On Thursday, the State Department released its annual report on human trafficking in the world, that evaluates how the different countries meet standards to fight against this scourge, established in US law in 2000.

The United States have updated their "black list" of countries that do not meet the minimum standards and are not doing enough to fight against the scourge of human trafficking or slavery, adding to this blacklist of shame, 8 new countries : Haiti, Suriname, Myanmar, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan that join the 18 other: Algeria, Belarus, Belize, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Marshall islands and the Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea , Mauritania, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Note that Cuba removed last year, remains in this report but in the "special observation" category because of its "significant efforts" to eliminate forced labor and sexual exploitation, spread on its territory.

"When we talk about trafficking, we talk about slavery, modern slavery, which still affects 20 million people [...]" declared at a press conference, John Kerry, Secretary of State during the presentation of the report.

The inclusion on the "black list" is not without consequence, it opens the door to the imposition of economic sanctions, freezing of non humanitarian aid and non-commercial and the refusal to grant loans from multilateral institutions. US President Barack Obama now has 90 days to decide whether to apply sanctions on the countries of the "black list".

The decision to include Haiti in this list is the result of little effort of successive governments to fight against trafficking and exploitation of people. Haiti, with more than 200,000 "restavek" (about 3% of children in the country) https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16846-icihaiti-social-over-200-000-domestic-slaves-under-15-years-in-the-country.html practice a form of domestic slavery centenary, disguised as social support, which allows having a cheap workforce. This practice, in many ways, is similar to an exploitation system. As stated by Charles Jean-Jacques, then Minister of Social Affairs, in May 2014 "it is inconceivable to XXI century, in a country that abolished slavery, to have children as slaves."

See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16846-icihaiti-social-over-200-000-domestic-slaves-under-15-years-in-the-country.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15815-haiti-politic-fight-against-trafficking-of-restavek-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11583-haiti-politic-the-restaveks-on-the-agenda-of-cidp.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11263-haiti-social-launch-of-nationwide-study-on-children-restaveks.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2366-haiti-social-16-million-to-fight-against-the-exploitation-of-the-restaveks.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2037-haiti-social-father-miguel-the-hope-for-the-children-restavek.html

SL / HaitiLibre