diff --git a/africa/ag.json b/africa/ag.json index bf0b1233..86883143 100644 --- a/africa/ag.json +++ b/africa/ag.json @@ -1152,10 +1152,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Algeria is a transit and, to a lesser extent, a destination and source country for women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and, to a lesser extent, men subjected to forced labor; criminal networks, sometimes extending to Sub-Saharan Africa and to Europe, are involved in human smuggling and trafficking in Algeria; Sub-Saharan adults enter Algeria voluntarily but illegally, often with the aid of smugglers, for onward travel to Europe, but some of the women are forced into prostitution, domestic service, and begging; some Sub-Saharan men, mostly from Mali, are forced into domestic servitude; some Algerian women and children are also forced into prostitution domestically" + "text": "

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims; Algerian women and girls are vulnerable to sex trafficking due to financial problems or after running away from home; undocumented sub-Saharan migrants are vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking and are exploited in restaurants, houses, and informal worksites; sub-Saharan men and women needing more funds for their onward journey to Europe work illegally in construction and commercial sex and are vulnerable to sex trafficking and debt bondage; foreign women and girls, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, are subject to sex trafficking in bars and informal brothels; criminal begging rings that exploit sub-Saharan African migrant children are common

" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Algeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so: some officials denied the existence of human trafficking, hindering law enforcement efforts; the government reported its first conviction under its anti-trafficking law; one potential trafficking case was investigated in 2014, but no suspected offenders were arrested; no progress was made in identifying victims among vulnerable groups or referring them to NGO-run protection service, which left trafficking victims subject to arrest and detention; no anti-trafficking public awareness or educational campaigns were conducted (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Algeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; authorities prosecuted fewer traffickers and identified fewer victims compared to last year and convicted no traffickers; the government continued to lack effective procedures and mechanisms to screen for, identify, and refer potential victims to protective services and punished some potential victims for unlawful acts traffickers forced them to commit; the government took some steps to combat trafficking, including prosecuting some traffickers, identifying some victims, and continuing to implement its 2019-2021 national anti-trafficking action plan (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/ao.json b/africa/ao.json index a184ddca..cc8d7d7a 100644 --- a/africa/ao.json +++ b/africa/ao.json @@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "36,883 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,347 (Cote d'Ivoire), 5,726 (Mauritania)  (2021)" + "text": "36,883 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 9,274 (Guinea), 6,357 (Cote d'Ivoire), 5,725 (Mauritania)  (2021)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/africa/bc.json b/africa/bc.json index 4840b0e4..62eff890 100644 --- a/africa/bc.json +++ b/africa/bc.json @@ -1130,14 +1130,6 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "

none

" - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Botswana is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; young Batswana serving as domestic workers, sometimes sent by their parents, may be denied education and basic necessities or experience confinement and abuse indicative of forced labor; Batswana girls and women also are forced into prostitution domestically; adults and children of San ethnicity were reported to be in forced labor on farms and at cattle posts in the country’s rural west" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Botswana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; an anti-trafficking act was passed at the beginning of 2014, but authorities did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any offenders or government officials complicit in trafficking or operationalize victim identification and referral procedures based on the new law; the government sponsored a radio campaign to familiarize the public with the issue of human trafficking (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/bn.json b/africa/bn.json index 09bd67a0..ec691542 100644 --- a/africa/bn.json +++ b/africa/bn.json @@ -560,19 +560,19 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "President Patrice TALON (since 11 April 2021); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government" + "text": "President Patrice TALON (since 6 April 2016); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government" }, "head of government": { - "text": "President Patrice TALON (since 11 April 2021); prime minister position abolished" + "text": "President Patrice TALON (since 6 April 2016); prime minister position abolished" }, "cabinet": { "text": "Council of Ministers appointed by the president" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); last held on 6 March and 20 March 2016 (next to be held on 30 April 2021)" + "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); last held on 11 April 2021 (next to be held in April 2026)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Patrice TALON elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Lionel ZINSOU (FCBE) 28.4%, Patrice TALON (independent) 24.8%, Sebastien AJAVON (independent) 23.%, Abdoulaye Bio TCHANE (ABT) 8.8%, Pascal KOUPAKI (NC) 5.9%, other 9.1%; percent of vote in second round - Patrice TALON 65.4%, Lionel ZINSOU 34.6%" + "text": "Patrice TALON elected to a second term; percent of vote - Patrice TALON (independent) 86.4%, Alassane SOUMANOU (FCBE) 11.3%, other 2.3%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/africa/by.json b/africa/by.json index fcf2930e..7e3e5121 100644 --- a/africa/by.json +++ b/africa/by.json @@ -1133,10 +1133,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Burundi is a source country for children and possibly women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; business people recruit Burundian girls for prostitution domestically, as well as in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and the Middle East, and recruit boys and girls for forced labor in Burundi and Tanzania; children and young adults are coerced into forced labor in farming, mining, informal commerce, fishing, or collecting river stones for construction; sometimes family, friends, and neighbors are complicit in exploiting children, at times luring them in with offers of educational or job opportunities" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Burundi and victims from Burundi abroad; traffickers take advantage of Burundians in precarious or desperate situations, including returned refugees; children were reportedly recruited by armed groups and forced to participate in anti-government activities; non-state armed groups allegedly used threats, intimidation, and physical assaults to coerce refugees in a camp in Rwanda to support the Burundian opposition; children and young adults are trafficked by relatives, neighbors, and friends and are subjected to forced labor in agriculture, mining, informal commerce, charcoal production, and fishing; some girls and young women are forced into domestic servitude and sex trafficking in restaurants and bars around Lake Tanganyika; women and girls who go to the Middle East for domestic service jobs report physical and sexual abuse" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Burundi does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; corruption, a lack of political will, and limited resources continue to hamper efforts to combat human trafficking; in 2014, the government did not inform judicial and law enforcement officials of the enactment of an anti-trafficking law or how to implement it and approved – but did not fund – its national anti-trafficking action plan; authorities again failed to identify trafficking victims or to provide them with adequate protective services; the government has focused on transnational child trafficking but gave little attention to its domestic child trafficking problem and adult trafficking victims (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Burundi does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government worked with an international organization to provide training to immigration officials, identified victims of trafficking abroad, and conducted public awareness campaigns with an international organization; however, authorities did not convict any traffickers for the fifth consecutive year and did not investigate, prosecute, or convict officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking; the government did not have standard operating procedures to identify and refer victims to services and did not have adequate protection services for victims; authorities continued to lack a clear understanding of trafficking despite the government providing training to immigration officials (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/cd.json b/africa/cd.json index 8aae5303..380be915 100644 --- a/africa/cd.json +++ b/africa/cd.json @@ -1138,11 +1138,19 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "370,774 (Sudan), 110,416 (Central African Republic), 16,294 (Nigeria) (2021)" + "text": "372,722 (Sudan), 114,445 (Central African Republic), 16,294 (Nigeria) (2021)" }, "IDPs": { "text": "401,511 (majority are in the east) (2021)" } + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Chad and Chadians abroad; most trafficking is internal; some children are sent by their parents to relatives or intermediaries to receive education, an apprenticeship, goods, or money and are then forced to work in domestic service or cattle herding; children are also forced to work in agriculture, gold mines, charcoal vending, and fishing, and those attending Koranic schools are forced into begging and street vending; girls from rural areas who search for work in larger towns are exploited in sex trafficking and domestic servitude; terrorist groups abduct children to serve as soldiers, suicide bombers, brides, and forced laborers" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Chad does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; one trafficker was convicted, the first under a 2018 law, but the government did not report investigating or prosecuting alleged traffickers, including complicit government officials; the government adopted a formal Road Map to implement its 2108 National Action Plan but did not report executing it; authorities did not identify any victims and have not drafted victim identification and referral procedures; the government continued to make no effort to raise awareness on trafficking (2020)" + } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/cf.json b/africa/cf.json index d7bb3af0..666c7c35 100644 --- a/africa/cf.json +++ b/africa/cf.json @@ -1161,14 +1161,6 @@ "IDPs": { "text": "304,430 (multiple civil wars since 1992) (2020)" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "the Republic of the Congo is a source and destination country for children, men, and women, subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; most trafficking victims are from Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and, to a lesser extent, other neighboring countries and are subjected to domestic servitude and market vending by West African and Congolese nationals; adults and children, the majority from the DRC, are also sex trafficked in Congo, mainly Brazzaville; internal trafficking victims, often from rural areas, are exploited as domestic servants or forced to work in quarries, bakeries, fishing, and agriculture" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - the Republic of the Congo does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the country drafted an action plan based on anti-trafficking legislation, which remains pending in the Supreme Court; the government made minimal anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts in 2014, failing to prosecute or convict suspected traffickers from cases dating back to 2010; serious allegations of official complicity continue to be reported; the government lacks a systematic means of identifying victims and relies on NGOs and international organizations to identify victims and NGOs and foster families to provide care to victims; the quality of care varied widely because the foster care system was allegedly undermined by inadequate security and official complicity (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/cg.json b/africa/cg.json index dc005c59..1da4ab80 100644 --- a/africa/cg.json +++ b/africa/cg.json @@ -1205,18 +1205,18 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "213,525 (Rwanda) (refugees and asylum seekers), 205,674 (Central African Republic), 55,755 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 44,737 (Burundi) (2021)" + "text": "213,329 (Rwanda) (refugees and asylum seekers), 205,674 (Central African Republic), 55,755 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 44,737 (Burundi) (2021)" }, "IDPs": { - "text": "5.512 million (fighting between government forces and rebels since mid-1990s; conflict in Kasai region since 2016) (2019)" + "text": "5.2 million (fighting between government forces and rebels since mid-1990s; conflict in Kasai region since 2016) (2020)" } }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a source, destination, and possibly a transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the majority of this trafficking is internal, and much of it is perpetrated by armed groups and rogue government forces outside official control in the country's unstable eastern provinces; Congolese adults are subjected to forced labor, including debt bondage, in unlicensed mines, and women may be forced into prostitution; Congolese women and girls are subjected to forced marriages where they are vulnerable to domestic servitude or sex trafficking, while children are forced to work in agriculture, mining, mineral smuggling, vending, portering, and begging; Congolese women and children migrate to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe where some are subjected to forced prostitution, domestic servitude, and forced labor in agriculture and diamond mining; indigenous and foreign armed groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army, abduct and forcibly recruit Congolese adults and children to serve as laborers, porters, domestics, combatants, and sex slaves; some elements of the Congolese national army (FARDC) also forced adults to carry supplies, equipment, and looted goods, but no cases of the FARDC recruiting child soldiers were reported in 2014 – a significant change" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congolese abroad; most trafficking is internal and involves the forced labor of men, women, and children in artisanal mining, agriculture, domestic servitude, sex trafficking, or child recruitment by armed groups; some traffickers are family members or others who promise victims or victims’ families educational or job opportunities and instead force victims to work as domestic servants, street vendors, gang members, or in commercial sex; some Congolese women and girls who migrate to other countries in Africa or the Middle East are exploited in sex trafficking or forced labor in agriculture, diamond mines, or domestic service; they may be fraudulently recruited by traffickers with false promises of jobs or education" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - The Democratic Republic of the Congo does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government took significant steps to hold military and police officials complicit in human trafficking accountable with convictions for sex slavery and arrests of armed group commanders for the recruitment and use of child soldiers; the government appears to have ceased the recruitment of child soldiers through the implementation of a UN-backed action plan; little effort was made to address labor and sex trafficking crimes committed by persons other than officials, or to identify the victims, or to provide or refer the victims to care services; awareness of various forms of trafficking is limited among law enforcement personnel and training and resources are inadequate to conduct investigations (2015)" + "text": "

Tier 2 Watch List — The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the DRC was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List because of several accomplishments; the government drafted and launched its first national anti-trafficking action plan; authorities increased law enforcement efforts, including investigating and prosecuting more trafficking crimes; a number of traffickers were convicted, including a high-ranking army officer and the leader of an armed group; however, authorities continued to lack standard operating procedures for identifying victims and referring them to care; there were credible allegations that the army abducted women and girls for sexual slavery and recruited and used child soldiers (2020)

" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/africa/cm.json b/africa/cm.json index 542daded..04d4ed81 100644 --- a/africa/cm.json +++ b/africa/cm.json @@ -1215,6 +1215,14 @@ "IDPs": { "text": "1,032,942 (2021) (includes far north, northwest, and southwest)" } + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cameroon and Cameroonians abroad; deteriorating economic and education conditions and diminished police and judicial presence caused by conflict in the Northwest and Southwest has left displaced persons vulnerable to trafficking; parents may be lured by promises of education or a better life for their children in urban areas, and then the children are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking; teenagers and adolescents may be lured to cities with promises of employment and then become victims of forced labor and sex trafficking; children from neighboring countries are forced to work in spare parts shops or cattle grazing by business owners and herders; Cameroonians, often from rural areas, are exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and African countries" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Cameroon does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities investigated at least nine suspected trafficking cases, identified 77 victims, and provided some training on trafficking indicators to officials and teachers; however, officials prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers; standard operating procedures for the identification and referral of trafficking victims were not implemented, and officials were not trained on the measures; the government did not report referring trafficking victims to government institutions for vulnerable children, but NGO-funded centers provided care for an unknown number of child victims; 2012 anti-trafficking legislation addressing victim and witness protection in conformity with international law was not passed for the eighth consecutive year (2020)" + } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/cn.json b/africa/cn.json index f99c41f5..774f700c 100644 --- a/africa/cn.json +++ b/africa/cn.json @@ -1046,10 +1046,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Comoros is a source country for children subjected to forced labor and, reportedly, sex trafficking domestically, and women and children are subjected to forced labor in Mayotte; it is possibly a transit and destination country for Malagasy women and girls and a transit country for East African women and girls exploited in domestic service in the Middle East; Comoran children are forced to labor in domestic service, roadside and street vending, baking, fishing, and agriculture; some Comoran students at Koranic schools are exploited for forced agricultural or domestic labor, sometimes being subjected to physical and sexual abuse; Comoros may be particularly vulnerable to transnational trafficking because of inadequate border controls, government corruption, and the presence of international criminal networks" + "text": "human traffickers may exploit domestic and foreign victims in Comoros and Comorians abroad; some Comorian and Malagasy women are subject to forced labor in the Middle East; adults and children may be forced to work in agriculture, construction, or as domestics in Mayotte; children abandoned by parents who left to seek jobs abroad are vulnerable to exploitation in domestic service, vending, baking, fishing, and agriculture; children from poor families whose parents place them with a relative or acquaintance for educational opportunities are vulnerable to domestic servitude and physical and sexual abuse; some children in Koranic schools may experience forced labor in agriculture or domestic servitude; inadequate border controls; government corruption, and international crime networks leave Comorians vulnerable to international trafficking" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Comoros does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and was placed on Tier 3 after being on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years without making progress; Parliament passed revisions to the penal code in 2014, including anti-trafficking provisions and enforcement guidelines, but these amendments have not yet been passed approved by the President and put into effect; a new child labor law was passed in 2015 prohibiting child trafficking, but existing laws do not criminalize the forced prostitution of adults; authorities did not investigate, prosecute, or convict alleged trafficking offenders, including complicit officials; the government lacked victim identification and care referral procedures, did not assist any victims during 2014, and provided minimal support to NGOs offering victims psychosocial services (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Comoros does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking is not making significant efforts to do so; the Anti-Trafficking Task Force met for the first time since 2017 and began drafting a national action plan for combatting trafficking; the government took steps to ratify the 2000 UN TIP Protocol and supported centers that identify and provide care to victims of crime, would include trafficking victims; however, authorities continued to lack an understanding of trafficking and did not make any anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts; the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any alleged traffickers or officials suspected of complicity in trafficking; the government did not develop any standing operating procedures for identifying trafficking victims and referring them to limited care providers; no public awareness campaigns were conducted (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/ct.json b/africa/ct.json index 3fb3c7bd..62483abb 100644 --- a/africa/ct.json +++ b/africa/ct.json @@ -1124,15 +1124,7 @@ "text": "5,541 (Democratic Republic of Congo) (2021)" }, "IDPs": { - "text": "738,279 (clashes between army and rebel groups since 2005; tensions between ethnic groups) (2021)" - } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Central African Republic (CAR) is a source, transit, and destination country for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, women subjected to forced prostitution, and adults subjected to forced labor; most victims appear to be CAR citizens exploited within the country, with a smaller number transported back and forth between the CAR and nearby countries; armed groups operating in the CAR, including those aligned with the former SELEKA Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army, continue to recruit and re-recruit children for military activities and labor; children are also subject to domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor in agriculture, mines, shops, and street vending; women and girls are subject to domestic servitude, sexual slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced marriage" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – the Central African Republic does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government conducted a limited number of investigations and prosecutions of cases of suspected human trafficking in 2014 but did not identify, provide protection to, or refer to care providers any trafficking victims; the government did not directly provide reintegration programs for demobilized child soldiers, leaving victims vulnerable to further exploitation or retrafficking by armed groups, including those affiliated with the government; in 2014, an NGO and the government began drafting a national action plan against trafficking but no efforts were reported to establish a policy against child soldiering or to raise awareness about existing laws prohibiting the use of children in the armed forces (2015)" + "text": "729,005 (clashes between army and rebel groups since 2005; tensions between ethnic groups) (2021)" } } } diff --git a/africa/dj.json b/africa/dj.json index e327c8e5..ee9a17e3 100644 --- a/africa/dj.json +++ b/africa/dj.json @@ -537,10 +537,10 @@ "text": "Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term; election last held on 8 April 2016 (next to be held on 9 April 2021); prime minister appointed by the president" + "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term; election last held on 9 April 2021 (next to be held in April 2026); prime minister appointed by the president" }, "election results": { - "text": "Ismail Omar GUELLEH reelected president for a fourth term; percent of vote - Ismail Omar GUELLEH (RPP) 87%, Omar Elmi KHAIREH (CDU) 7.3%, other 5.6%" + "text": "Ismail Omar GUELLEH reelected president for a fifth term; percent of vote - Ismail Omar GUELLEH (RPP) 97.4%, Zakaria Ismael FARAH (MDEND) 2.7%" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -566,7 +566,7 @@ } }, "Political parties and leaders": { - "text": "Center for United Democrats or CDU [Ahmed Mohamed YOUSSOUF, chairman]
Democratic Renewal Party or PRD [Abdillahi HAMARITEH]
Djibouti Development Party or PDD [Mohamed Daoud CHEHEM]
Front for Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Front pour la Restauration de l'Unite Democratique) or FRUD [Ali Mohamed DAOUD]
Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development [Daher Ahmed FARAH]
Movement for Development and Liberty or MoDel [Ismail Ahmed WABERI]
National Democratic Party or PND [Aden Robleh AWALEH]
People's Rally for Progress or RPP [Ismail Omar GUELLEH] (governing party)
Peoples Social Democratic Party or PPSD [Hasna Moumin BAHDON]
Republican Alliance for Democracy or ARD [Aden Mohamed ABDOU, interim president]
Union for a Presidential Majority or UMP (coalition includes RPP, FRUD, PND, PPSD)
Union for Democracy and Justice or UDJ [Ilya Ismail GUEDI Hared]" + "text": "Center for United Democrats or CDU [Ahmed Mohamed YOUSSOUF, chairman]
Democratic Renewal Party or PRD [Abdillahi HAMARITEH]
Djibouti Development Party or PDD [Mohamed Daoud CHEHEM]
Front for Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Front pour la Restauration de l'Unite Democratique) or FRUD [Ali Mohamed DAOUD]
Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development [Daher Ahmed FARAH]
Movement for Development and Liberty or MoDel [Ismail Ahmed WABERI]
Movement for the Development and Balance of the Djiboutian Nation (Mouvement pour le Dévelopment et l'Équilibre de la Nation Djiboutienne) or MDEND [Zakaria Ismael FARAH]
National Democratic Party or PND [Aden Robleh AWALEH]
People's Rally for Progress or RPP [Ismail Omar GUELLEH] (governing party)
Peoples Social Democratic Party or PPSD [Hasna Moumin BAHDON]
Republican Alliance for Democracy or ARD [Aden Mohamed ABDOU, interim president]
Union for a Presidential Majority or UMP (coalition includes RPP, FRUD, PND, PPSD)
Union for Democracy and Justice or UDJ [Ilya Ismail GUEDI Hared]" }, "International organization participation": { "text": "ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, CAEU (candidates), COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAS, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO" @@ -1120,14 +1120,6 @@ "refugees (country of origin)": { "text": "12,139 (Somalia) (2020)" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Djibouti is a transit, source, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; economic migrants from East Africa en route to Yemen and other Middle East locations are vulnerable to exploitation in Djibouti; some women and girls may be forced into domestic servitude or prostitution after reaching Djibouti City, the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor, or Obock – the main crossing point into Yemen; Djiboutian and foreign children may be forced to beg, to work as domestic servants, or to commit theft and other petty crimes" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Djibouti does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Djibouti was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; one forced labor trafficker was convicted in 2014 but received a suspended sentence inadequate to deter trafficking; authorities did not investigate or prosecute any other forced labor crimes, any sex trafficking offenses, or any officials complicit in human trafficking, and remained limited in their ability to recognize or protect trafficking victims; official round-ups, detentions, and deportations of non-Djiboutian residents, including children without screening for trafficking victims remained routine; the government did not provide care to victims but supported local NGOs operating centers that assisted victims (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/eg.json b/africa/eg.json index ac2bfa74..6b9bb6aa 100644 --- a/africa/eg.json +++ b/africa/eg.json @@ -1205,14 +1205,6 @@ "text": "5 (2019)" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Egypt is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Egyptian children, including the large population of street children are vulnerable to forced labor in domestic service, begging and agriculture or may be victims of sex trafficking or child sex tourism, which occurs in Cairo, Alexandria, and Luxor; some Egyptian women and girls are sold into \"temporary\" or \"summer\" marriages with Gulf men, through the complicity of their parents or marriage brokers, and are exploited for prostitution or forced labor; Egyptian men are subject to forced labor in neighboring countries, while adults from South and Southeast Asia and East Africa – and increasingly Syrian refugees – are forced to work in domestic service, construction, cleaning, and begging in Egypt; women and girls, including migrants and refugees, from Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East are sex trafficked in Egypt; the Egyptian military cracked down on criminal group’s smuggling, abducting, trafficking, and extorting African migrants in the Sinai Peninsula, but the practice has reemerged along Egypt’s western border with Libya" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Egypt does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government gathered data nationwide on trafficking cases to better allocate and prioritize anti-trafficking efforts, but overall it did not demonstrate increased progress; prosecutions increased in 2014, but no offenders were convicted for the second consecutive year; fewer trafficking victims were identified in 2014, which represents a significant and ongoing decrease from the previous two reporting periods; the government relied on NGOs and international organizations to identify and refer victims to protective services, and focused on Egyptian victims and refused to provide some services to foreign victims, at times including shelter (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transit point for cannabis, heroin, and opium moving to Europe, Israel, and North Africa; transit stop for Nigerian drug couriers; concern as money laundering site due to lax enforcement of financial regulations" } diff --git a/africa/ek.json b/africa/ek.json index 21a0790c..dca06359 100644 --- a/africa/ek.json +++ b/africa/ek.json @@ -1093,10 +1093,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Equatorial Guinea is a source country for children subjected to sex trafficking and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor; Equatorial Guinean girls may be encouraged by their parents to engage in the sex trade in urban centers to receive groceries, gifts, housing, and money; children are also trafficked from nearby countries for work as domestic servants, market laborers, ambulant vendors, and launderers; women are trafficked to Equatorial Guinea from Cameroon, Benin, other neighboring countries, and China for forced labor or prostitution" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Equatorial Guinea and Equatoguineans abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are subjected to forced domestic service and commercial sex in cities, particularly in the hospitality and restaurant sector; local and foreign women, including Latin Americans, are exploited in commercial sex domestically, while some Equatoguinean women are sex trafficked in Spain; some children from rural areas have been forced into domestic servitude; children from nearby countries are forced to labor as domestic workers, market workers, vendors, and launderers; individuals recruited from African countries and temporary workers from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are sometimes exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Equatorial Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards on the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, the government made no efforts to investigate or prosecute any suspected trafficking offenders or to identify or protect victims, despite its 2004 law prohibiting all forms of trafficking and mandating the provision of services to victims; undocumented migrants continued to be deported without being screened to assess whether any were trafficking victims; authorities did not undertake any trafficking awareness campaigns, implement any programs to address forced child labor, or make any other efforts to prevent trafficking (2015)" + "text": "

Tier 2 Watch List — Equatorial Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities investigated, and for the first time since 2010, initiated the prosecution of alleged human traffickers; the government partnered with an international organization to provide training for more than 700 officials and civil society actors; authorities developed and implemented formal screening procedures to identify victims within vulnerable populations, an effort that had stalled for five years; however, the government still has not convicted a trafficker or any complicit government employees under its 2004 anti-trafficking law; a lack of training among judicial officials has resulted in potential trafficking crimes being tried under related statutes; victim services remained inadequate; authorities did not report referring any trafficking victims to government housing that was supposed to serve as temporary shelter (2020)

" } } } diff --git a/africa/er.json b/africa/er.json index d49fca82..e1d7d8c6 100644 --- a/africa/er.json +++ b/africa/er.json @@ -1098,10 +1098,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Eritrea is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor domestically and, to a lesser extent, sex and labor trafficking abroad; the country’s national service program is often abused, with conscripts detained indefinitely and subjected to forced labor; Eritrean migrants, often fleeing national service, face strict exit control procedures and limited access to passports and visas, making them vulnerable to trafficking; Eritrean secondary school children are required to take part in public works projects during their summer breaks and must attend military and educational camp in their final year to obtain a high school graduation certificate and to gain access to higher education and some jobs; some Eritreans living in or near refugee camps, particularly in Sudan, are kidnapped by criminal groups and held for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula and Libya, where they are subjected to forced labor and abuse" + "text": "human traffickers export domestic victims in Eritrea or abroad; National Service is mandatory at age 18 and may take a variety of forms, including military service and physical labor but also government office jobs and teaching; Eritreans who flee the country, usually with the aim of reaching Europe, seek the help of paid smugglers and are vulnerable to trafficking when they cross the border clandestinely into Sudan, Ethiopia, and to a lesser extent Djibouti; Eritreans are subject to forced labor and sex trafficking mainly in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Eritrea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government failed to investigate or prosecute any trafficking offenses or to identify or protect any victims; while the government continued to warn citizens of the dangers of human trafficking through awareness-raising events and poster campaigns, authorities lacked an understanding of the crime, conflating trafficking with transnational migration; Eritrea is not a party to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Eritrea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government engaged in critical bilateral and multilateral partnerships to build its capacity for anti-trafficking initiatives; officials participated in a UN-sponsored regional anti-trafficking workshop and committed to produce a regional plan of action to combat trafficking; however, a government policy or pattern of forced labor existed; the government continued to subject its nationals to forced labor in its compulsory national service and citizen militia by forcing them to serve indefinitely or for arbitrary periods; authorities did not report any trafficking investigations, prosecutions, or convictions, including complicit government employees, nor did they report identifying victims and referring them to care; the government has no action plan to combat human trafficking (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/et.json b/africa/et.json index 5b3899e8..aef37dc6 100644 --- a/africa/et.json +++ b/africa/et.json @@ -520,7 +520,7 @@ "note": "etymology: the name in Amharic means \"new flower\" and was bestowed on the city in 1889, three years after its founding" }, "Administrative divisions": { - "text": "9 ethnically based regional states (kililoch, singular - kilil) and 2 self-governing administrations* (astedaderoch, singular - astedader); Adis Abeba* (Addis Ababa), Afar, Amara (Amhara), Binshangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa*, Gambela Hizboch (Gambela Peoples), Hareri Hizb (Harari People), Oromiya (Oromia), Sumale (Somali), Tigray, Ye Debub Biheroch Bihereseboch na Hizboch (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples); note - a new Sidama regional state  has been announced but it is not yet officially recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names" + "text": "10 ethnically based regional states (kililoch, singular - kilil) and 2 self-governing administrations* (astedaderoch, singular - astedader); Adis Abeba* (Addis Ababa), Afar, Amara (Amhara), Binshangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa*, Gambela Hizboch (Gambela Peoples), Hareri Hizb (Harari People), Oromiya (Oromia), Sidama, Sumale (Somali), Tigray, Ye Debub Biheroch Bihereseboch na Hizboch (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples)" }, "Independence": { "text": "oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world - at least 2,000 years (may be traced to the Aksumite Kingdom, which coalesced in the first century B.C.)" @@ -1177,7 +1177,7 @@ "text": "18 years of age for voluntary military service; no compulsory military service, but the military can conduct callups when necessary and compliance is compulsory (2019)" }, "Military - note": { - "text": "each of the nine states has a regional and/or a special (paramilitary) security force that report to regional civilian authorities; local militias operate across the country in loose and varying coordination with these regional security and police forces, the Ethiopian Federal Police (EFP), and the Ethiopian military; the EFP reports to the Ministry of Peace, which was created in October of 2018

Ethiopia faces considerable ethnic violence in some regions, including Oromo, where the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has conducted numerous attacks targeting the Amhara ethnic group; the OLA, assessed to number in the low thousands, broke off from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that spent years in exile but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after ABIY took office in 2018

in November 2020, the Ethiopian Government launched military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – an ethnically-based political entity that runs the Tigray regional government and had its own paramilitary security forces; the TPLF had increasingly challenged the authority of the Federal Government; the TPLF’s security forces date back to the 1980s when it led the guerrilla movement that brought the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition to power

" + "text": "each of the nine states has a regional and/or a special (paramilitary) security force that report to regional civilian authorities; local militias operate across the country in loose and varying coordination with these regional security and police forces, the Ethiopian Federal Police (EFP), and the Ethiopian military; the EFP reports to the Ministry of Peace, which was created in October of 2018

Ethiopia faces considerable ethnic violence in some regions, including Oromo, where the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) has conducted numerous attacks targeting the Amhara ethnic group; the OLA, assessed to number in the low thousands, broke off from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition party that spent years in exile but was allowed to return to Ethiopia after ABIY took office in 2018

in November 2020, the Ethiopian Government launched military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – an ethnically-based political entity that runs the Tigray regional government and had its own paramilitary security forces; the TPLF had increasingly challenged the authority of the Federal Government; the TPLF’s security forces date back to the 1980s when it led the guerrilla movement that brought the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition to power; during the fighting, the Ethiopian Government allowed ethnic Amhara and Afar militias to attack the TLPF (now merged into the Tigray Defense Forces, TDF); in addition, it invited Eritrean military forces to join in the fighting; as of May 2021, the Ethiopian military continued operations against the TLPF/TDF, which has resorted to guerrilla warfare; Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces, as well as ethnic militias, have all been accused of committing atrocities against Tigrayan civilians 

" } }, "Terrorism": { @@ -1192,7 +1192,7 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "368,822 (South Sudan), 208,825 (Somalia), 178,931 (Eritrea), 44,864 (Sudan) (2021)" + "text": "368,822 (South Sudan), 208,825 (Somalia), 182,853 (Eritrea), 45,249 (Sudan) (2021)" }, "IDPs": { "text": "1,735,481 (includes conflict- and climate-induced IDPs, excluding unverified estimates from the Amhara region; border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000; ethnic clashes; and ongoing fighting between the Ethiopian military and separatist rebel groups in the Somali and Oromia regions; natural disasters; intercommunal violence; most IDPs live in Sumale state) (2019)" diff --git a/africa/ga.json b/africa/ga.json index 353b6f93..4d79c73a 100644 --- a/africa/ga.json +++ b/africa/ga.json @@ -1127,10 +1127,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "The Gambia is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Gambian women, girls, and, to a lesser extent, boys are exploited for prostitution and domestic servitude; women, girls, and boys from West African countries are trafficked to The Gambia for commercial sexual exploitation, particularly by European sex tourists; boys in some Koranic schools are forced into street vending or begging; some Gambian children have been identified as victims of forced labor in neighboring West African countries" + "text": "The Gambia is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Gambian women, children, and, to a lesser extent, boys are exploited for prostitution and domestic servitude; women, girls, and boys from West African countries are trafficked to the Gambia for sexual exploitation, particularly catering to European tourists seeking sex with children; some Gambian trafficking victims have been identified in neighboring West African countries and the UK; boys in some Koranic schools are forced into street vending or begging" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – The Gambia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government demonstrated minimal anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, investigating one trafficking case but not prosecuting or convicting any offenders in 2014; authorities did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any government employees complicit in trafficking, although corruption was a serious problem; the government identified and repatriated 19 Gambian girls subjected to domestic servitude in Lebanon but did not identify or provide protective services to any trafficking victims in The Gambia; a government program continued to provide resources and financial support to 12 Koranic schools on the condition that their students were not forced to beg (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — The Gambia does not meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking, but it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has increased investigations, identified more trafficking victims, improved security at a Department of Social Welfare shelter, increased training for officials, and raised public awareness of the problem of trafficking; the government was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List during this rating period; despite these efforts, the government did not convict a trafficker for the third consecutive year; victim services remained inadequate, and some law enforcement officers reportedly requested  bribes to register trafficking complaints (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/gb.json b/africa/gb.json index 1bd70304..4501f3c8 100644 --- a/africa/gb.json +++ b/africa/gb.json @@ -1157,14 +1157,6 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "

UN urges Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and lesser islands and to establish a maritime boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay

" - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Gabon is primarily a destination and transit country for adults and children from West and Central African countries subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; boys are forced to work as street vendors, mechanics, or in the fishing sector, while girls are subjected to domestic servitude or forced to work in markets or roadside restaurants; West African women are forced into domestic servitude or prostitution; men are reportedly forced to work on cattle farms; some foreign adults end up in forced labor in Gabon after initially seeking the help of human smugglers to help them migrate clandestinely; traffickers operate in loose, ethnic-based criminal networks, with female traffickers recruiting and facilitating the transport of victims from source countries; in some cases, families turn child victims over to traffickers, who promise paid jobs in Gabon" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Gabon does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; Gabon’s existing laws do not prohibit all forms of trafficking, and the government failed to pass a legal amendment drafted in 2013 to criminalize the trafficking of adults; anti-trafficking law enforcement decreased in 2014, dropping from 50 investigations to 16, and the only defendant to face prosecution fled the country; government efforts to identify and refer victims to protective services declined from 50 child victims in 2013 to just 3 in 2014, none of whom was referred to a care facility; the government provided support to four centers offering services to orphans and vulnerable children – 14 child victims identified by an NGO received government assistance; no adult victims have been identified since 2009 (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/gh.json b/africa/gh.json index ad57e670..aed57025 100644 --- a/africa/gh.json +++ b/africa/gh.json @@ -1181,14 +1181,6 @@ "text": "6,340 (Cote d'Ivoire) (flight from 2010 post-election fighting) (2021)" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the trafficking of Ghanians, particularly children, internally is more common than the trafficking of foreign nationals; Ghanian children are subjected to forced labor in fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, mining, quarrying, herding, and agriculture, with girls, and to a lesser extent boys, forced into prostitution; Ghanian women, sometimes lured with legitimate job offers, and girls are sex trafficked in West Africa, the Middle East, and Europe; Ghanian men fraudulently recruited for work in the Middle East are subjected to forced labor or prostitution, and a few Ghanian adults have been identified as victims of false labor in the US; women and girls from Vietnam, China, and neighboring West African countries are sex trafficked in Ghana; the country is also a transit point for sex trafficking from West Africa to Europe" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Ghana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; Ghana continued to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses but was unable to ramp up its anti-trafficking efforts in 2014 because the government failed to provide law enforcement or protection agencies with operating budgets; victim protection efforts decreased in 2014, with significantly fewer victims identified; most child victims were referred to NGO-run facilities, but care for adults was lacking because the government did not provide any support to the country’s Human Trafficking Fund for victim services or its two shelters; anti-trafficking prevention measures increased modestly, including reconvening of the Human Trafficking Management Board, public awareness campaigns on child labor and trafficking, and anti-trafficking TV and radio programs (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "illicit producer of cannabis for the international drug trade; major transit hub for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and, to a lesser extent, South American cocaine destined for Europe and the US; widespread crime and money-laundering problem, but the lack of a well-developed financial infrastructure limits the country's utility as a money-laundering center; significant domestic cocaine and cannabis use" } diff --git a/africa/gv.json b/africa/gv.json index af1d5259..a0a38a48 100644 --- a/africa/gv.json +++ b/africa/gv.json @@ -1166,10 +1166,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Guinea is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the majority of trafficking victims are Guinean children, and trafficking is more prevalent among Guineans than foreign national migrants; Guinean girls are subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation, while boys are forced to beg or to work as street vendors, shoe shiners, or miners; Guinea is a source country and transit point for West African children forced to work as miners in the region; Guinean women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and sex trafficking in West Africa, the Middle East, the US, and increasingly Europe, while Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese women are forced into prostitution and some West Africans are forced into domestic servitude in Guinea" + "text": "Guinea is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the majority of trafficking victims are Guinean children; Guinean girls are subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation, while boys are forced to beg, work as street vendors, shoe shiners, or miners; some Guinean children are forced to mine in Senegal, Mali, and possibly other West African countries; Guinean women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and sex trafficking in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, Greece, and Spain, while Chinese and Vietnamese women are reportedly forced into prostitution in Guinea" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Guinea was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; no new investigations were conducted in 2014, and the one ongoing case led to the prosecution of four offenders for forced child labor, three of whom were convicted but given inadequate sentences for the crime; the government did not identify or provide protective services to victims and did not support NGOs that assisted victims but continued to refer child victims to NGOs on an ad hoc basis; Guinean law does not prohibit all forms of trafficking, excluding, for example, debt bondage; the 2014 Ebolavirus outbreak negatively affected Guinea’s ability to address human trafficking (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however it is making significant efforts to do so; the government  drafted a new anti-trafficking action plan, provided support to eight victims exploited in the Middle East, and incorporated anti-trafficking training into the law enforcement curriculum; however, the government did not overall increase efforts compared to the last rating period; investigations and prosecutions of trafficking crimes decreased, victim identification was inadequate, and NGO’s providing victim services did not receive government support; for the fourth year, resources for the anti-trafficking committee or the Office for the Protection of Gender, Children and Morals were inadequate; a Quranic teacher was not prosecuted for allegedly forcing child begging; Guinea was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/ke.json b/africa/ke.json index 90375ea6..77f543fd 100644 --- a/africa/ke.json +++ b/africa/ke.json @@ -1221,7 +1221,7 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "268,299 (Somalia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 128,644 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 29,969 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 29,778 (Ethiopia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 17,511 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2021)" + "text": "268,299 (Somalia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 128,644 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 29,969 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 20,694 (Ethiopia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 7,080 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2021)" }, "IDPs": { "text": "162,000 (election-related violence, intercommunal violence, resource conflicts, al-Shabaab attacks in 2017 and 2018) (2019)" diff --git a/africa/lt.json b/africa/lt.json index a8d7ba8a..c23d32c9 100644 --- a/africa/lt.json +++ b/africa/lt.json @@ -1098,10 +1098,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Lesotho is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and for men subjected to forced labor; in Lesotho and South Africa, Basotho women and children are subjected to domestic servitude, and Basotho children increasingly endure commercial sexual exploitation; some Basotho men who voluntarily migrate to South Africa for work become victims of forced labor in agriculture and mining or are coerced into committing crimes; foreign nationals continue to traffic fellow citizens in Lesotho" + "text": "Lesotho is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and for men subjected to forced labor; Basotho women and children are subjected to domestic servitude and children, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation within Lesotho and South Africa; some Basotho women willingly migrate to South Africa seeking work in domestic service only to be forced into prostitution; some Basotho men who voluntarily migrate to South Africa for work become victims of forced labor in agriculture and mining or are coerced into committing crimes" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Lesotho does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Lesotho was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; the government failed to initiate any prosecutions against alleged traffickers and has not convicted any offenders under the 2011 anti-trafficking act, which remains unimplemented for a fifth year; authorities did not develop formal victim identification and referral procedures, did not establish victim care centers, as required under the 2011 anti-trafficking act, and did not support NGOs offering victims protective services (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Lesotho does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore it was downgraded to Tier 3; positive steps included partnering with an NGO and an international organization in awareness-raising activities, participating in a regional data collection tool, and training 27 diplomats on trafficking in persons; however, authorities did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers or officials complicit in trafficking and did not investigate concerns of official complicity in trafficking crimes restricted law enforcement actions; fewer victims were identified and received no protective services; no standard operating procedures for victim identification or implementation of the national referral mechanism; the government did not finance  the Victims of Trafficking Trust Fund or the Child and Gender Protection Unit; front-line responders to trafficking crimes are inadequately trained; penalties for human trafficking are not stringent enough to serve as a deterrent (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/ly.json b/africa/ly.json index 0e35e27b..28fbed32 100644 --- a/africa/ly.json +++ b/africa/ly.json @@ -1056,14 +1056,6 @@ "IDPs": { "text": "278,177 (conflict between pro-QADHAFI and anti-QADHAFI forces in 2011; post-QADHAFI tribal clashes 2014) (2020)" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Libya is a destination and transit country for men and women from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution; migrants who seek employment in Libya as laborers and domestic workers or who transit Libya en route to Europe are vulnerable to forced labor; private employers also exploit migrants from detention centers as forced laborers on farms and construction sites, returning them to detention when they are no longer needed; some Sub-Saharan women are reportedly forced to work in Libyan brothels, particularly in the country’s south; since 2013, militia groups and other informal armed groups, including some affiliated with the government, are reported to conscript Libyan children under the age of 18; large-scale violence driven by militias, civil unrest, and increased lawlessness increased in 2014, making it more difficult to obtain information on human trafficking" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - the Libyan Government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, the government’s capacity to address human trafficking was hampered by the ongoing power struggle and violence; the judicial system was not functioning, preventing any efforts to investigate, prosecute, or convict traffickers, complicit detention camp guards or government officials, or militias or armed groups that used child soldiers; the government failed to identify or provide protection to trafficking victims, including child conscripts, and continued to punish victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; no public anti-trafficking awareness campaigns were conducted (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/ml.json b/africa/ml.json index 619317e3..d6c87679 100644 --- a/africa/ml.json +++ b/africa/ml.json @@ -1160,10 +1160,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Mali is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking, but foreign women and girls are forced into domestic servitude, agricultural labor, and support roles in gold mines, as well as subjected to sex trafficking; Malian boys are forced to work in agricultural settings, gold mines, the informal commercial sector and to beg within Mali and neighboring countries; Malians and other Africans who travel through Mali to Mauritania, Algeria, or Libya in hopes of reaching Europe are particularly at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking; men and boys, primarily of Songhai ethnicity, are subjected to debt bondage in the salt mines of Taoudenni in northern Mali; some members of Mali's Tamachek community are subjected to hereditary slavery-related practices; Malian women and girls are victims of sex trafficking in Gabon, Libya, Lebanon, and Tunisia; the recruitment of child soldiers by armed groups in northern Mali decreased" + "text": "Mali is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; women and girls are forced into domestic servitude, agricultural labor, and support roles in gold mines, as well as subjected to sex trafficking; Malian boys are found in conditions of forced labor in agricultural settings, gold mines, and the informal commercial sector, as well as forced begging in Mali and neighboring countries; Malians and other Africans who travel through Mali to Mauritania, Algeria, or Libya in hopes of reaching Europe are particularly at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking; men and boys, primarily of Songhai ethnicity, are subjected to debt bondage in the salt mines of Taoudenni in northern Mali; some members of Mali's Tuareg community are subjected to traditional slavery-related practices, and this involuntary servitude reportedly has extended to their children; reports indicate that non-governmental armed groups operating in northern Mali recruited children as combatants, cooks, porters, guards, spies, and sex slaves; slaveholders use some members of the Tuareg community in hereditary servitude where communities rather than individuals or families exploit the enslaved" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Mali does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Mali was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; officials failed to distribute the 2012 anti-trafficking law to judicial and law enforcement personnel, perpetuating a lack of understanding and awareness of the legislation; anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts decreased in 2014, with only one case investigated and no prosecutions or convictions; fewer victims were identified, and the government did not support the privately funded NGOs and international organizations it relied upon to provide victims with services; the government did not conduct any awareness-raising campaigns, workshops, or training sessions (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Mali does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; government efforts included prosecuting hereditary slavery cases, increasing convictions, continuing training and awareness raising activities, releasing all children associated with the Malian armed forces (FAMa) to an international organization for care, training law enforcement officials on protection of children in armed conflict, identifying 215 children used by armed groups and referring them to international organizations for care; however, the government did not stop all use of children in the FAMa; the government continued to provide support to and collaborate with the Imghad Tuareg and the Allies Self-Defense Group, which recruited and used child soldiers; authorities did not investigate any suspects for child soldier offenses or make efforts to prevent it; law enforcement lacked resources and training about human trafficking; services for victims remained insufficient; therefore, Mali was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/mr.json b/africa/mr.json index 07caf7ee..1a44de11 100644 --- a/africa/mr.json +++ b/africa/mr.json @@ -1181,10 +1181,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Mauritania is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; adults and children from traditional slave castes are subjected to slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships; Mauritanian boy students called talibes are trafficked within the country by religious teachers for forced begging; Mauritanian girls, as well as girls from Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and other West African countries, are forced into domestic servitude; Mauritanian women and girls are forced into prostitution domestically or transported to countries in the Middle East for the same purpose, sometimes through forced marriages" + "text": "Mauritania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to conditions of forced labor and sex trafficking; adults and children from traditional slave castes are subjected to slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships; Mauritanian boys  are trafficked within the country by religious teachers for forced begging; Mauritanian girls, as well as girls from Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and other West African countries, are forced into domestic servitude; Mauritanian women and girls are forced into prostitution in the country or transported to countries in the Middle East for the same purpose" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - Mauritania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts were negligible; one slavery case identified by an NGO was investigated, but no prosecutions or convictions were made, including among the 4,000 child labor cases NGOs referred to the police; the 2007 anti-slavery law remains ineffective because it requires slaves, most of whom are illiterate, to file their own legal complaint, and the government agency that can submit claims on them did not file any in 2014; authorities arrested, prosecuted, and convicted several anti-slavery activists; NGOs continued to provide the majority of protective services to trafficking victims without support from the government; some steps were taken to raise public awareness about human trafficking (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Mauritania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so and was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List; the government convicted five hereditary slaveholders, drafted new anti-trafficking legislation and a national action plan, raised awareness on child forced begging in Quranic schools with imams and religious leaders by establishing an inter-ministerial committee, published a child protection guide, and operated a cash transfer program; however, the government rarely imprisoned convicted slaveholders and did not identify any victims; government agencies lacked resources; government officials refuse to investigate or prosecute political offenders (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/ni.json b/africa/ni.json index 3811d889..bdd4f0c1 100644 --- a/africa/ni.json +++ b/africa/ni.json @@ -1221,6 +1221,14 @@ "text": "2,878,931 (northeast Nigeria; Boko Haram attacks and counterinsurgency efforts in northern Nigeria; communal violence between Christians and Muslims in the middle belt region, political violence; flooding; forced evictions; cattle rustling; competition for resources) (2021)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Nigeria along with victims from Nigeria abroad; internal trafficking involving recruiting victims from rural areas for commercial sex  and forced labor in domestic work, street vending, mining, agriculture, begging and textile
manufacturing; traffickers operate “baby factories” where women held against their will are raped and children are sold into forced labor or sex trafficking or rented to beggars to increase their profits; women are often taken to other West and Central African countries, South Africa, Europe and the Middle East for commercial sex; Boko Haram and ISIS-WA forcibly recruit, abduct, and use child soldiers as young as 12 as cooks, spies, messengers, bodyguards, armed combatants, and suicide bombers; they abduct women and girls in the northern region of Nigeria for sexual slavery and forced labor" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Nigeria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government is continuing to train officials and raise public awareness; the government established anti-trafficking task forces in Borno and Ekiti states and used new technology to collect victim testimony; authorities prosecuted three government officials complicit in human trafficking; the government is drafting a memoranda of understanding that will improve coordination between government agencies; however, security forces used at least two children in support roles; some security officials were involved in sex trafficking; no criminal charges were made against military officials or members of the Civilian Joint Task Force for sex trafficking or the use of child soldiers; no protections were given to female and child trafficking victims allegedly associated with insurgencies; fewer traffickers were convicted; Nigeria was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "a transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for European, East Asian, and North American markets; consumer of amphetamines; safe haven for Nigerian narcotraffickers operating worldwide; major money-laundering center; massive corruption and criminal activity; Nigeria has improved some anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and Territories List in June 2006; Nigeria's anti-money-laundering regime continues to be monitored by FATF" } diff --git a/africa/od.json b/africa/od.json index 10dc7248..1653cd30 100644 --- a/africa/od.json +++ b/africa/od.json @@ -461,7 +461,7 @@ "text": "04 51 N, 31 37 E" }, "time difference": { - "text": "UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)" + "text": "UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)" }, "note": "etymology: the name derives from Djouba, another name for the Bari people of South Sudan" }, @@ -739,7 +739,7 @@ "text": "United Arab Emirates 37%, Kenya 18%, China 18% (2019)" }, "Imports - commodities": { - "text": "Cars, delivery trucks, packaged medicines, foodstuffs, clothing and apparel (2019)" + "text": "cars, delivery trucks, packaged medicines, foodstuffs, clothing and apparel (2019)" }, "Reserves of foreign exchange and gold": { "Reserves of foreign exchange and gold 31 December 2016": { @@ -1022,10 +1022,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "South Sudan is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; South Sudanese women and girls, particularly those who are internally displaced, orphaned, refugees, or from rural areas, are vulnerable to forced labor and sexual exploitation, often in urban centers; children may be victims of forced labor in construction, market vending, shoe shining, car washing, rock breaking, brick making, delivery cart pulling, and begging; girls are also forced into marriages and subsequently subjected to sexual slavery or domestic servitude; women and girls migrate willingly from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to South Sudan with the promise of legitimate jobs and are forced into the sex trade; inter-ethnic abductions and abductions by criminal groups continue, with abductees subsequently forced into domestic servitude, herding, or sex trafficking; in 2014, the recruitment and use of child soldiers increased significantly within government security forces and was also prevalent among opposition forces" + "text": "South Sudan is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; South Sudanese women and girls, particularly those who are internally displaced or from rural areas, are vulnerable to forced labor and sexual exploitation in urban centers; the rising number of street children and child laborers are also exploited for forced labor and prostitution; women and girls from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Democratic Republic of the Congo are trafficked to South Sudan with promises of legitimate jobs and are forced into the sex trade; inter-ethnic abductions continue between some communities in South Sudan; government forces use children to fight and perpetrate violence against other children and civilians, to serve as scouts, escorts, cooks, and cleaners, and to carry heavy loads while on the move" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – South Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; despite the government’s formal recommitment to an action plan to eliminate the recruitment and use of child soldiers by 2016, the practice expanded during 2014, and the government did not hold any officers criminally responsible; government officials reportedly are complicit in trafficking offenses but these activities continue to go uninvestigated; authorities reportedly identified five trafficking victims but did not transfer them to care facilities; law enforcement continued to arrest and imprison individuals for prostitution, including trafficking victims; no known steps were taken to address the exploitation of South Sudanese nationals working abroad or foreign workers in South Sudan (2015)" + "text": "

