By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 39 minutes ago
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the release of the 2023 Human Trafficking Report at the State Department in Washington June 15, 2023. SARAH SILBIGER/ Portal
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, expressed concern about the rise in human trafficking in 188 countries, including the United States.
The United States on Thursday denounced the scourge of human trafficking, with a report specifically targeting forced labor and the trafficking of boys, a little-known phenomenon. “The report highlights several alarming trends, including the expansion of forced labor (…) and the rise in human trafficking,” exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, lamented US diplomat chief Antony Blinken during his presentation The State Department’s annual report on human trafficking, covering 188 countries including the United States.
From Laos to Turkey, through Cambodia, Malaysia, Burma or the Philippines, traffickers, some linked to China, have taken advantage of the pandemic to recruit adults and children in dozens of countries using fake online job postings, according to the report.
“Human traffickers have taken advantage of pandemic-related economic hardship, rising youth unemployment and travel restrictions over the past two years to exploit thousands of adults and children in a multi-billion dollar industry,” the special representative on the file told reporters. the ambassador Cindy Dyer. The report also sheds light on the often-misunderstood intercourse with boys, which has seen a staggering rise in recent years.
‘Devastating Consequences’
Citing a UN report, Mr Blinken bemoaned the fact that between 2004 and 2020 the number of boys or young men who were victims of human trafficking had increased “fivefold”, and at a greater rate than the number of Girls, women or men in the same period. “For years there has been a widespread but misconception that human trafficking only affects women, which frankly has had devastating consequences,” he claimed, citing less support and less financial resources for male victims.
“The reality is that anyone, regardless of gender and gender identity, can be a target for traffickers,” he said. Blinken, on the other hand, welcomed local initiatives in the Seychelles, Hong Kong or Denmark to combat this traffic.
Blacklist
The State Department report lists countries that are making efforts to combat this scourge, as well as other countries that Washington believes are not making sufficient efforts in this direction or are even involved in human trafficking themselves. China is thus on this blacklist, Ms. Dyer stresses that Beijing not only “does not meet the minimum criteria in the fight against human trafficking, but also engages in a policy or pattern of human trafficking” linked in particular to forced labour.
The denunciation comes a few days before the US Secretary of State’s trip to Beijing on Sunday. Among the blacklisted countries, ten others besides China are accused of being directly involved in human trafficking: Afghanistan, Burma, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Iran, Russia, South Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan.