conflict. Forced labor, also referred to as labor trafficking, encompasses the range of activities involved when a person uses force, fraud, or coercion to obtain the labor or services of another person. The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis with unprecedented repercussions for human rights and economic development globally, including in human trafficking. Prevention efforts decreased as some governments suspended awareness campaigns, which often focused on areas less frequented during the pandemic, including airports, border crossings, bus and train stations, schools, and venues for large gatherings. See PDF version.]. Then, we must do a better job supporting survivors when they escape. The waiver for IMET assistance will support the professionalization of the Somali military. The Government of South Sudan is taking effective and continuing steps to address the problem of child soldiers. Allocating resources to debunk myths and misinformation about human trafficking takes time away from critical services including responding to survivors seeking help. The steps include continuing to support during the reporting period the UN Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) Action Plan to end use and recruitment of child soldiers. The Department of State assesses that immense social and economic insecurity caused by the current conflict is the primary driver for the ongoing unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers in Libya. We are the unwanted, the forgotten, the lost kids of the streets that no one misses or looks for. In addition, since 2019 the Department of Homeland Securitys Customs and Border Protection has issued 10 Withhold Release Orders against goods and companies connected to forced labor in Xinjiang to block their entry into the United States. Reports from several countries demonstrated drastic increases in online commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, including online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC), and demand for and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), including content that involved human trafficking victims. The purpose of the Network is to engage experts, particularly those with lived experience of human trafficking, to provide expertise and input on Department of State anti-trafficking policies, strategies, and products. Tegan Hare 189) and draw on its Recommendation (R201), which offers concrete actions to help prevent domestic servitude. The waiver for PKO assistance, used in assisting efforts to form broad-based, multi-clan Somali security forces, will also support this goal. In partnership with international organizations, the government also continued to undertake measures to prevent and end the use of child soldiers, including separating child soldiers from non-state armed groups, and conducting age verification screening of recruits. The conversation started, I have never been so humiliated; how was I supposed to maintain my composure? After a few moments of inquiring, I was informed of what was so humiliating to her, me. Gabon The DDR Committee works to equip former child soldiers with resources for income-generating activities and reintegrate them into their communities. When we couldnt pay, we slept on subways, in empty warehouses, in cars, or on couches. Mohammed al-Obaidly is one of the most important Qatari figures advocating for labor and human trafficking reforms in Qatar. In addition to her anti-trafficking accomplishments in her current position, she has a track record of championing the rights of trafficking victims and providing them with services. Further, financial institutions can engage with survivors of human trafficking to inform their efforts, including on the development of training programs to enhance the ability of frontline staff and other industry professionals to detect transactions connected to human trafficking, how and when to intervene, and how to determine when a third party is benefitting from the exploitation of another. The Prime Minister has taking aim at Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for her silence on remarks made by a former member of her People's Partnership administration about allegations that UNC members are involved in of human trafficking. Page 38: Panos/ Williams Daniels While the government disbanded the committee in 2019 due to a lack of funding, Sagbo Sasse continued to give her time to be a key advisor to government officials, closely coordinating with relevant ministries on victim identification and referral efforts. Central African Republic The government established a formal anti-trafficking inter-ministerial committee that monitored shelters, coordinated with NGOs and international organizations to identify and protect victims and drafted and launched the governments first national anti-trafficking action plan. Confronted, however, with eyewitness testimony and thoroughly researched reporting from multiple sources, the PRC eventually admitted the existence of the camps. In that project, the embassy partners with the Office of the Prime Minister Gender and Child Affairs Ministry, and the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services with the objective of strengthening and expanding support services to victims of trafficking. In the absence of a political settlement, the war in Libya will continue to destabilize the broader region, creating space for violent extremists to regroup. The U.S. Department of State strives to advance around the world the security, prosperity, and values that U.S. citizens share. For example, Winrock Internationals How to Build Cross-Sectoral Collaboration to Protect Workers in the Age of COVID-19, seeks to initiate cross-sector collaboration and provide guidance for the private sector and anti-trafficking organizations