Tier 3 — South Sudan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so: the government’s efforts include forming and staffing an anti-trafficking inter-ministerial task force, releasing 286 child soldiers, and identifying 19 potential trafficking victims; however, the recruitment of child soldiers by security and law enforcement continues and neither was held criminally responsible; authorities did not investigate or prosecute forced labor or sex trafficking crimes and made no effort to identify and protect trafficking victims; authorities continued to arrest and imprison child sex trafficking victims without screening for indicators of trafficking (2020)

" } } } diff --git a/africa/pu.json b/africa/pu.json index ff9c7f55..f1086f0a 100644 --- a/africa/pu.json +++ b/africa/pu.json @@ -1070,15 +1070,15 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "7,803 (Senegal) (2021)" + "text": "7,696 (Senegal) (2021)" } }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Guinea-Bissau is a source country for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the extent to which adults are trafficked for forced labor or forced prostitution is unclear; boys are forced into street vending in Guinea-Bissau and manual labor, agriculture, and mining in Senegal, while girls may be forced into street vending, domestic service, and, to a lesser extent, prostitution in Guinea and Senegal; some Bissau-Guinean boys at Koranic schools are forced into begging by religious teachers" + "text": "Guinea-Bissau is a country of origin and destination for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the scope of the problem of trafficking women or men for forced labor or forced prostitution is unknown; boys reportedly were transported to southern Senegal for forced manual and agricultural labor; girls may be subjected to forced domestic service and child prostitution in Senegal and Guinea; both boys and girls are forced to work as street vendors in cities in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - Guinea-Bissau does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; despite enacting an anti-trafficking law and adopting a national action plan in 2011, the country failed to demonstrate any notable anti-trafficking efforts for the third consecutive year; existing laws prohibiting all forms of trafficking were not used to prosecute any trafficking offenders in 2014, and only one case of potential child labor trafficking was under investigation; authorities continued to rely entirely on NGOs and international organizations to provide victims with protective services; no trafficking prevention activities were conducted (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Guinea-Bissau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include identifying forced child begging victims, cooperating with Moroccan authorities on international crime investigations, and approving a new action plan; yet, the government has not convicted a trafficker, identified fewer trafficking victims, and lacked resources or the political will to fight trafficking or to enact its action plan, which would meet minimum standards; Guinea-Bissau was granted a waiver under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/africa/rw.json b/africa/rw.json index e08b66b3..4578fbf3 100644 --- a/africa/rw.json +++ b/africa/rw.json @@ -1129,7 +1129,7 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "74,751 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 50,602 (Burundi) (2021)" + "text": "74,751 (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 47,803 (Burundi) (2021)" } } } diff --git a/africa/se.json b/africa/se.json index ba2d21f5..f74a6e84 100644 --- a/africa/se.json +++ b/africa/se.json @@ -1054,6 +1054,14 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "

Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Islands (UK-administered British Indian Ocean Territory)

" + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "Seychelles is a source and destination country for children and women subjected to sex trafficking; Seychellois girls and, to a lesser extent boys, are forced into prostitution in nightclubs, bars, guest houses, hotels, brothels, private homes, and on the streets by peers, family members, and pimps; foreign tourists, sailors, and migrant workers contribute to the demand for commercial sex acts in Seychelles; some of the large population of foreign migrant workers reportedly experience the underpayment of wages and substandard housing" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Seychelles does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government allocated an operational and programmatic budget to the National Coordinating Committee on Trafficking in Persons, signed a bilateral agreement outlining procedures for employment and repatriation in Seychelles of migrant workers from Bangladesh and established a hotline to report forced labor concerns; however, no victims of trafficking were identified; efforts to address sex trafficking remained inadequate, its standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral to care services were not implemented; there are no shelters or care facilities for trafficking victims; investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of traffickers decreased; Seychelles did not establish a secretariat to support the Coordinating Committee, hindering the committee’s ability to direct anti-trafficking efforts across government and drive national policy; Seychelles was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" + } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/sg.json b/africa/sg.json index 78b2259b..85ecbf01 100644 --- a/africa/sg.json +++ b/africa/sg.json @@ -1187,6 +1187,14 @@ "text": "8,400 (clashes between government troops and separatists in Casamance region in the 1990s and early 2000s) (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "Senegal is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women who are subjected to forced begging, forced labor, and sex trafficking; traffickers subject Senegalese children to forced labor in domestic service, mining, and prostitution; some Senegalese boys from Quranic schools and boys from The Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea are forced to beg; Senegalese women and girls are forced into domestic servitude in neighboring countries, Europe, and the Middle East, while others are sexually exploited in Senegal; women and girls from other West African countries are subjected to domestic servitude and sexual exploitation in Senegal; Ukrainian and Chinese women are exploited for sex trafficking in bars and nightclubs; North Korean workers are forced to work in construction" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Senegal does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include establishing an anti-trafficking database; planning the third phase of its program to remove vulnerable children, including trafficking victims, from the streets of major cities; launching an emergency campaign to place vulnerable children and forced begging victims in shelters due to COVID 19 pandemic; however, the government rarely proactively investigated or prosecuted traffickers exploiting children in forced begging; authorities did not take action against officials who refused to investigate such cases; officials only applied adequate prison terms in accordance with the 2005 anti-trafficking law to two convicted traffickers; authorities did not identify any adult trafficking victims; government officials continued to have a limited knowledge of trafficking; Senegal was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and South American cocaine moving to Europe and North America; illicit cultivator of cannabis" } diff --git a/africa/su.json b/africa/su.json index 5d1df3b5..f6213cf2 100644 --- a/africa/su.json +++ b/africa/su.json @@ -1187,10 +1187,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Sudanese women and girls, particularly those from rural areas or who are internally displaced, or refugees are vulnerable to domestic servitude in country, as well as domestic servitude and sex trafficking abroad; migrants from East and West Africa, South Sudan, Syria, and Nigeria smuggled into or through Sudan are vulnerable to exploitation; Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Filipino women are subjected to domestic servitude in Sudanese homes, and East African and possibly Thai women are forced into prostitution in Sudan; Sudanese children continue to be recruited and used as combatants by government forces and armed groups" + "text": "Sudan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; traffickers exploit homeless children and unaccompanied migrant children from West and Central Africa in forced labor for begging, public transportation, large markets, and in sex trafficking; business owners, informal mining operators, community members, and farmers exploit children in brick-making factories, gold mining, collecting medical waste, street vending, and agriculture; children are exposed to threats, physical and sexual abuse, and hazardous working conditions; criminal groups exploit Sudanese women and girls from rural areas in domestic work and in sex trafficking; Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a semi-autonomous paramilitary branch of the government, recruited child soldiers; Eritrean, Ethiopian, and other Africans refugees at government encampments risk exploitation" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government increased its efforts to publically address and prevent trafficking, established a national anti-trafficking council, and began drafting a national action plan against trafficking; the government acknowledges cross-border trafficking but still denies the existence of forced labor, sex trafficking, and the recruitment of child soldiers domestically; law enforcement and judicial officials struggled to apply the national anti-trafficking law, often relying on other statutes with lesser penalties; authorities did not use systematic procedure to identify victims or refer them to care and relied on international organizations and domestic groups to provide protective services; some foreign victims were penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as immigration or prostitution violations (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Sudan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities prosecuted more suspected traffickers and launched an awareness campaign; the government streamlined its national anti-trafficking mechanism and focused resources on the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking; a national action plan was drafted, finalized, and approved; Sudanese Armed Forces officials launched a unit for child protection efforts in conflict areas and trained more than 5,000 members of its military on child protection issues; however, the Rapid Support Forces, a semi-autonomous paramilitary branch of the government, recruited child soldiers; the government has not developed a system to identify, demobilize, and rehabilitate victims; officials’ denial of trafficking, smuggling, and kidnapping for ransom impeded anti-trafficking efforts; investigations and convictions of trafficking crimes decreased; Sudan was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3; Sudan remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year (2020)" } } } diff --git a/africa/to.json b/africa/to.json index e5da34eb..8935c8bc 100644 --- a/africa/to.json +++ b/africa/to.json @@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { - "text": "42.8% of total population (2020)" + "text": "43.4% of total population (2021)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "3.6% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" @@ -448,7 +448,7 @@ }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { - "text": "42.8% of total population (2020)" + "text": "43.4% of total population (2021)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "3.6% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" diff --git a/africa/ts.json b/africa/ts.json index cf40f87c..3eec5737 100644 --- a/africa/ts.json +++ b/africa/ts.json @@ -1134,14 +1134,6 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "

none

" - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Tunisia is a source, destination, and possible transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Tunisia’s increased number of street children, rural children working to support their families, and migrants who have fled unrest in neighboring countries are vulnerable to human trafficking; organized gangs force street children to serve as thieves, beggars, and drug transporters; Tunisian women have been forced into prostitution domestically and elsewhere in the region under false promises of legitimate work; East and West African women may be subjected to forced labor as domestic workers" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Tunisia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Tunisia was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; in early 2015, the government drafted a national anti-trafficking action plan outlining proposals to raise awareness and enact draft anti-trafficking legislation; authorities did not provide data on the prosecution and conviction of offenders but reportedly identified 24 victims, as opposed to none in 2013, and operated facilities specifically dedicated to trafficking victims, regardless of nationality and gender; the government did not fully implement its national victim referral mechanism; some unidentified victims were not protected from punishment for unlawful acts directly resulting from being trafficked (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/tz.json b/africa/tz.json index 8832ed59..ea74ee10 100644 --- a/africa/tz.json +++ b/africa/tz.json @@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ } }, "Natural resources": { - "text": "hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel" + "text": "hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones (including tanzanite, found only in Tanzania), gold, natural gas, nickel" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { @@ -1197,10 +1197,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Tanzania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the exploitation of young girls in domestic servitude continues to be Tanzania’s largest human trafficking problem; Tanzanian boys are subject to forced labor mainly on farms but also in mines and quarries, in the informal commercial sector, in factories, in the sex trade, and possibly on small fishing boats; Tanzanian children and adults are subjected to domestic servitude, other forms of forced labor, and sex trafficking in other African countries, the Middle East, Europe, and the US; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking and is usually facilitated by friends, family members, or intermediaries with false offers of education or legitimate jobs; trafficking victims from Burundi, Kenya, South Asia, and Yemen are forced to work in Tanzania’s agricultural, mining, and domestic service sectors or may be sex trafficked" + "text": "Tanzania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the exploitation of young girls in domestic servitude continues to be Tanzania’s largest human trafficking problem; Tanzanian boys are subject to forced labor mainly on farms but also in mines, in the commercial service sector, in the sex trade, and possibly on small fishing boats; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking and is usually facilitated by friends, family members, or intermediaries offering education or legitimate job opportunities; trafficking victims from Burundi, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Yemen, and India are forced to work in Tanzania’s agricultural, mining, and domestic service sectors or may be sex trafficked; traffickers transported Tanzanian children with physical disabilities to Kenya to work as beggars or in massage parlors; girls forced to donate a kidney to pay for supposed transportation fees to the United Arab Emirates; traffickers subject Tanzanians to forced labor, including in domestic service, and sex trafficking in other African countries, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the United States" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Tanzania does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Tanzania was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; the government adopted a three-year national action plan and implementing regulations for the 2008 anti-trafficking law; authorities somewhat increased their number of trafficking investigations and prosecutions and convicted one offender, but the penalty was a fine in lieu of prison, which was inadequate given the severity of the crime; the government did not operate any shelters for victims and relied on NGOs to provide protective services (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Tanzania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts were made to  identify and refer victims for care; investigations and convictions of traffickers, training for officials, and public awareness campaigns were increased along with a National Guideline for Safe Houses; however, the government did not amend its law to remove sentencing provisions that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment; fewer prosecutions were initiated; the government did not implement the 2018-2021 national action plan; officials did not fully implement the creation of the anti-trafficking fund nor disperse funds; no formal victim identification and protection was provided (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/africa/ug.json b/africa/ug.json index eaf85d95..8e9614f7 100644 --- a/africa/ug.json +++ b/africa/ug.json @@ -1185,6 +1185,14 @@ "IDPs": { "text": "32,000 (displaced in northern Uganda because of fighting between government forces and the Lord's Resistance Army; as of 2011, most of the 1.8 million people displaced to IDP camps at the height of the conflict had returned home or resettled, but many had not found durable solutions; intercommunal violence, land disputes, and cattle raids) (2019)" } + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Uganda, and traffickers exploit victims from Uganda abroad; young Ugandan children are exploited in forced labor in agriculture, fishing, forestry, cattle herding, mining, stone quarrying, brick making, carpentry, steel manufacturing, street vending, bars, restaurants, gold mining, and domestic service; traffickers exploit girls and boys in commercial sex; most are children from the northeastern region and are exploited in forced begging, commercial sex in brothels, or sold in markets; traffickers compel  children from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Sudan into forced agricultural labor and sex trafficking in Uganda; young women most at risk for transnational trafficking seek employment as domestic workers in the Middle East and then are exploited in sex trafficking; traffickers subject Ugandans to forced labor and sex trafficking in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Bahrain, Jordan, China, Kenya, and India; traffickers are often relatives, friends of victims, or religious leaders who receive a fee per worker from recruiters" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch list — Uganda does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include investigating allegations of complicit officials, implementing the protection and prevention provisions of the 2009 anti-trafficking act, convicting alleged traffickers, developing a plan for an anti-trafficking department within the police force; however, the government reported the lowest number of investigations in the past five years and a substantial decrease in prosecutions; authorities provided no training for law enforcement and immigration officials and identified fewer victims; the Coordination Office for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons is severely underfunded, stifling efforts to coordinate and combat trafficking; no systematic procedures to refer or assist victims have been developed, and the government provides no resources to NGOs for protective services; Uganda was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" + } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/uv.json b/africa/uv.json index d8cf8beb..30f6508b 100644 --- a/africa/uv.json +++ b/africa/uv.json @@ -1165,18 +1165,10 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "20,951 (Mali) (2020)" + "text": "21,601 (Mali) (2021)" }, "IDPs": { - "text": "

1,147,699 (2021)

" - } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Burkina Faso is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Burkinabe children are forced to work as farm hands, gold panners and washers, street vendors, domestic servants, and beggars or in the commercial sex trade, with some transported to nearby countries; to a lesser extent, Burkinabe women are recruited for legitimate jobs in the Middle East or Europe and subsequently forced into prostitution; women from other West African countries are also lured to Burkina Faso for work and subjected to forced prostitution, forced labor in restaurants, or domestic servitude" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Burkina Faso does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; law enforcement efforts decreased in 2014, with a significant decline in trafficking prosecutions (none for forced begging involving Koranic school teachers – a prevalent form of trafficking) and no convictions, a 2014 law criminalizing the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography is undermined by a provision allowing offenders to pay a fine in lieu of serving prison time proportionate to the crime; the government sustained efforts to identify and protect a large number of child victims, relying on support from NGOs and international organizations; nationwide awareness-raising activities were sustained, but little was done to stop forced begging (2015)" + "text": "

1,218,754 (2021)

" } } } diff --git a/africa/wa.json b/africa/wa.json index 56cdf273..449f61e8 100644 --- a/africa/wa.json +++ b/africa/wa.json @@ -1171,14 +1171,6 @@ "refugees (country of origin)": { "text": "5,078 (Democratic Republic of the Cong) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2021)" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Namibia is a country of origin and destination for children and, to a lesser extent, women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; victims, lured by promises of legitimate jobs, are forced to work in urban centers and on commercial farms; traffickers exploit Namibian children, as well as children from Angola, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, for forced labor in agriculture, cattle herding, domestic service, fishing, and street vending; children are also forced into prostitution, often catering to tourists from southern Africa and Europe; San and Zemba children are particularly vulnerable; foreign adults and Namibian adults and children are reportedly subjected to forced labor in Chinese-owned retail, construction, and fishing operations" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Namibia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; Namibia was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; in 2015, the Child Care and Protection Bill passed, criminalizing child trafficking; the government’s first sex trafficking prosecution remained pending; no new prosecutions were initiated and no trafficking offenders have ever been convicted; accusations of forced labor at Chinese construction and mining companies continue to go uninvestigated; authorities failed to fully implement victim identification and referral processes, which led to the deportation of possible victims (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/africa/za.json b/africa/za.json index b7e8e3b3..5d4567c8 100644 --- a/africa/za.json +++ b/africa/za.json @@ -1164,6 +1164,14 @@ "text": "59,469 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (refugees and asylum seekers), 7,964 (Burundi) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2021)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Zambia and Zambians abroad; most trafficking occurs within Zambia’s borders, with traffickers exploiting women and children from rural areas in cities in domestic servitude or forced labor in agriculture, textile production, mining, construction, small businesses, such as bakeries, and forced begging; Jerabo gangs force Zambian children into illegal mining operations, such as loading stolen copper or crushing rocks; truck drivers exploit Zambian boys and girls in sex trafficking in towns along the Zimbabwean and Tanzanian borders, and miners exploit them in Solwezi; Zambian boys are exploited for sex trafficking in Zimbabwe and women and girls in South Africa; traffickers exploit victims from Tanzania and Malawi in the Zambian timber industry" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Zambia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making efforts to do so; efforts included increasing law enforcement training, establishing two fast-track human trafficking courts, conducting awareness campaigns about human trafficking, slightly increasing prosecutions and convictions, and strengthening prison sentences given to traffickers; however; investigations of trafficking crimes and funding to shelters and other victim assistance programs decreased; authorities did not proactively screen for trafficking among vulnerable populations, including foreign nationals and those involved in commercial sex; authorities detained and deported potential trafficking victims involved in smuggling; the national inter-ministerial committee is weak in overseeing national anti-trafficking efforts and trends (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for moderate amounts of methaqualone, small amounts of heroin, and cocaine bound for southern Africa and possibly Europe; a poorly developed financial infrastructure coupled with a government commitment to combating money laundering make it an unattractive venue for money launderers; major consumer of cannabis" } diff --git a/australia-oceania/bp.json b/australia-oceania/bp.json index 1a83802f..43ec90c6 100644 --- a/australia-oceania/bp.json +++ b/australia-oceania/bp.json @@ -1043,14 +1043,6 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "

since 2003, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, consisting of police, military, and civilian advisors drawn from 15 countries, has assisted in reestablishing and maintaining civil and political order while reinforcing regional stability and security

" - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "the Solomon Islands is a source and destination country for local adults and children and Southeast Asian men and women subjected to forced labor and forced prostitution; women from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines are recruited for legitimate work and upon arrival are forced into prostitution; men from Indonesia and Malaysia recruited to work in the Solomon Islands’ mining and logging industries may be subjected to forced labor; local children are forced into prostitution near foreign logging camps, on fishing vessels, at hotels, and entertainment venues; some local children are also sold by their parents for marriage to foreign workers or put up for \"informal adoption\" to pay off debts and then find themselves forced into domestic servitude or forced prostitution" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – the Solomon Islands does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, the Solomon Islands was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; the government gazetted implementing regulations for the 2012 immigration act prohibiting transnational trafficking, but the penalties are not sufficiently stringent because they allow the option of paying a fine; a new draft law to address these weaknesses awaits parliamentary review; no new trafficking investigations were conducted, even after labor inspections at logging and fishing companies, no existing cases led to prosecutions or convictions, and no funding was allocated for national anti-trafficking efforts; authorities did not identify or protect any victims and lack any procedures or shelters to do so; civil society and religious organizations provide most of the limited services available; a lack of understanding of the crime of trafficking remains a serious challenge (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/australia-oceania/fj.json b/australia-oceania/fj.json index 3d98bed1..e45e0c72 100644 --- a/australia-oceania/fj.json +++ b/australia-oceania/fj.json @@ -1120,6 +1120,14 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "maritime boundary dispute with Tonga" + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Fiji and Fijians abroad; Fijian women and children and victims from Thailand and China are sex trafficked in illegal brothels, local hotels, private homes, and massage parlors; Fijian children sent to live with families in larger cities are vulnerable to forced labor or sexual activity in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, or school fees; labor traffickers exploit Southeast Asian workers on small informal farms and factories and in construction; Southeast Asian fisherman may be subject to forced labor on Fijian-flagged ships or foreign-flagged ships transiting Fijian ports and water" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Fiji does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement, investigating a similar number of cases as the prior year and convicting a trafficker for the first time since 2014; a government-convened working group finalized an updated anti-trafficking national action plan; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts; law enforcement was often unaware of the definition of trafficking, procedures for interviewing victims, and how to proactively screen vulnerable populations for trafficking victims; inspectors did not adequately investigate labor violations for trafficking indicators or provide adequate support to victims (2020)" + } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/australia-oceania/nf.json b/australia-oceania/nf.json index e55f06da..a91089ac 100644 --- a/australia-oceania/nf.json +++ b/australia-oceania/nf.json @@ -220,6 +220,9 @@ "time difference": { "text": "UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)" }, + "daylight saving time": { + "text": "+1hr, begins first Sunday in October; ends first Sunday in April" + }, "note": "etymology: the name is a blending of the words \"king's\" and \"town\"; the British king at the time of the town's settlement in the late 18th century was George III" }, "Administrative divisions": { diff --git a/australia-oceania/rm.json b/australia-oceania/rm.json index 54b17390..604e7e41 100644 --- a/australia-oceania/rm.json +++ b/australia-oceania/rm.json @@ -1020,10 +1020,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "The Marshall Islands is a source and destination country for Marshallese women and girls and women from East Asia subjected to sex trafficking; Marshallese and foreign women are forced into prostitution in businesses frequented by crew members of fishing and transshipping vessels that dock in Majuro; some Chinese women are recruited to the Marshall Islands with promises of legitimate work and are subsequently forced into prostitution" + "text": "The Marshall Islands are a destination country for women from East Asia subjected to sex trafficking; foreign women are reportedly forced into prostitution in bars frequented by crew members of fishing vessels; some Chinese women are recruited to the Marshall Islands with promises of legitimate work and are subsequently forced into prostitution; wealthy or powerful families use traditional cultural practices to exploit impoverished Marshallese from outer islands as indentured laborers on their property; Marshallese children are transported to the United States and subjected to sexual abuse" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – The Marshall Islands do not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government made no anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, including developing a written plan to combat trafficking; no new trafficking investigations were opened in 2014, and no prosecutions or convictions were made for the fourth consecutive year; no efforts were made to identify trafficking victims, especially among women in prostitution or men working on foreign fishing vessels in Marshallese waters, and no attempt was made to ensure their access to protective services; limited awareness-raising events were conducted by an international organization (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — the Marshall Islands does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include its first trafficking prosecution since 2011 and opening an investigation into an immigration official for alleged trafficking complicity; however, no efforts were made to identify trafficking victims and no assistance was provided to victims; the government has not convicted any traffickers since 2011 (2020)" } } } diff --git a/australia-oceania/tv.json b/australia-oceania/tv.json index 93064f7c..21e747e6 100644 --- a/australia-oceania/tv.json +++ b/australia-oceania/tv.json @@ -448,7 +448,7 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General Iakoba TAEIA Italeli (since 16 April 2010)" + "text": "Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Acting Governor General Teniku TALESI Honolulu
(since 19 August 2019)" }, "head of government": { "text": "Prime Minister Kausea NATANO (since 19 September 2019)" diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/aa.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/aa.json index 2fdc4eb5..97567f0f 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/aa.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/aa.json @@ -904,6 +904,14 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

none

" }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims; foreign men and women are subject to forced labor in Aruba’s services and construction sectors; Venezuelans overstaying visas are at risk of forced labor in domestic service, construction, and commercial sex; Chinese men and women and Indian men are subject to forced labor in retail businesses and domestic service; managers of some Chinese-owned grocery stores and restaurants exploit children through sex trafficking and forced labor

" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Aruba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government provided officials with anti-trafficking training, continued an awareness campaign, and continued to implement the 2018-2022 national action plan; however, officials investigated fewer trafficking cases and did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers; efforts were hindered by the conflation of trafficking with migrant smuggling; authorities also did not report identifying any victims, including Venezuelan migrants and refugees, who are vulnerable to trafficking (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transit point for US- and Europe-bound narcotics with some accompanying money-laundering activity; relatively high percentage of population consumes cocaine" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/ac.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/ac.json index 61df860c..1e6ec9b2 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/ac.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/ac.json @@ -984,14 +984,6 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

none

" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Antigua and Barbuda is a destination and transit country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; forced prostitution has been reported in bars, taverns, and brothels, while forced labor occurs in domestic service and the retail sector" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Antigua and Barbuda does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government made no discernible progress in convicting traffickers in 2014 but charged two individuals in separate cases; efforts to convict traffickers have been impeded by a 2014 ruling that found the 2010 anti-trafficking act was unconstitutional because jurisdiction rests with the Magistrate’s Court rather than the High Court; no new prosecutions, convictions, or punishments were recorded in 2014; credible sources have raised concerns about trafficking-related complicity among some off-duty police officers, which could hinder investigations or victims willingness to report offenses; prevention efforts were sustained, but progress in protecting victims was uneven; seven victims were assisted, which was an increase over 2013 (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "considered a minor transshipment point for narcotics bound for the US and Europe; more significant as an offshore financial center" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/av.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/av.json index 938666f7..ed7704a9 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/av.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/av.json @@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor Tim FOY (since August 2017)" + "text": "Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor Dileeni DANIEL-SELVARATNAM
(since 18 January 2021)" }, "head of government": { "text": "Premier Dr. Ellis WEBSTER (since 30 June 2020); note -  starting in 2019, the title of head of government was changed to premier from chief minister of Anguilla" diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/bb.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/bb.json index 76a27e00..b0bfffca 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/bb.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/bb.json @@ -1024,6 +1024,14 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago abide by the April 2006 Permanent Court of Arbitration decision delimiting a maritime boundary and limiting catches of flying fish in Trinidad and Tobago's exclusive economic zone; joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits Venezuela to extend its Economic Exclusion Zone/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

" }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Barbados; foreign women are subject to sex trafficking; children are exploited in sex trafficking by parents and caregivers, according to anecdotal reports; documented and undocumented migrants from Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and Venezuela are at high risk for trafficking, while migrants from other nearby countries are increasingly vulnerable" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Barbados does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government completed an anti-trafficking manual on assisting and interviewing victims, reinstated the anti-trafficking task force, and increased training for law enforcement and child care officials; however, authorities again did not identify any trafficking victims, reported no new prosecutions, and have never convicted anyone of trafficking; the national action plan has yet to be completed (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "one of many Caribbean transshipment points for narcotics bound for Europe and the US; offshore financial center" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/bh.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/bh.json index d2ac65ed..ccfc1d1f 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/bh.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/bh.json @@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by acting Governor Stuart LESLIE (since 30 April 2021)" + "text": "Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor Froyla TZALAM (since 27 May 2021)" }, "head of government": { "text": "Prime Minister Juan Antonio BRICENO (since 12 November 2020); Deputy Prime Minister Cordel HYDE (since 16 November 2020)" @@ -1091,10 +1091,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Belize is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the coerced prostitution of women and children by family members has not led to arrests; child sex tourism, involving primarily US citizens, is on the rise; sex trafficking and forced labor of Belizean and foreign women and LGBT individuals occurs in bars, nightclubs, brothels, and domestic service; workers from Central America, Mexico, and Asia may fall victim to forced labor in restaurants, shops, agriculture, and fishing" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims and Belizeans abroad; Belizean and foreign women, men, and girls and LGBTI persons, mainly from Central America, are sex trafficked in bars, nightclubs, hotels, and brothels; men, women, and children from Central America, Mexico, and Asia may migrate voluntarily to Belize seeking work and then are subjected to forced labor in restaurants, shops, domestic work, and agriculture; foreign child sex tourists exploit children in tourist areas" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Belize does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; authorities did not initiate any new trafficking investigations of prosecutions, and cases from previous years remain pending; law enforcement efforts to use informal means to identify and refer victims were ineffective and draft procedures for referring victims to services are still not finalized; trafficking victims were more commonly arrested, detained, or deported based on immigration violations than provided with assistance; the government did not make progress in implementing the 2012-14 anti-trafficking national strategic plan (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Belize does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities initiated more trafficking investigations, convicted a trafficker, screened for potential trafficking victims during labor inspections, and continued to implement a 2018-2020 national anti-trafficking action plan; anti-trafficking training was provided to the anti-trafficking police unit, immigration officers, prosecutors, judges, prison officials, and social workers; however, the government did not initiate any new trafficking prosecutions and continued to apply victim identification procedures inconsistently; corruption and official complicity in trafficking remained concerns, but no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees were reported (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/cs.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/cs.json index e702b90d..cc1ea8db 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/cs.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/cs.json @@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ "text": "president and vice presidents directly elected on the same ballot by modified majority popular vote (40% threshold) for a 4-year term (eligible for non-consecutive terms); election last held on 4 February 2018 with a runoff on 1 April 2018 (next to be held in February 2022)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Carlos ALVARADO Quesada elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Fabricio ALVARADO Munoz (PRN) 25%; Carlos ALVARADO Quesada (PAC) 21.6%; Antonio ALVAREZ (PLN) 18.6%; Rodolfo PIZA (PUSC) 16%; Juan Diego CASTRO (PIN) 9.5%; Rodolfo HERNANDEZ (PRS) 4.9%, other 4.4%; percent of vote in second round - Carlos ALVARADO Quesada (PAC) 60.7%; Fabricio ALVARADO Munoz (PRN) 39.3%" + "text": "
2018: Carlos ALVARADO Quesada elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Fabricio ALVARADO Munoz (PRN) 25%; Carlos ALVARADO Quesada (PAC) 21.6%; Antonio ALVAREZ (PLN) 18.6%; Rodolfo PIZA (PUSC) 16%; Juan Diego CASTRO (PIN) 9.5%; Rodolfo HERNANDEZ (PRS) 4.9%, other 4.4%; percent of vote in second round - Carlos ALVARADO Quesada (PAC) 60.7%; Fabricio ALVARADO Munoz (PRN) 39.3%

2014: Luis Guillermo SOLIS Rivera elected president; percent of vote - Luis Guillermo SOLIS Rivera (PAC) 77.8%; Johnny ARAYA (PLN) 22.2%" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -1159,14 +1159,6 @@ "text": "231 (2019)" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Costa Rica is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Costa Rican women and children, as well as those from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and other Latin American countries, are sex trafficked in Costa Rica; child sex tourism is a particular problem with offenders coming from the US and Europe; men and children from Central America, including indigenous Panamanians, and Asia are exploited in agriculture, construction, fishing, and commerce; Nicaraguans transit Costa Rica to reach Panama, where some are subjected to forced labor or sex trafficking" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Costa Rica does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts declined in 2014, with fewer prosecutions and no convictions and no actions taken against complicit government personnel; some officials conflated trafficking with smuggling, and authorities reported the diversion of funds to combat smuggling hindered anti-trafficking efforts; the government identified more victims than the previous year but did not make progress in ensuring that victims received adequate protective services; specialized services were limited and mostly provided by NGOs without government support, even from a dedicated fund for anti-trafficking efforts; victims services were virtually non-existent outside of the capital (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment country for cocaine and heroin from South America; illicit production of cannabis in remote areas; domestic cocaine consumption, particularly crack cocaine, is rising; significant consumption of amphetamines; seizures of smuggled cash in Costa Rica and at the main border crossing to enter Costa Rica from Nicaragua have risen in recent years" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/cu.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/cu.json index a4d4d7d7..9628c709 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/cu.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/cu.json @@ -1127,10 +1127,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Cuba is a source country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; child sex trafficking and child sex tourism occur in Cuba, while some Cubans are forced into prostitution in South America and the Caribbean; allegations have been made that some Cubans have been forced or coerced to work at Cuban medical missions abroad; assessing the scope of trafficking within Cuba is difficult because of the lack of information" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cuba and Cubans abroad; individuals are forced or coerced into participating and threatened to stay in labor export programs, most notably foreign medical missions; sex trafficking and sex tourism occur within Cuba; traffickers exploit Cubans in sex trafficking and forced labor in South America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the US; foreigners from Africa and Asia are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor in Cuba to pay off travel debts; the government uses high school students in some rural areas to harvest crops without pay, claiming that the work is voluntary" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; Cuba’s penal code does not criminalize all forms of human trafficking, but the government reported that it is in the process of amending its criminal code to comply with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol, to which it acceded in 2013; the government in 2014 prosecuted and convicted 13 sex traffickers and provided services to the victims in those cases but does not have shelters specifically for trafficking victims; the government did not recognize forced labor as a problem and took no action to address it; state media produced newspaper articles and TV and radio programs to raise public awareness about sex trafficking (2015)" + "text": "

Tier 3 — Cuba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government made some efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict sex traffickers and sex tourists and identified and provided assistance to some victims; however, no efforts were made to address forced labor; there was a government policy or pattern to profit from labor export programs with strong indications of forced labor, particularly in foreign medical missions; authorities did not protect potential trafficking victims, leaving them at risk of being detained or charged for crimes their traffickers forced them to commit (2020)

" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/dr.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/dr.json index 9855f234..cda01b93 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/dr.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/dr.json @@ -558,7 +558,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 4-year term (eligible for a maximum of two consecutive terms); election last held on 5 July 2020 (next to be held in 2024); note - the 2020 election was rescheduled from 17 May to 5 July 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic" }, "election results": { - "text": "Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona elected president in first round; percent of vote - Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (PRM) 52.5%, Gonzalo CASTILLO Terrero (PLD) 37.5%, Leonel Antonio FERNANDEZ Reyna (FP) 8.9% other 1.1%" + "text": "
2020: Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona elected president in first round; percent of vote - Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (PRM) 52.5%, Gonzalo CASTILLO Terrero (PLD) 37.5%, Leonel Antonio FERNANDEZ Reyna (FP) 8.9% other 1.1%

