Notice2023-24781
Request for Information for the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
November 9, 2023
Issuing agencies
State Department
Abstract
The Department of State ("the Department") requests written information to assist in reporting on the degree to which the United States and foreign governments meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons ("minimum standards") that are prescribed by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended ("TVPA"). This information will assist in the preparation of the Trafficking in Persons Report ("TIP Report") that the Department submits annually to the U.S. Congress on governments' concrete actions to meet the minimum standards. Foreign governments that do not meet the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so may be subject to restrictions on nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance from the United States, as defined by the TVPA. Submissions must be made in writing to the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State by February 1, 2024. Please refer to the ADDRESSES, Scope of Interest, and Information Sought sections of this Notice for additional instructions on submission requirements.
Full Text
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 216 (Thursday, November 9, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77398-77403]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-24781]
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DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[Public Notice: 12260]
Request for Information for the 2024 Trafficking in Persons
Report
ACTION: Request for Information for the 2024 Trafficking in Persons
Report.
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SUMMARY: The Department of State (``the Department'') requests written
information to assist in reporting on the degree to which the United
States and foreign governments meet the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking in persons (``minimum standards'') that are
prescribed by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as
amended (``TVPA''). This information will assist in the preparation of
the Trafficking in Persons Report (``TIP Report'') that the Department
submits annually to the U.S. Congress on governments' concrete actions
to meet the minimum standards. Foreign governments that do not meet the
minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so may
be subject to restrictions on nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign
assistance from the United States, as defined by the TVPA. Submissions
must be made in writing to the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
in Persons at the Department of State by February 1, 2024. Please refer
to the ADDRESSES, Scope of Interest, and Information Sought sections of
this Notice for additional instructions on submission requirements.
DATES: Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. EST on February 1, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Written submissions and supporting documentation may be
submitted by the following method:
Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#37435e4745524758454377444356435219505841"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5c28352c2e392c332e281c2f283d2839723b332a">[email protected]</span></a> for submissions related to foreign
governments and <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#06726f76746376697472535546757267726328616970"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="44302d343621342b363011170437302530216a232b32">[email protected]</span></a> for submissions related to the
United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Background
Scope of Interest: The Department requests information relevant to
assessing the United States' and foreign governments' concrete actions
to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in
persons during the reporting period (April 1, 2023-March 31, 2024). The
minimum standards are listed below. Submissions must include
information relevant to efforts to meet the minimum standards and
should include, but need not be limited to, answering the questions in
the Information Sought section below. Submissions need not include
answers to all the questions; only those questions for which the
submitter has direct professional experience should be answered, and
that experience should be noted. For any critique or deficiency
described, please provide a recommendation to remedy it. Note the
country or countries that are the focus of the submission.
Submissions may include written narratives that answer the
questions presented in this Notice, research, studies, statistics,
fieldwork, training materials, evaluations, assessments, and other
relevant evidence of local, state/provincial, and federal/central
government efforts. To the extent possible, precise dates and numbers
of officials or citizens affected should be included. Questions below
seek to gather information and updates from the details provided and
assessment on government efforts made in the 2023 TIP Report.
Furthermore, we request information on the government's treatment
of ``underserved communities,'' including how the government may have
systemically denied opportunities to a community to participate in
aspects of economic, social, and civic life that has led to heighted
risk to human trafficking or how the government's anti-trafficking
response may have treated certain groups differently.
Written narratives providing factual information should provide
citations of sources, and copies of and links to the source material
should be provided. Please send electronic copies of the entire
submission, including source material. If primary sources are used,
such as research studies, interviews, direct observations, or other
sources of quantitative or qualitative data, provide details on the
research or data-gathering methodology and any supporting
documentation. The Department only includes in the TIP Report
information related to trafficking in persons as defined by the TVPA
(Div. A, Pub. L. 106-386); it does not include, and is therefore not
seeking, information on prostitution, migrant smuggling, visa fraud, or
child abuse, unless such crimes also involve the elements of sex
trafficking or forced labor.
Confidentiality: Please provide the name, phone number, and email
address of a single point of contact for any submission. It is
Department practice not to identify in the TIP Report information
concerning sources to safeguard those sources. Please note, however,
that any information submitted to the Department may be releasable
pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act or other
applicable law. Submissions related to the United States will be shared
with U.S. Government agencies, as will submissions relevant to efforts
by other U.S. Government agencies.