to address increased vulnerability to human trafficking, particularly forced labor, for job seekers, migrant workers, and individuals from vulnerable communities. Proactive partnerships between governments, financial institutions, law enforcement, civil society, and survivor experts are critical to identifying illicit financial activity associated with human trafficking. As a result, APRAMP was able to remain active in reporting on sex trafficking trends, thus providing strategic information to other relevant stakeholders. While many countries shifted to conducting court proceedings virtually, limited to no internet connectivity and cost-related barriers to internet access for rural or underserved communities in some countries, such as The Gambia, made it challenging for victims to participate in virtual courts. Syria enactment of laws prohibiting severe forms of trafficking in persons, as defined by the TVPA, and provision of criminal punishments for trafficking crimes; criminal penalties prescribed for human trafficking crimes with a maximum of at least four years deprivation of liberty, or a more severe penalty; implementation of human trafficking laws through vigorous prosecution of the prevalent forms of trafficking in the country and sentencing of traffickers; proactive victim identification measures with systematic procedures to guide law enforcement and other government-supported front-line responders in the process of victim identification; government funding and partnerships with NGOs to provide victims with access to primary health care, counseling, and shelter, allowing them to recount their trafficking experiences to trained counselors and law enforcement in an environment of minimal pressure; victim protection efforts that include access to services and shelter without detention and with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which victims would face retribution or hardship; the extent to which a government ensures victims are provided with legal and other assistance and that, consistent with domestic law, proceedings are not prejudicial to victims rights, dignity, or psychological well-being; the extent to which a government ensures the safe, humane, and to the extent possible, voluntary repatriation and reintegration of victims; governmental measures to prevent human trafficking, including efforts to curb practices identified as contributing factors to human trafficking, such as employers confiscation of foreign workers passports and allowing labor recruiters to charge fees to prospective migrants; and. This waiver will allow the United States to provide security assistance that will support improving governance and the rule of law, promoting peace and security, combating corruption, advancing human rights, and creating conditions for greater U.S. investment and economic growth. Online recruitment and grooming increased as children spent more time online for virtual learning due to school closures, often with little parental supervision. The owner locked the 12-year-old in a dirty room with several other children and forced them to make bangles for 15 hours a day, using lacquer melted over dangerous burning coal and making only US $0.70 a week. Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud or coercion. In these cases, the childs inherent loyalty to and reliance on the family structure make familial trafficking difficult to identify and challenging to prosecute. The victim stories and photographs included in this report are meant to be illustrative [see PDF version for photos]. Trained customer-facing staff can recognize, document, and report behavioral indicators of human trafficking. Soumya Silver Privacy intrusions are also a concern and occur when information or images about people mistakenly believed to be trafficking victims, or those of actual victims, are shared in connection to conspiracy misinformation or disinformation. Relevant TT ministries, through the Ministry of National Security, provide input and data about its efforts to counter trafficking by the end of the reporting period on March 31. Monica Maurer This is seen, for example, in the overrepresentation of human trafficking victims among Black populations in some parts of South America, the lack of protections afforded to migrant workers in the Gulf that creates a dependence on others that traffickers can exploit, and the intentional targeting of Roma communities through law enforcement anti-trafficking operations in Eastern Europe. One of the destinations of these women and girls is Turkey. In the Gulf States, an IST Research survey of 6,000 migrant workers concluded employers were 36 percent more likely to confine migrant domestic workers to their workplace and were 240 percent more likely to force those workers to work on rest days than any other migrant workers. Outlined below is a description of what it means to be both trauma- and survivor-informed, as well as recommendations on integrating both approaches as one, comprehensive effort. b. participation in international sex tourism by nationals of the country. Estonia launched a nationwide e-learning initiative in schools, led by law enforcement organizations and anti-trafficking experts, to combat and raise awareness of the rise of online sex trafficking and child exploitation during the pandemic. 