WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has blacklisted 23 countries for failing to even try to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking, giving President Barack Obama authority to bar them from U.S. nonhumanitarian aid and key trade initiatives.
The countries’ failures are summarized in the State Department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report. The report ranks 188 countries on their efforts to fight human trafficking, dividing them into four categories used to hold countries accountable for their policies and actions. Rankings range from the most favorable Tier 1 and fall to Tier 2, the Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3, when judged by standards established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
Blacklisted by the State Department are Algeria, Belarus, Belize, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Libya, the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Yemen, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Human rights activists and politicians have criticized the State Department for removing from the blacklist Cuba and Malaysia, two countries with increasing economic ties with the U.S.
(BP)
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