Response: This is a request for information only; there will be no
response to submissions. Remuneration for responses will not be
provided. In order to expend appropriated funds, there must be specific
authority to do so. The Department of State has no authority to expend
funds for this purpose.
Definitions: The TVPA defines ``severe forms of trafficking in
persons'' as:
<bullet> The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision,
obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a
commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in
which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years
of age.
[cir] Persons under age 18 in commercial sex are trafficking in
persons victims regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion were
involved.
<bullet> The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or
obtaining
[[Page 77399]]
of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or
coercion, for the purposes of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt
bondage, or slavery.
[cir] Forced labor may take the form of domestic servitude, forced
begging, forced criminal activity (e.g., drug smuggling), and prison
labor that is not the product of a conviction in a court of law.
<bullet> Children recruited or used as soldiers or for labor or
services can be a severe form of human trafficking when the activity
involves force, fraud, or coercion. Children may be victims regardless
of gender.
The TIP Report: The TIP Report is the most comprehensive worldwide
report assessing governments' efforts to combat trafficking in persons.
It represents an annually updated global assessment of the nature and
scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government
actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S. government uses the TIP
Report to inform diplomacy, to encourage partnership in creating and
implementing laws and policies to combat trafficking, and to target
resources on prevention, protection, and prosecution programs.
Worldwide, international organizations, foreign governments, and
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) use the TIP Report as a tool to
examine where resources are most needed. Prosecuting traffickers,
protecting victims, and preventing trafficking are the ultimate goals
of the TIP Report and of the U.S Government's anti-trafficking policy.
The Department prepares the TIP Report with information from across
the U.S. Government, foreign government officials, nongovernmental and
international organizations, survivors of trafficking in persons,
published reports, and research related to every region. The TIP Report
focuses on concrete actions that governments take to fight trafficking
in persons, including prosecutions, convictions, and sentences for
traffickers, as well as victim identification and protection measures
and prevention efforts. Each TIP Report narrative also includes
prioritized recommendations for each country. These recommendations are
used to assist the Department in measuring governments' progress from
one year to the next and determining whether governments meet the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons or are
making significant efforts to do so.
The TVPA creates a four-tier ranking system. Tier placement is
based principally on the extent of concrete government action to combat
trafficking. The Department first evaluates whether the government
fully meets the TVPA's minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking. Governments that do so are placed on Tier 1. For other
governments, the Department considers the extent of such efforts.
Governments that are making significant efforts to meet the minimum
standards are placed on Tier 2. Governments that do not fully meet the
minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are
placed on Tier 3. Finally, the Department considers Watch List criteria
and, when applicable, places countries on the Tier 2 Watch List. For
more information, the 2023 TIP Report can be found at <a href="http://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report">www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report</a>.
Since the inception of the TIP Report in 2001, the number of
countries included and ranked has more than doubled; the 2023 TIP
Report included 188 countries and territories. Around the world, the
TIP Report and the promising practices reflected therein have inspired
legislation, national action plans, policy implementation, program
funding, protection mechanisms that complement prosecution efforts, and
a stronger global understanding of this crime.
Since 2003, the primary reporting on the United States' anti-
trafficking activities has been through the annual Attorney General's
Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to
Combat Human Trafficking (``AG Report'') mandated by section 105 of the
TVPA (22 U.S.C. 7103(d)(7)). Since 2010, the TIP Report, through a
collaborative interagency process, has included an assessment of U.S.
government anti-trafficking efforts in light of the minimum standards
to eliminate trafficking in persons set forth by the TVPA.
II. Minimum Standards for the Elimination of Trafficking in Persons
The TVPA sets forth the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking in persons as follows:
(1) The government of the country should prohibit severe forms of
trafficking in persons and punish acts of such trafficking.
(2) For the knowing commission of any act of sex trafficking
involving force, fraud, coercion, or in which the victim of sex
trafficking is a child incapable of giving meaningful consent, or of
trafficking which includes rape or kidnapping or which causes a death,
the government of the country should prescribe punishment commensurate
with that for grave crimes, such as forcible sexual assault.
(3) For the knowing commission of any act of a severe form of
trafficking in persons, the government of the country should prescribe
punishment that is sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately
reflects the heinous nature of the offense.
(4) The government of the country should make serious and sustained
efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons.