4. A complete list that includes all of the countries covered by the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report is available at: https://www.state.gov/international-conventions-relevant-to-combating-trafficking-in-persons/. President Tshisekedi has stated that he believes that improved security will enable health workers to counter COVID and other global health threats stem illicit mineral smuggling, other illicit trafficking of natural resources and transnational criminal organizations, catalyze regional economic integration, and provide a much-needed boost to DRCs development. Fiji South Africa Acknowledging the emotional weight of bringing trafficking-related casework into ones home, survivor-led and survivor-informed organizations were mindful of staff needs when managing cases remotely, offering resources and opportunities to support the staffs emotional well-being. Rumors and theories that a global cabal of politicians and celebrities are exploiting children, that companies selling furniture or other high-priced items online are also selling missing children, or that phishing texts are tricking people into human trafficking schemes are all unfounded and perpetuate false narratives about the realities of human trafficking. The US Department of State urges the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to investigate fully and transparently any official suspected of complicity in human trafficking, and to seek conviction and sufficiently stringent punishment of any official found to be complicit, a spokesman from the US Embassy in Port of Spain said. From forced labor in local or national public work projects, military operations, and economically important sectors, or as part of government-funded projects or missions abroad, officials use their power to exploit their nationals. Still, the specific and long-term needs of survivors of familial trafficking can be met in a variety of ways. This, coupled with a shortage of protective equipment to supply police, resulted in many law enforcement officers and other specialized anti-trafficking officials becoming infected with COVID-19, some of whom died. Governments, investors, researchers, and civil-society actors should explore how microfinance and other forms of social finance can support survivors. Thankfully, a bar owner friend would stitch us up without a hospital visit when we were hurt, so we didnt have another bill. Many survivors had to close shops or leave jobs due to lockdowns and some were pressured by former traffickers when other employment options dried up. We invite other governments and global partners to join in this effort and hold each other accountable. The author has a range of expertise related to human trafficking, familial trafficking, marginalized communities, trauma and resiliency, education, and survivor leadership. It was the winter after my 19th year; my mother was informed that I was seeing a boy. Congo, Democratic Republic of the Haiti Likewise, many companies have taken a stand against the use of forced labor in China by cutting ties with suppliers in Xinjiang or those connected to the PRCs campaign of repressionat times earning them heavy consumer and state-run media backlash within the Chinese domestic market. The project retrofits select state-run or state-supported residential homes that provide housing to victims of trafficking by installing infrastructural upgrades, equipment and resources to create spaces for medical services, counselling and academic and vocational training for trafficking victims. The embassy, along with the Ministry of National Security, the police Counter Trafficking Unit and other law-enforcement agencies, will work to improve identification, screening, arrests and prosecution of trafficking cases. Human trafficking is a widespread and highly profitable crime that generates an estimated $150 billion worldwide per year with a significant portion of those profits passing through legitimate financial services businesses. Laila Mickelwait. Frequently, service providers use the same approaches and resources for familial trafficking that are used for all types of human trafficking, which can be inappropriate and even harmful. In that project, the embassy will provide consultation services for improving TT law enforcements response to human trafficking. Korea, North Rendi McCoy This carefully calibrated support would be provided to the Yemen Border Guard, Yemen Coast Guard, and Yemen Special Operations Forces units not directly engaged in the current conflict, but rather involved in efforts against malign third party influences contributing to the on-going conflict and crisis. It has exacerbated our isolation, increased our stress, and undermined our efforts to recover from trauma. As such, vicarious trauma and the mental health needs of all consultants and staff members should also be prioritized, as opposed to singling out survivor leaders as the only individuals affected by trafficking or other sources of trauma. Peacekeeping Operations Child-friendly spaces are an essential component to holistic victim-centered and trauma-informed care for child survivors of human trafficking. Greece Ryan Mulvenna Speaking at the UNC's Sunday media conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader . Ariana Holly The inequities created by systemic racism have survived in part because of the intentional destruction of certain racial groups social support networks. Technology also can play a critical role in combating these crimes, increase law enforcements ability to identify victims and perpetrators, and help deliver financial assistance and other victim support services to victims as they work to rebuild their lives. The PRC governments Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (Bingtuan), an economic and paramilitary organization with administrative control over several areas in the region comprising nearly three million personnel, forces members of prison populations and local communities alike to work in hazardous mining, construction, manufacturing, food processing, andfor many thousands of Uyghur adults and childrencotton harvesting. Third, a multidisciplinary child-friendly space provides survivors with an array of comprehensive services and referral networks in one place. 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