Excerpts from comments on the U.S. Government's seventh annual Trafficking in Persons Report, released in June in Washington, D.C.

By MARK P. LAGON, U.S. State Department senior adviser on human trafficking

At the heart of U.S. efforts to end human trafficking is a commitment to human dignity. Every day, all over the world, people are coerced into bonded labor, bought and sold in prostitution, exploited in domestic servitude, enslaved in agricultural work and in factories, and captured to serve unlawfully as child soldiers.

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The structure of the (U.S. Government's Trafficking in Persons) report and the purpose are focused largely on drawing the world's attention on the existence of modern-day slavery and the desperate need to eliminate it in the same way that the world ended the African slave trade more than a century ago. Human trafficking plagues every country in one way or another, including the United States. The report covers 164 countries and territories, comprising some 85 percent of the world. It ranks 151 countries and territories where there have been some 100 cases of human trafficking that were documented. It spells out what countries are doing on prosecution, prevention and protection and what more can be done together between the United States and other countries on all three fronts. The U.S. Government is committed to taking action in cooperation with other nations. ...Our sources of information for this report include U.S. Embassies, NGOs worldwide, brave activists fighting human trafficking, foreign law enforcement officers and staff visits. Extensive analysis based on criteria laid out by Congress in the law goes into the assignment of countries into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3.

A country falls into Tier 3 if its government is not making a significant effort to combat human trafficking. A Tier 3 country can be sanctioned if it doesn't take seriously antislavery action in the next 90 days.

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It's especially disappointing that so many wealthy countries in the Near East that aren't lacking adequate resources to make significant progress are on Tier 3. For instance, Saudi Arabia is on Tier 3 for the third year. These are countries in that region that rely extensively on foreign migrant laborers. Practices such as sponsorship laws create conditions that make guest workers especially vulnerable to trafficking in the region.

Sponsorship laws give employers extensive personal authority over workers, allowing them to control movement and legal status. The power given to sponsors over foreign workers should be limited and counterbalanced with rights for workers to seek legal redress, and governments in destination countries should be more active in protecting workers.

Now 32 countries are on the Tier 2 Watch List, the same number as last year. ...India, Mexico and Russia are on the Tier 2 Watch List for the fourth consecutive year. Tier 2 Watch List is not supposed to become a parking lot for governments lacking the will or interest to stop exploitation and enslavement on their soil. We stand ready to cooperate with these nations and support any efforts they make to end this travesty within their borders.

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The link between prostitution and sex trafficking is indisputable. That's why we must move with more creativity and commitment to deal with the demand for victims. Prostitution is not a victimless crime. Sexual servitude is particularly grotesque in human trafficking. The report is interspersed with stories of survivors who have been aided by U.S. programs that demonstrate our commitment to rescue and rehabilitate innocent victims.

Let me tell you briefly about some trends that we see highlighted in the 2007 report. Use of debt, first of all, as a tool of coercion and secondly, stalled progress in strengthening rule of law. First, in both labor and sexual exploitation, illegal or illegitimate debt is increasingly used to keep people in servitude. ...People are enticed into fraudulent offers of work abroad that require a steep payment up front for the services of a labor agency arranging the job or a payment that goes straight to the future employer.

To pay the fee, workers often borrow money from relatives and friends or they mortgage property. Sometimes, additional debt is added at the place of employment: inflated fees for supposed costs of room and board or equipment. Sometimes, new, unexpected transportation fees are added. The debt becomes exorbitant on purpose, yet workers are trapped into trying to pay it off for years.

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Democracy and rule of law are crucial to fighting human trafficking. And fighting trafficking conversely is crucial to the future of democracy worldwide, since trafficking is one of the most brutal ways to silence women, half of humankind worldwide. This lack of progress on rule of law can be traced to official corruption and complicity on the one hand and indifference on the other.

One of the heroes highlighted in this year's report, Kailash Satyarthi of the Indian NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, prompted the rescue of 92 Bengali children enslaved in goldsmith and jewelry factories in New Delhi. The children were forced to eat, sleep and labor in workshops, 10 to a room. Dangerous chemicals were used for making gold ornaments in the same rooms where they were kept 24 hours a day. Most of the children were under the age of 14. According to the children, many were physically and sexually abused.

Just days after this rescue, which didn't result in any arrests in India, the factory owners, managers and their thugs showed up at Bachpan Bachao Andolan's shelter with iron rods, sticks and bricks. They tried to recapture the children. Shelter staff were injured. When police finally responded, no one was arrested. The connections and clout of these traffickers were enough, apparently, to thwart justice. India has the world's largest labor trafficking problem with hundreds of thousands of sex trafficking victims and millions of bonded laborers including forced child laborers. In India, there is no national anti-trafficking effort, no recognition of bonded labor on an official level, and poor efforts against sex trafficking. The world's largest democracy has the world's largest problem of human trafficking. The goal of this report is...to stimulate government action in concert with the United States to end modern-day slavery and to celebrate the heroism of those who are working to help spare victims from pain.... To read the Trafficking in Persons Report go to http://www.state.gov/g/tip/

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Courtesy: SPAN Magazine