Azerbaijan Remains on U.S. Watch List for Trafficking

Azerbaijan remains on a watch list at the U.S. State Department, for failing to do enough to combat human trafficking, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports

In its annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), which was released on Thursday, the State Department kept Azerbaijan among countries that face a major trafficking problem and whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

"These efforts included convicting more traffickers and providing guidance to judges to issue stricter sentences for traffickers. The government established grants for civil society, significantly increased overall funding for victim protection, and recognized NGO leaders for their anti-trafficking efforts," reads the report.

However, the government of Azerbaijan "didn't demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period. And that's why they remained on the Tear 2 watch list for the second consecutive year," top U.S. envoy to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, told TURAN's Washington correspondent.

According to the report, the officials in Baku did not adopt the 2019-2023 national action plan.

The Azerbaijani government "identified fewer victims, it did not regularly screen vulnerable populations, and it continued to lack proactive identification efforts, particularly internal trafficking," State Department's Ambassador-at-Large John Cotton Richmond said during a virtual press briefing organized by the Department's Foreign Press Center, adding that as a result, the government penalized victims due to inadequate identification.

"We know from The International Labour Organization that the majority of trafficking victims never cross the border. They're trafficked in their country of origin. So making sure that we are not thinking about this is a transnational crime, but we are also thinking about it as an internal crime," he explained, adding that in fact, "hat was the theme of last year's TIP report too.

Next year would be the last time that Azerbaijan would be able to stay on the Tier 2 watch list, with a waiver from the Secretary of State.

According to Ambassador Richmond, a country can only remain on the watch list for two, or maximum 3 years with a waiver, before either being upgraded or downgraded to the lowest grade Tier 3, which could trigger sanctions and aid cuts.

This year, the bottom of the TIP list was dominated by 19 countries, including long-standing U.S. adversaries such as China, Cuba, Russian, North Korea, but it also included U.S. ally Afghanistan, Algeria and several others, including Belarus and Turkmenistan from the post-Soviet region.

The United States "will not stand by as any government with a policy or pattern of human trafficking subjects its own citizens to such oppression," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Thursday while introducing the report.

Washington "will work tirelessly to free those still enslaved. We will help restore the lives of those who have been freed. And we will punish their tormentors," he added.

In his turn, Ambassador Richmond told reporters, "we remain steadfast in declaring that there is no excuse for human trafficking and that governments must take bold action in order to bring the reforms that are necessary.  Today we celebrate progress and lean forward with hope into the work that remains."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.