For purposes of (4) above, the following factors should be
considered as indicia of serious and sustained efforts to eliminate
severe forms of trafficking in persons:
(1) Whether the government of the country vigorously investigates
and prosecutes acts of severe forms of trafficking in persons, and
convicts and sentences persons responsible for such acts, that take
place wholly or partly within the territory of the country, including,
as appropriate, requiring incarceration of individuals convicted of
such acts. For purposes of the preceding sentence, suspended or
significantly reduced sentences for convictions of principal actors in
cases of severe forms of trafficking in persons shall be considered, on
a case-by-case basis, whether to be considered an indicator of serious
and sustained efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in
persons. After reasonable requests from the Department of State for
data regarding investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and
sentences, a government which does not provide such data, consistent
with a demonstrably increasing capacity of such government to obtain
such data, shall be presumed not to have vigorously investigated,
prosecuted, convicted or sentenced such acts.
(2) Whether the government of the country protects victims of
severe forms of trafficking in persons and encourages their assistance
in the investigation and prosecution of such trafficking, including
provisions for legal alternatives to their removal to countries in
which they would face retribution or hardship, and ensures that victims
are not inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized
solely for unlawful acts as a direct result of being trafficked,
including by providing training to law enforcement and immigration
officials regarding the identification and treatment of trafficking
victims using approaches that focus on the needs of the victims.
(3) Whether the government of the country has adopted measures to
prevent severe forms of trafficking in persons, such as measures to
inform and educate the public, including potential victims, about the
causes and consequences of severe forms of trafficking in persons,
measures to
[[Page 77400]]
establish the identity of local populations, including birth
registration, citizenship, and nationality, measures to ensure that its
nationals who are deployed abroad as part of a diplomatic,
peacekeeping, or other similar mission do not engage in or facilitate
severe forms of trafficking in persons or exploit victims of such
trafficking, a transparent system for remediating or punishing such
public officials as a deterrent, measures to prevent the use of forced
labor or child labor in violation of international standards, effective
bilateral, multilateral, or regional information sharing and
cooperation arrangements with other countries, and effective policies
or laws regulating foreign labor recruiters and holding them civilly
and criminally liable for fraudulent recruiting.
(4) Whether the government of the country cooperates with other
governments in the investigation and prosecution of severe forms of
trafficking in persons and has entered into bilateral, multilateral, or
regional law enforcement cooperation and coordination arrangements with
other countries.
(5) Whether the government of the country extradites persons
charged with acts of severe forms of trafficking in persons on
substantially the same terms and to substantially the same extent as
persons charged with other serious crimes (or, to the extent such
extradition would be inconsistent with the laws of such country or with
international agreements to which the country is a party, whether the
government is taking all appropriate measures to modify or replace such
laws and treaties so as to permit such extradition).
(6) Whether the government of the country monitors immigration and
emigration patterns for evidence of severe forms of trafficking in
persons and whether law enforcement agencies of the country respond to
any such evidence in a manner that is consistent with the vigorous
investigation and prosecution of acts of such trafficking, as well as
with the protection of human rights of victims and the internationally
recognized human right to leave any country, including one's own, and
to return to one's own country.
(7) Whether the government of the country vigorously investigates,
prosecutes, convicts, and sentences public officials, including
diplomats and soldiers, who participate in or facilitate severe forms
of trafficking in persons, including nationals of the country who are
deployed abroad as part of a diplomatic, peacekeeping, or other similar
mission who engage in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in
persons or exploit victims of such trafficking, and takes all
appropriate measures against officials who condone or enable such
trafficking. A government's failure to appropriately address public
allegations against such public officials, especially once such
officials have returned to their home countries, shall be considered
inaction under these criteria. After reasonable requests from the
Department of State for data regarding such investigations,
prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, a government which does not
provide such data, consistent with a demonstrably increasing capacity
of such government to obtain such data, shall be presumed not to have
vigorously investigated, prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced such acts.
(8) Whether the percentage of victims of severe forms of
trafficking in the country that are non-citizens of such countries is
insignificant.
(9) Whether the government has entered into effective, transparent
partnerships, cooperative arrangements, or agreements that have
resulted in concrete and measurable outcomes with--
(A) domestic civil society organizations, private sector entities,
or international nongovernmental organizations, or into multilateral or
regional arrangements or agreements, to assist the government's efforts
to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and punish traffickers; or
(B) the United States toward agreed goals and objectives in the
collective fight against trafficking.
(10) Whether the government of the country, consistent with the
capacity of such government, systematically monitors its efforts to
satisfy the criteria described in paragraphs (1) through (8) and makes
available publicly a periodic assessment of such efforts.
(11) Whether the government of the country achieves appreciable
progress in eliminating severe forms of trafficking when compared to
the assessment in the previous year.
