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CNN –
The U.S. State Department noted a “rapidly growing and worrying trend” in “forced labor as a result of cyber-fraud operations” when it released its annual human trafficking report, U.S. Ambassador for Monitoring and Combating Trafficking in Persons Cindy Dyer said Thursday.
“Human traffickers have taken advantage of the pandemic-related economic hardship, rising global youth unemployment and international travel restrictions over the past two years to exploit thousands of adults and children in a multi-billion dollar industry,” she said at a State Department briefing.
Dyer said that “many people have responded to job offers that they felt were seeking legitimate work at casinos or other seemingly legitimate businesses.”
“Often these individuals are forced to engage in cyber scams due to impossible quota agreements, leading them to increasingly indebted to human traffickers. Traffickers use this debt to exploit victims in forced labor and sex trafficking, including in special economic zones, primarily across Southeast Asia, but also nationals from at least 35 countries or territories,” she said.
The 2023 report also highlights the fact that men and boys may be victims of human trafficking but may not always be recognized as such and may not be able to access the same services.
The 2023 report, covering the period April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, identified which governments around the world meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which have improved or deteriorated who have failed in their efforts to combat human trafficking and are not making any effort to do so.
Many of the countries in the Tier 3 category for not meeting minimum anti-trafficking standards and “not making significant efforts to do so” were also in this category last year. This year’s list includes 24 Tier 3 countries, including Russia, China, Afghanistan, Syria and North Korea.
Afghanistan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan have all been listed with a “‘government policy or pattern’ of human trafficking, human trafficking under government-funded programs and forced labor” in government-affiliated medical services or other areas, sexual slavery in government camps, or the employment or recruitment of child soldiers.”