2016: Danilo MEDINA Sanchez reelected president; percent of vote - Danilo MEDINA Sanchez (PLD) 61.7%, Luis Rodolfo ABINADER Corona (PRM) 35%, other 3.3%; Margarita CEDENO DE FERNANDEZ (PLD) reelected vice president" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -1182,6 +1182,14 @@ }, "note": "note: revised estimate includes only individuals born to parents who were both born abroad; it does not include individuals born in the country to one Dominican-born and one foreign-born parent or subsequent generations of individuals of foreign descent; the estimate, as such, does not include all stateless persons (2015)" }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Dominican Republic and Dominicans abroad; Dominican women and children are sex trafficked throughout the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States; victims from Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean, Asia, and Latin America are trafficked in the Dominican Republic; Dominican women are lured to the Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America to work in nightclubs but are then sex trafficked; domestically, children are forced into domestic servitude, street vending, begging, agricultural work, construction, and moving illicit narcotics, while adults are forced to work in construction, agriculture, and the services sector" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — the Dominican Republic does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government has drafted a revised trafficking law that would be consistent with international law by removing the requirement for force, fraud, or coercion of sex trafficking of victims younger than 18; authorities increased investigations and prosecutions but convicted fewer traffickers and issued inadequate sentences; the country lacks a dedicated victim assistance budget and a full-time victim shelter; authorities did not effectively screen for trafficking indicators or refer all vulnerable individuals to care; the government has not allocated specific funds to implement its national anti-trafficking plan beyond the standard operating budget for the 14 institutions that are part of its Inter-Institutional Commission against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US and Europe; has become a transshipment point for ecstasy from the Netherlands and Belgium destined for US and Canada; substantial money laundering activity in particular by Colombian narcotics traffickers; significant amphetamine consumption" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/es.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/es.json index b28e171a..311ecbbb 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/es.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/es.json @@ -550,7 +550,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a single 5-year term; election last held on 3 February 2019 (next to be held on February 2024)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Nayib Armando BUKELE Ortez elected president - Nayib Armando BUKELE Ortez (GANA) 53.1%, Carlos CALLEJA Hakker (ARENA) 31.72%, Hugo MARTINEZ (FMLN) 14.41%, other 0.77%" + "text": "
2019: Nayib Armando BUKELE Ortez elected president - Nayib Armando BUKELE Ortez (GANA) 53.1%, Carlos CALLEJA Hakker (ARENA) 31.72%, Hugo MARTINEZ (FMLN) 14.41%, other 0.77%

2014: Salvador SANCHEZ CEREN elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Salvador SANCHEZ CEREN (FMLN) 48.9%, Norman QUIJANO (ARENA) 39%, Antonio SACA (CN) 11.4%, other 0.7%; percent of vote in second round - Salvador SANCHEZ CEREN 50.1%, Norman QUIJANO 49.9%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/gt.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/gt.json index 0278f092..d14cdbce 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/gt.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/gt.json @@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 4-year term (not eligible for consecutive terms); election last held on 16 June 2019 with a runoff on 11 August 2019 (next to be held in June 2023)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Alejandro GIAMMATTEI elected president; percent of vote in first round - Sandra TORRES (UNE) 25.54%, Alejandro GIAMMATTEI (VAMOS) 13.95%, Edmond MULET (PHG) 11.21%, Thelma CABRERA (MLP) 10.37%, Roberto ARZU (PAN-PODEMOS) 6.08%; percent of vote in second round - Alejandro GIAMMATTEI (VAMOS) 58%, Sandra TORRES (UNE) 42%" + "text": "2019: Alejandro GIAMMATTEI elected president; percent of vote in first round - Sandra TORRES (UNE) 25.54%, Alejandro GIAMMATTEI (VAMOS) 13.95%, Edmond MULET (PHG) 11.21%, Thelma CABRERA (MLP) 10.37%, Roberto ARZU (PAN-PODEMOS) 6.08%; percent of vote in second round - Alejandro GIAMMATTEI (VAMOS) 58%, Sandra TORRES (UNE) 42%

2015: Jimmy Ernesto MORALES Cabrera elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Jimmy Ernesto MORALES Cabrera (FNC) 23.9%, Sandra TORRES (UNE) 19.8%, Manuel BALDIZON (LIDER) 19.6%, other 36.7%; percent of vote in second round - Jimmy Ernesto MORALES Cabrera 67.4%, Sandra TORRES 32.6%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/ha.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/ha.json index 10088eb1..5d078b7d 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/ha.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/ha.json @@ -538,7 +538,7 @@ "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a single non-consecutive term); last election originally scheduled for 9 October 2016 but postponed until 20 November 2016 due to Hurricane Matthew" }, "election results": { - "text": "Jovenel MOISE elected president in first round; percent of vote - Jovenel MOISE (PHTK) 55.6%, Jude CELESTIN (LAPEH) 19.6%, Jean-Charles MOISE (PPD) 11%, Maryse NARCISSE (FL) 9%; other 4.8%" + "text": "
2016: Jovenel MOISE elected president in first round; percent of vote - Jovenel MOISE (PHTK) 55.6%, Jude CELESTIN (LAPEH) 19.6%, Jean-Charles MOISE (PPD) 11%, Maryse NARCISSE (FL) 9%; other 4.8%

2011: Michel MARTELLY elected president in runoff; percent of vote - Michel MARTELLY (Peasant's Response) 68%, Mirlande MANIGAT (RDNP) 32%" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -1092,14 +1092,6 @@ "text": "2,992 (2018); note - individuals without a nationality who were born in the Dominican Republic prior to January 2010" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Haiti is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; most of Haiti’s trafficking cases involve children in domestic servitude vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse; dismissed and runaway child domestic servants often end up in prostitution, begging, or street crime; other exploited populations included low-income Haitians, child laborers, and women and children living in IDP camps dating to the 2010 earthquake; Haitian adults are vulnerable to fraudulent labor recruitment abroad and, along with children, may be subjected to forced labor in the Dominican Republic, elsewhere in the Caribbean, South America, and the US; Dominicans are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Haiti" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Haiti does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Haiti was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; in 2014, Haiti developed a national anti-trafficking action plan and enacted a law prohibiting all forms of human trafficking, although judicial corruption hampered its implementation; progress was made in investigating and prosecuting suspected traffickers, but no convictions were made; the government sustained limited efforts to identify and refer victims to protective services, which were provided mostly by NGOs without government support; campaigns to raise awareness about child labor and child trafficking continued (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "Caribbean transshipment point for cocaine en route to the US and Europe; substantial bulk cash smuggling activity; Colombian narcotics traffickers favor Haiti for illicit financial transactions; pervasive corruption; significant consumer of cannabis" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/ho.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/ho.json index 501327e6..e6d82cb6 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/ho.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/ho.json @@ -554,7 +554,7 @@ "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 4-year term; election last held on 26 November 2017 (next to be held in November 2021); note - in 2015, the Constitutional Chamber of the Honduran Supreme Court struck down the constitutional provisions on presidential term limits" }, "election results": { - "text": "Juan Orlando HERNANDEZ Alvarado reelected president; percent of vote Juan Orlando HERNANDEZ Alvarado (PNH) 43%, Salvador NASRALLA (Alianza de Oposicion conta la Dictadura) 41.4%, Luis Orlando ZELAYA Medrano (PL) 14.7%, other .9%" + "text": "
2017: Juan Orlando HERNANDEZ Alvarado reelected president; percent of vote - Juan Orlando HERNANDEZ Alvarado (PNH) 43%, Salvador NASRALLA (Alianza de Oposicion conta la Dictadura) 41.4%, Luis Orlando ZELAYA Medrano (PL) 14.7%, other .9%

2013: Juan Orlando HERNANDEZ Alvarado elected president; percent of vote - Juan Orlando HERNANDEZ Alvarado (PNH) 36.9%, Xiomara CASTRO (LIBRE) 28.8%, Mauricio VILLEDA (PL) 20.3%, Salvador NASRALLA (PAC) 13.4%, other 0.6%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/jm.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/jm.json index 73f71b27..f35825c0 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/jm.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/jm.json @@ -1101,14 +1101,6 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

none

" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Jamaica is a source and destination country for children and adults subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; sex trafficking of children and adults occurs on the street, in night clubs, bars, massage parlors, and private homes; child sex tourism is a problem in resort areas; Jamaicans have been subjected to sexual exploitation or forced labor in the Caribbean, Canada, the US, and the UK, while foreigners have endured conditions of forced labor in Jamaica or aboard foreign-flagged fishing vessels operating in Jamaican waters; a high number of Jamaican children are reported missing" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Jamaica does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, the government made significant efforts to raise public awareness of human trafficking, and named a national trafficking-in-persons rapporteur – the first in the region; authorities initiated more new trafficking investigations than in 2013 and concluded a trafficking case in the Supreme Court, but chronic delays impeded prosecutions and no offenders were convicted for the sixth consecutive year; more adult trafficking victims were identified than in previous years, but only one child victim was identified, which was exceptionally low relative to the number of vulnerable children (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for cocaine from South America to North America and Europe; illicit cultivation and consumption of cannabis; government has an active manual cannabis eradication program; corruption is a major concern; substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics traffickers favor Jamaica for illicit financial transactions" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/nu.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/nu.json index a7fa1eca..e89a2295 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/nu.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/nu.json @@ -540,7 +540,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by qualified plurality vote for a 5-year term (no term limits as of 2014); election last held on 6 November 2016 (next to be held on 7 November 2021)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Jose Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra reelected president; percent of vote - Jose Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra (FSLN) 72.4%, Maximino RODRIGUEZ (PLC) 15%, Jose del Carmen ALVARADO (PLI) 4.5%, Saturnino CERRATO Hodgson (ALN) 4.3%, other 3.7%" + "text": "
2016: Jose Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra reelected president; percent of vote - Jose Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra (FSLN) 72.4%, Maximino RODRIGUEZ (PLC) 15%, Jose del Carmen ALVARADO (PLI) 4.5%, Saturnino CERRATO Hodgson (ALN) 4.3%, other 3.7%

2011: Jose Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra reelected president; percent of vote - Jose Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra (FSLN) 62.5%, Fabio GADEA Mantilla (PLI) 31%, Arnoldo ALEMAN (PLC) 5.9%, other 0.6%

" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -1137,6 +1137,14 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

the 1992 ICJ ruling for El Salvador and Honduras advised a tripartite resolution to establish a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca, which considers Honduran access to the Pacific; Nicaragua and Costa Rica regularly file border dispute cases over the delimitations of the San Juan River and the northern tip of Calero Island to the ICJ; there is an ongoing case in the ICJ to determine Pacific and Atlantic ocean maritime borders as well as land borders; in 2009, the ICJ ruled that Costa Rican vessels carrying out police activities could not use the river, but official Costa Rican vessels providing essential services to riverside inhabitants and Costa Rican tourists could travel freely on the river; in 2011, the ICJ provisionally ruled that both countries must remove personnel from the disputed area; in 2013, the ICJ rejected Nicaragua's 2012 suit to halt Costa Rica's construction of a highway paralleling the river on the grounds of irreparable environmental damage; in 2013, the ICJ, regarding the disputed territory, ordered that Nicaragua should refrain from dredging or canal construction and refill and repair damage caused by trenches connecting the river to the Caribbean and upheld its 2010 ruling that Nicaragua must remove all personnel; in early 2014, Costa Rica brought Nicaragua to the ICJ over offshore oil concessions in the disputed region; Nicaragua filed a case against Colombia in 2013 over the delimitation of the Continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles from the Nicaraguan coast, as well as over the alleged violation by Colombia of Nicaraguan maritime space in the Caribbean Sea

" }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Nicaragua and Nicaraguans abroad; women, children, and migrants are most at risk; women and children are subject to sex trafficking within the country and its two Caribbean autonomous regions, as well as  in other Central American countries, Mexico, Spain, and the United States; traffickers used social media to recruit victims with promises of high-paying jobs in restaurants, hotels, construction, and security outside of Nicaragua where they are subjected to sex or labor trafficking; traffickers exploit children through forced participation in illegal drug production and trafficking; children and persons with disabilities are subjected to forced begging; Nicaragua is also a destination for child sex tourists from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 3 — Nicaragua does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so and was downgraded to Tier 3; the government identified slightly more victims than in the previous reporting period and prosecuted a trafficker; however, no traffickers were convicted and victim identification remained inadequate; authorities did not  investigate, prosecute, or convict government employees complicit in trafficking; the government provided no victim services; prosecution, protection, and prevention efforts in the two Caribbean autonomous regions of Nicaragua continued to be much weaker than in the rest of the country (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for cocaine destined for the US and transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/pm.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/pm.json index 30a09e18..97c52616 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/pm.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/pm.json @@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ "note": "etymology: according to tradition, the name derives from a former fishing area near the present capital - an indigenous village and its adjacent beach - that were called \"Panama\" meaning \"an abundance of fish\"" }, "Administrative divisions": { - "text": "10 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 3 indigenous regions* (comarcas); Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocle, Colon, Darien, Embera-Wounaan*, Herrera, Guna Yala*, Los Santos, Ngobe-Bugle*, Panama, Panama Oeste, Veraguas" + "text": "10 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 4 indigenous regions* (comarcas); Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocle, Colon, Darien, Embera-Wounaan*, Guna Yala*, Herrera, Los Santos, Naso Tjer Di*, Ngobe-Bugle*, Panama, Panama Oeste, Veraguas" }, "Independence": { "text": "3 November 1903 (from Colombia; became independent from Spain on 28 November 1821)" @@ -547,7 +547,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by simple majority popular vote for a 5-year term; president eligible for a single non-consecutive term); election last held on 5 May 2019 (next to be held in 2024)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Laurentino \"Nito\" CORTIZO Cohen elected president; percent of vote - Laurentino CORTIZO Cohen (PRD) 33.3%, Romulo ROUX (CD) 31%, Ricardo LOMBANA (independent) 18.8%, Jose BLANDON (Panamenista Party) 10.8%, Ana Matilde GOMEZ Ruiloba (independent) 4.8%, other 1.3%" + "text": "
2019: Laurentino \"Nito\" CORTIZO Cohen elected president; percent of vote - Laurentino CORTIZO Cohen (PRD) 33.3%, Romulo ROUX (CD) 31%, Ricardo LOMBANA (independent) 18.8%, Jose BLANDON (Panamenista Party) 10.8%, Ana Matilde GOMEZ Ruiloba (independent) 4.8%, other 1.3%