(12) Whether the government of the country has made serious and
sustained efforts to reduce the demand for --
(A) commercial sex acts; and
(B) participation in international sex tourism by nationals of the
country.
III. Information Sought Relevant to the Minimum Standards
Submissions should include, but need not be limited to, answers to
relevant questions below for which the submitter has direct
professional experience. Citations to source material should also be
provided. Note the country or countries that are the focus of the
submission. Please see the Scope of Interest section above for detailed
information regarding submission requirements.
Overview
1. What were the government's major accomplishments in addressing
human trafficking since April 1, 2023? In what significant ways have
the government's efforts to combat trafficking in persons changed in
the past year? How have new laws, regulations, policies, or
implementation strategies (e.g., substantive criminal laws and
procedures, mechanisms for civil remedies, and victim-witness programs,
generally and in relation to court proceedings) affected its anti-
trafficking response?
2. Over the past year, what were the greatest deficiencies in the
government's anti-trafficking efforts? What were the limitations on the
government's ability to address human trafficking problems in practice?
3. Please provide additional information and/or recommendations to
improve the government's anti-trafficking efforts overall.
4. Please highlight effective strategies and practices that other
governments could consider adopting.
Prosecution
5. Please provide observations regarding the implementation of
existing laws, policies, and procedures. Are there gaps in anti-
trafficking legislation that could be amended to improve the
government's response? Are there any government policies that have
undermined or otherwise negatively affected anti-trafficking efforts
within that country?
6. Do government officials understand the nature of all forms of
trafficking? If not, please provide examples of misconceptions or
misunderstandings. Did the government effectively provide or support
anti-trafficking trainings for officials? If not, how could they be
improved?
7. Please provide observations on overall anti-trafficking law
enforcement efforts and the efforts of police and prosecutors to pursue
trafficking cases. Is the government equally vigorous in pursuing
forced labor and sex trafficking, internal and transnational
trafficking, and crimes that involve its own nationals or foreign
citizens? Were anti-trafficking laws equitably enforced, or were
certain communities disproportionately affected?
8. Please note any efforts to investigate and prosecute suspects
for knowingly soliciting or patronizing a
[[Page 77401]]
sex trafficking victim to perform a commercial sex act.
9. Does law enforcement pursue trafficking cases that would hold
accountable private employers or corporations for forced labor in
supply chains?
10. Do judges appear appropriately knowledgeable and sensitized to
trafficking cases? Do they implement and encourage trauma-informed
practices in their courts?
11. Were there allegations of official complicity in trafficking
crimes, via contacts, media, or other sources, including of state-
sponsored forced labor? If so, what measures did the government take to
end such practices? What proactive measures did the government take to
prevent official complicity in trafficking in persons crimes? How did
the government respond to reports of complicity that arose during the
reporting period, including investigations, prosecutions, convictions,
and sentencing of complicit officials? Were these efforts sufficient?
12. Is there evidence that nationals of the country deployed abroad
as part of a diplomatic, peacekeeping, or other similar mission have
engaged in or facilitated trafficking, including in domestic servitude?
Has the government vigorously investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and
sentenced nationals engaged in these activities?
Protection
13. Did the government make a coordinated, proactive effort to
identify victims of all forms of trafficking? If there were any new (or
changes to preexisting) formal/standard procedures for screening for
trafficking, including of individuals in immigration detention or
removal proceedings, and for victim referral to protection services,
were those procedures sufficient and how did the government implement
them? Did officials effectively coordinate among one another and with
relevant NGOs to conduct screenings and refer victims to care? Did the
government deploy mechanisms (e.g., written procedures, policies,
bureaucratic structures, survivor engagement protocols, etc.) to ensure
it equitably administered victim identification and protection
measures?
14. If commercial sex is legalized or decriminalized in the
country, how did health officials, labor inspectors, or police identify
trafficking victims among persons involved in commercial sex? If
commercial sex is illegal, did the government proactively identify
trafficking victims during law enforcement operations or other
encounters with commercial sex establishments?
15. If the government operates or funds any trafficking-specific
hotlines (including those run by NGOs), did calls to those hotlines
lead to victim identification, victim referral to care, and/or criminal
investigations?
16. Were there any new (or changes to preexisting) services
available for victims and survivors (legal, medical, food, shelter,
interpretation, mental health care, employment, training, etc.)? If
NGOs provide the services, does the government adequately support their
work either financially or otherwise? Did all victims and survivors of
both labor and sex trafficking--regardless of citizenship, gender
identity, racial/ethnic identity, sexual orientation, religious
affiliation, and physical ability--receive the same quality and level
of access to services?
