US expands human trafficking watch list

June 17, 2009|Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration yesterday expanded the US watch list of countries suspected of not doing enough to combat human trafficking, putting more than four dozen nations on notice that they might face sanctions unless their records improve.

The State Department’s annual “Trafficking in Persons Report,’’ the first released since President Obama took office, placed 52 countries and territories - mainly in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East - on the list. That number is a 30 percent jump from the 40 countries on the list in 2008.

Several previously cited nations were removed from the list, but new countries cited for human trafficking problems include Angola, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iraq, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Senegal, and the United Arab Emirates.

The report also placed the Netherlands’ Antilles, a self-governing Dutch territory in the Caribbean, on the list.

“With this report, we hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed,’’ Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said as she released the 320-page document.

Inclusion on the list means those countries’ governments are not fully complying with minimum standards set by US law for cooperating in efforts to reduce the rise of human trafficking.

If a country appears on the list for two consecutive years, it can be subject to US sanctions.

Seventeen nations, up from 14 in 2008, are now subject to the trafficking sanctions, which can include a ban on non-humanitarian and trade-related aid and US opposition to loans and credits from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.