Armenia has improved its positions on the US State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
According to Voice of America, in this year's report, eight countries were added to the blacklist of nations considered the worst offenders in human trafficking, the so-called Tier 3 list. The new nations added include the former Soviet states of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan along with the fledgling democracy of Myanmar, Haiti, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Sudan and Suriname.
Armenia is on Tier 1 along with Australia, Austria, Poland, Belgium, Canada, the UK, the US and many developed countries. "The Government of Armenia fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. A law entered into force in June 2015 establishing standard procedures for the identification, support, protection, and reintegration of suspected and identified trafficking victims across national and local government bodies, NGOs, international organizations, and civil society. It also affords foreign trafficking victims the same rights and services as Armenian citizens, and ensures assistance is provided regardless of a victim's cooperation with law enforcement efforts.
The government maintained strong collaboration with anti-trafficking NGOs, local media, donor organizations, and regional partners. The government had dedicated resources for victim services and provided funding to one NGO-run shelter for trafficking victims", it says.
The authors of the report note that in 2015, the government allocated 46,259,000 drams ($95,000) for assistance to trafficking victims and partially funded one NGO that provided shelter to 18 victims and vulnerable individuals, six of whom were referred in 2015.
"Modern day slavery that still today claims more than 20 millions victims on any given time, all 20 millions are people ... they have names, they have or had families," said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, calling human trafficking an industry that makes billions of dollars each year. "This year's TIP Report asks such questions, because ending modern slavery isn't just a fight we should attempt-it is a fight we can and must win," Kerry says.
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government's principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world's most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. Government's commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue. It represents an updated, global look at 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 engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs. Worldwide, the report is used by international organizations, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations alike as a tool to examine where resources are most needed. Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the report and of the U.S Government's anti-human trafficking policy.