17. What was the overall quality of victim care? How could victim
services be improved? Are services victim-centered and trauma-informed?
Were services linked to whether a victim assisted law enforcement or
participated in a trial, or whether a trafficker was convicted? Could
victims choose independently whether to enter a shelter, and could they
leave at will if residing in a shelter? Could victims seek employment
and work while receiving assistance?
18. Where were child victims placed (e.g., in shelters, foster
care, or juvenile justice detention centers), and what kind of
specialized care did they receive?
19. What is the level of cooperation, communication, and trust
between service providers and law enforcement?
20. Were there means by which victims could obtain restitution from
defendants in criminal cases or file civil suits against traffickers
for damages, and did this happen in practice? Did prosecutors request
and/or courts order restitution in all cases where it was required, and
if not, why?
21. Please provide observations on trafficking victims and
survivors' ability to access justice, as they define it, and the
treatment of survivors throughout the criminal legal process. How did
the government encourage victims to assist in the investigation and
prosecution of trafficking, and did it do so in a trauma-informed way?
How did the government protect victims during the trial process and
ensure victims were not re-traumatized during participation in the
process? If a victim was a witness in a court case, was the victim
permitted to obtain employment, move freely about the country, or leave
the country pending trial proceedings? In what ways could the
government increase support for victims in prosecutions against the
traffickers?
22. Did the government provide, through a formal policy or
otherwise, temporary or permanent residency status, or other relief
from deportation, for foreign national victims of human trafficking who
may face retribution or hardship in the countries to which they would
be deported? Were foreign national victims given the opportunity to
seek legal employment while in this temporary or permanent residency?
Were such benefits linked to whether a victim assisted law enforcement,
whether a victim participated in a trial, or whether there was a
successful prosecution? Does the government repatriate victims who wish
to return home or assist with third country resettlement? Are victims
awaiting repatriation or third country resettlement offered services?
Are victims indeed repatriated, or are they deported?
23. Does the government effectively assist its nationals exploited
abroad? Does the government work to ensure victims receive adequate
assistance and support for their repatriation while in destination
countries? Does the government provide adequate assistance to
repatriated victims after their return to their countries of origin,
and if so, what forms of assistance?
24. Does the government arrest, detain, imprison, or otherwise
punish trafficking victims (whether or not identified as such by
authorities) for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being
trafficked (forgery of documents, illegal immigration, unauthorized
employment, prostitution, theft, or drug production or transport,
etc.)? If so, do these victims disproportionately represent a certain
gender, race, ethnicity, or other group or particular type of
trafficking?
Prevention
25. What efforts has the government made to prevent human
trafficking? Did the government enforce any policies that further
marginalized communities already overrepresented among trafficking
victims, increasing their risk to human trafficking? If so, did it take
efforts to address those policies?
26. If the government had a national action plan to address
trafficking, how was it implemented in practice? Were NGOs and other
relevant civil society stakeholders consulted in the development and
implementation of the plan?
27. Please describe any government-funded anti-trafficking
information or education campaigns or training, whether aimed at the
public or at
[[Page 77402]]
specific sectors or stakeholders/actors. What strategies did the
campaigns employ to ensure messaging and images did not legitimize and/
or perpetuate harmful or racialized narratives and/or stereotypes about
what victims, survivors, and perpetrators look like? Were campaign
materials readily available, cost-free, and accessible in various
languages, including braille? Does the government provide financial
support to NGOs working to promote public awareness?
28. Did the government seek and include the input of survivors in
crafting its anti-trafficking laws, regulations, policies, programs, or
in their implementation? If so, did the government take steps to ensure
input was received and incorporated from a diverse group of survivors?
29. How did the government regulate, oversee, and screen for
trafficking indicators in the labor recruitment process, including for
both licensed and unlicensed recruitment and placement agencies,
individual recruiters, sub-brokerages, and microfinance lending
operations? Did the government prohibit (in any context) charging
workers recruitment fees and prohibit the recruitment of workers
through knowingly fraudulent job offers (including misrepresenting
wages, working conditions, location, or nature of the job), contract
switching, and confiscating or otherwise denying workers access to
their identity documents? If there are laws or regulations on
recruitment, did the government effectively enforce them? Did the
government allow migrant workers to change employers in a timely manner
without obtaining special permissions?
30. Did the government coordinate with other governments (e.g., via
bilateral agreements with migrant labor sending or receiving countries)
on safe and responsible labor recruitment that included prevention
measures to target known trafficking indicators? To what extent were
these implemented? Are workers (both nationals of the country and
foreign nationals) in all industries (e.g., domestic work, agriculture,
etc.) equally and sufficiently protected under existing labor laws?
31. Did government policies, regulations, or agreements relating to
migration, labor, trade, and investment facilitate vulnerabilities to,
or incidence of, forced labor or sex trafficking? If so, what actions
did the government take to ensure that its policies, regulations, and
agreements relating to migration, labor, trade, border security
measures, and investment did not facilitate trafficking?
32. Did the government take tangible action to prevent forced labor
in domestic or global supply chains? Did the government make any
efforts to prohibit and prevent trafficking in the supply chains of its
own public procurement?
33. If the government has entered into bilateral, multilateral, or
regional anti-trafficking information-sharing and cooperation
arrangements, are they effective and have they resulted in concrete and
measurable outcomes? If not, why?
34. Did the government provide assistance to other governments in
combating trafficking in persons through trainings or other assistance
programs?
35. What measures has the government taken to reduce the
participation by nationals of the country in international and domestic
child sex tourism?
Territories and Semi-Autonomous Regions
36. Please provide any information about trafficking trends and
government anti-trafficking efforts in non-sovereign territories and
semi-autonomous regions to prosecute traffickers, identify and provide
services to victims, and prevent trafficking.
Trafficking Profile
37. Were there any changes to the country's trafficking situation,
including the forms of trafficking that occur, industries and sectors
in which traffickers exploit victims, countries/regions in which
traffickers recruit victims, locations and regions in which trafficking
occurs, and recruitment methods? Are citizens of the country identified
as victims of human trafficking abroad? As COVID-19-related
restrictions have lifted in many parts of the world, were there
additional changes in trafficking trends?
38. What groups, including underserved communities, are at
particular risk of human trafficking? Underserved communities are
populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic
communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to
participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life. This term
may include, but is not limited to, women and girls, persons with
disabilities, indigenous peoples, people of African descent, racial and
ethnic minorities, refugees and internally displaced people, religious
minorities, LGBTQI+ persons, rural residents, migrants, as well as
those who are otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or
inequality.
39. Chinese/Cuban/North Korean workers: Are any of these
populations subjected to or at high risk of forced labor in the country
as part of government-to-government agreements and/or in foreign
government-affiliated projects?
40. Please provide any information about trafficking trends,
general numerical data on victims identified, or risk factors stemming
from climate-related change or disasters, as well as any efforts to
mitigate these vulnerabilities; the ongoing armed conflict following
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; and the use of technology to
recruit and exploit victims.
Child Soldiering
41. Using the definition of ``child soldier'' as defined by the
Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA), describe instances,
cases, and reports, including anecdotal reports, of:
a. Use of any person under the age of 18 in direct hostilities as a
member of governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
b. Conscription or forced recruitment of persons under the age of
18 into governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
c. Voluntary recruitment of any person under 15 years of age into
governmental armed forces, police, or other security forces;
d. Recruitment (forced or voluntary) or use in hostilities of
persons under the age of 18 by armed groups distinct from the armed
forces of a state.
e. Abuse of male and female children recruited by governmental
armed forces, police, or other security forces, and government-
supported armed groups (e.g., sexual abuse or use for forced labor).
Describe the manner and age of conscription, noting differences in
treatment or conscription patterns based on gender.
42. Did the government provide support to an armed group that
recruits and/or uses child soldiers? What was the extent of the support
(e.g., in-kind, financial, training, etc.)? Where did the provision of
support occur (within the country or outside of the country)? In cases
where the government was included on the CSPA list in 2023 based on its
support to non-state armed groups that recruit and/or use child
soldiers, describe whether the government took steps to pressure the
group to cease its recruitment or use of child soldiers, publicly
disavow the group's recruitment or use of child soldiers, or cease its
support to that group.
[[Page 77403]]
43. Describe any government efforts to prevent or end child soldier
recruitment or use, including efforts to disarm, demobilize, and
reintegrate former child soldiers. (i.e., enacting any laws or
regulations, implementing a United Nations Action Plan or Roadmap,
specialized training for officials, procedures for age verification,
etc.)
Cynthia D. Dyer,
Ambassador-at-Large, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
Persons, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 2023-24781 Filed 11-8-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710-11-P
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