DUSHANBE, 20.07.2022 (NIAT Khovar) — On July 19, the US Department of State released its annual 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report (PDF), which analyzes the situation in 188 countries.

In the new report, Tajikistan is in the Tier 2, according to the results of the assessment of experts from the US State Department, indicating significant effort in the fight against human trafficking and forced labor.

The report states that the government is making significant effort to comply with the minimum standards of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The government of Tajikistan demonstrates overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity.

“These efforts include increasing investigations of trafficking cases and funding for Tajikistan’s trafficking shelter. The government also adopted a new National Action Plan (NAP) 2022-2024, which was drafted and finalized with the participation of civil society and international organizations,” the report says.

According to the US, these efforts included the prosecution, conviction, and sentencing of more traffickers, as well as the identification of new victims of trafficking.

The Department of State characterizes the anti-trafficking situation in countries in the second group in such a way that governments, although not fully meeting the minimum TVPA standards, are putting significant effort to bring their legislation and the level of combating human trafficking in line with these standards.

In addition to Tajikistan, the Tier 2 (countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant effort to bring themselves into compliance with those standards) includes 102 countries, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Brazil, Greece, Denmark, Egypt, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, among others.

The Tier 1 (countries whose governments fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking) includes 30 countries, including the United States itself, as well as Austria, Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, and others.

But Afghanistan, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Iran, Malaysia, Russia, Turkmenistan — a total of 24 countries are in the Tier 3 (countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so).