2014: Juan Carlos VARELA elected president; percent of vote - Juan Carlos VARELA (PP) 39.1%, Jose Domingo ARIAS (CD) 31.4%, Juan Carlos NAVARRO (PRD) 28.2%, other 1.3%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/td.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/td.json index 973ac928..077f5a24 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/td.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/td.json @@ -1051,14 +1051,6 @@ "text": "16,755 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or have received alternative legal stay) (2020)" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Trinidad and Tobago is a destination, transit, and possible source country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; women and girls from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Colombia have been subjected to sex trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago’s brothels and clubs; some economic migrants from the Caribbean region and Asia are vulnerable to forced labor in domestic service and the retail sector; the steady flow of vessels transiting Trinidad and Tobago’s territorial waters may also increase opportunities for forced labor for fishing; international crime organizations are increasingly involved in trafficking, and boys are coerced to sell drugs and guns; corruption among police and immigration officials impedes anti-trafficking efforts" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Trinidad and Tobago does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts decreased from the initiation of 12 prosecutions in 2013 to 1 in 2014; the government has yet to convict anyone under its 2011 anti-trafficking law, and all prosecutions from previous years remain pending; the government sustained efforts to identify victims and to refer them for care at NGO facilities, which it provided with funding; the government failed to draft a national action plan as mandated under the 2011 anti-trafficking law and did not launch a sufficiently robust awareness campaign to educate the public and officials (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US and Europe; producer of cannabis" } diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/uc.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/uc.json index 89a74d33..84fa228f 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/uc.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/uc.json @@ -823,5 +823,15 @@ "Military - note": { "text": "defense is the responsibility of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the Dutch Government controls foreign and defense policy; the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard (DCCG) provides maritime security" } + }, + "Transnational Issues": { + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Curacao; undocumented migrants, including the growing population of Venezuelans, are vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking; Curacaoan and foreign women and girls, mostly Dominican and Venezuelan, are exploited in sex trafficking; migrants from other Caribbean countries, South America, China, and India are subject to forced labor in construction, domestic servitude, landscaping, minimarkets, retail, and restaurants" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Curacao does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but it is making significant efforts to do so; the government prosecuted and convicted more traffickers than in the previous reporting period; however, authorities identified fewer victims, and assistance to victims was contingent upon their cooperation with law enforcement in prosecuting traffickers; victims who were in the country illegally, including Venezuelans, were at risk of deportation if they did not participate in trials against their traffickers; the government did not operate centers for trafficking victims but provided some funding to NGOs and international organizations to care for victims (2020)" + } + } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/central-america-n-caribbean/vc.json b/central-america-n-caribbean/vc.json index 72e00b1d..284f26b0 100644 --- a/central-america-n-caribbean/vc.json +++ b/central-america-n-caribbean/vc.json @@ -961,14 +961,6 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits Venezuela to extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion of the eastern Caribbean Sea

" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; some children under 18 are pressured to engage in sex acts in exchange for money or gifts; foreign workers may experience forced labor and are particularly vulnerable when employed by small, foreign-owned companies; adults and children are vulnerable to forced labor domestically, especially in the agriculture sector" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government for the first time acknowledged a trafficking problem, launched an anti-trafficking public awareness campaign, and conducted anti-trafficking training for law enforcement, immigration, and labor officials; in 2014, authorities initiated three trafficking investigations, two of which were ultimately determined not to be trafficking cases, and did not prosecute or convict any trafficking offenders; the government did not identify or refer any potential trafficking victims to care (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US and Europe; small-scale cannabis cultivation" } diff --git a/central-asia/kg.json b/central-asia/kg.json index 2c414971..fa968cb5 100644 --- a/central-asia/kg.json +++ b/central-asia/kg.json @@ -1116,6 +1116,14 @@ "text": "58 (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyzstanis abroad; Kyrgyz men, women, and children are exploited in forced labor in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and other European countries specifically in agriculture, construction, textiles, domestic service, and childcare; sex traffickers exploit Kyrgyz women and girls domestically and in India, Kazakhstan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates; problems with police misconduct and corruption include allegations that police threaten and extort sex trafficking victims and accept bribes from alleged traffickers to drop cases; street children who beg or do domestic work are vulnerable to traffickers" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Kyrgyzstan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government adopted a National Referral Mechanism (NRM) that established formal policies on victim identification and the provision of social services;  the government established an interagency focus group to accelerate implementation of the NRM and improve law enforcement investigations; authorities increased investigations but did not prosecute or convict any traffickers; the government conducted limited training on the NRM; some officials reportedly  dropped charges or tipped off suspects and allowed victims to be pressured or paid to drop charges against alleged traffickers; the government’s written plan, if implemented, would meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, Kyrgyzstan was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy for CIS markets; limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of Europe; major consumer of opiates" } diff --git a/central-asia/kz.json b/central-asia/kz.json index 49bc25d9..dffbac3a 100644 --- a/central-asia/kz.json +++ b/central-asia/kz.json @@ -1162,6 +1162,14 @@ "text": "8,386 (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Kazakhstan and Kazakhstanis abroad; traffickers lure victims from rural areas to larger cities with fake offers of employment; traffickers coerce or force Kazakhstani men and women into labor in Russia, Bahrain, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates; sex traffickers exploit Kazakhstani women and girls in the Middle East, Europe, East Asia, the United States, Central Asian and Eastern European countries and rural areas in Kazakhstan; children are forced to beg and adults and children may be coerced into criminal behavior; traffickers are increasingly using debt-based coercion; traffickers capitalize on tough law enforcement policies on migrants to coerce them to remain and leverage these policies to threaten victims with punishment and deportation if they notify authorities, which fosters a distrust in law enforcement" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Kazakhstan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government adopted amendments increasing criminal penalties for traffickers, including rescinding the provision allowing alleged traffickers to pay a settlement to victims to withdraw their criminal cases; authorities developed victim identification guidelines for diplomatic staff and provided victim identification training to some labor inspectors; the government took initial steps toward improving its annual NGO funding process; the government’s efforts to identify and protect foreign victims increased; foreign victims who did not participate in criminal investigations were ineligible for services and were deported; law enforcement continued to make limited efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict labor trafficking crimes; trafficking convictions decreased for the fourth consecutive year; NGOs reported allegations of police officers’ involvement in human trafficking, but few police or other officials suspected of complicity were investigated or prosecuted (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "significant illicit cultivation of cannabis for CIS markets, as well as limited cultivation of opium poppy and ephedra (for the drug ephedrine); limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of Europe; significant consumer of opiates" } diff --git a/central-asia/rs.json b/central-asia/rs.json index 295844fb..159b463f 100644 --- a/central-asia/rs.json +++ b/central-asia/rs.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "22,408 km" + "text": "22,407 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Azerbaijan 338 km, Belarus 1312 km, China (southeast) 4133 km and China (south) 46 km, Estonia 324 km, Finland 1309 km, Georgia 894 km, Kazakhstan 7644 km, North Korea 18 km, Latvia 332 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 261 km, Mongolia 3452 km, Norway 191 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 210 km, Ukraine 1944 km" + "text": "Azerbaijan 338 km, Belarus 1312 km, China (southeast) 4133 km and China (south) 46 km, Estonia 324 km, Finland 1309 km, Georgia 894 km, Kazakhstan 7644 km, North Korea 18 km, Latvia 332 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 261 km, Mongolia 3452 km, Norway 191 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 209 km, Ukraine 1944 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -1230,10 +1230,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Russia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; with millions of foreign workers, forced labor is Russia’s predominant human trafficking problem and sometimes involves organized crime syndicates; workers from Russia, other European countries, Central Asia, and East and Southeast Asia, including North Korea and Vietnam, are subjected to forced labor in the construction, manufacturing, agricultural, textile, grocery store, maritime, and domestic service industries, as well as in forced begging, waste sorting, and street sweeping; women and children from Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central Asia are subject to sex trafficking in Russia; Russian women and children are victims of sex trafficking domestically and in Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the US, and the Middle East" + "text": "Russia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, although labor trafficking is the predominant problem; people from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Asia, including Vietnam and North Korea, are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Russia’s construction, manufacturing, agriculture, repair shop, and domestic services industries, as well as forced begging and narcotics cultivation; North Koreans contracted under bilateral government arrangements to work in the timber industry in the Russian Far East reportedly are subjected to forced labor; Russian women and children were reported to be victims of sex trafficking in Russia, Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, while women from European, African, and Central Asian countries were reportedly forced into prostitution in Russia" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - Russia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making a significant effort to do so; prosecutions of trafficking offenders remained low in comparison to the scope of Russia’s trafficking problem; the government did not develop or employ a formal system for identifying trafficking victims or referring them to protective services, although authorities reportedly assisted a limited number of victims on an ad hoc basis; foreign victims, the largest group in Russia, were not entitled to state-provided rehabilitative services and were routinely detained and deported; the government has not reported investigating reports of slave-like conditions among North Korean workers in Russia; authorities have made no effort to reduce the demand for forced labor or to develop public awareness of forced labor or sex trafficking (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Russia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, is not making significant efforts to do, and remains in Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking by convicting some traffickers, facilitating the return of Russian children from Iraq and Syria, and identifying some victims, including foreign nationals; however, there was a government policy of forced labor, the number of victims identified was negligible, and authorities penalized potential victims without screening for signs of trafficking; the government offered no funding or programs for trafficking victims’ rehabilitation, prosecutions remained low compared with the scope of Russia’s trafficking problem, no national anti-trafficking strategy has been drafted, and government agencies have not been assigned roles or responsibilities (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/central-asia/tx.json b/central-asia/tx.json index a10b1b91..9837ccfb 100644 --- a/central-asia/tx.json +++ b/central-asia/tx.json @@ -1078,10 +1078,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Turkmenistan is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Turkmenistanis who migrate abroad are forced to work in the textile, agriculture, construction, and domestic service industries, while women and girls may also be sex trafficked; in 2014, men surpassed women as victims; Turkey and Russia are primary trafficking destinations, followed by the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and other parts of Europe; Turkmenistanis also experience forced labor domestically in the informal construction industry; participation in the cotton harvest is still mandatory for some public sector employees" + "text": "Turkmenistan is a source, and to a much lesser degree, destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Turkmen in search of work in other countries are forced to work in textile sweatshops, construction, and domestic service; some Turkmen women and girls are sex trafficked abroad; Turkey is the primary trafficking destination, followed by Russia, India, and other countries in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Europe; labor trafficking occurs within Turkmenistan, particularly in the construction industry; government officials require employees in private sector institutions, soldiers, and public sector workers to pick cotton without payment under the threat of penalty, such as dismissal, reduced work hours, or salary deductions to meet government-imposed quotas for the cotton harvest" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Turkmenistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Turkmenistan was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; the government made some progress in its law enforcement efforts in 2014, convicting more offenders than in 2013; authorities did not make adequate efforts to identify and protect victims and did not fund international organizations or NGOs that offered protective services; some victims were punished for crimes as a result of being trafficked (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Turkmenistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government approved the 2020-2022 national action plan, continued anti-trafficking awareness campaigns, worked with international organizations on combating trafficking, provided training to its diplomatic corps on human trafficking, and identified potential trafficking victims at the international airport; however, the  government used forced labor in the cotton harvest and public works projects; no officials were held accountable for their role in trafficking crimes; authorities did not prosecute or convict any traffickers; no victims were identified and offered protection or assistance programs (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/central-asia/uz.json b/central-asia/uz.json index 2626dd8d..f3f87822 100644 --- a/central-asia/uz.json +++ b/central-asia/uz.json @@ -1102,10 +1102,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Uzbekistan is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; government-compelled forced labor of adults remained endemic during the 2014 cotton harvest; despite a decree banning the use of persons under 18, children were mobilized to harvest cotton by local officials in some districts; in some regions, local officials forced teachers, students, private business employees, and others to work in construction, agriculture, and cleaning parks; Uzbekistani women and children are victims of sex trafficking domestically and in the Middle East, Eurasia, and Asia; Uzbekistani men and, to a lesser extent, women are subjected to forced labor in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine in the construction, oil, agriculture, retail, and food sectors" + "text": "Uzbekistan is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; adults are victims of government-organized forced labor during Uzbekistan’s annual cotton harvest; local officials in some instances force teachers, students (including children), private businesses employees, and others to work in construction and other forms of non-cotton agriculture and to clean parks, streets, and buildings; traffickers exploit Uzbek women and children in sex trafficking in the Middle East, Eurasia, and Asia, and internally in brothels, clubs, and private residences; traffickers subject Uzbek men, and to a lesser extent women, to forced labor in Kazakhstan, Russia, Moldova, Turkey, and in other Asian, Middle Eastern, and European countries in the construction, oil and gas, agricultural, retail, and food sectors" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Uzbekistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; law enforcement efforts in 2014 were mixed; the government made efforts to combat sex and transnational labor trafficking, but government-compelled forced labor of adults in the cotton harvest went unaddressed, and the decree prohibiting forced child labor was not applied universally; official complicity in human trafficking in the cotton harvest remained prevalent; authorities made efforts to identify and protect sex and transnational labor victims, although a systematic process is still lacking; minimal efforts were made to assist victims of forced labor in the cotton harvest, as the government does not openly acknowledge the existence of this forced labor; the ILO did not have permission or funding to monitor the 2014 harvest, but the government authorized the UN's International Labour Organization to conduct a survey on recruitment practices and working conditions in agriculture, particularly the cotton sector, and to monitor the 2015-17 cotton harvests for child and forced labor in project areas (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Uzbekistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; government efforts included addressing the use of forced adult labor during the cotton harvest by increasing pay to laborers and improving working conditions for voluntary workers and ceasing the forced use of students, teachers, and health care workers; third-party monitors were allowed access to the harvest to view changes; the government created a National Commission on Trafficking chaired by the regional governor in every area of the country; however, reports continued of corrupt officials requiring public sector employees to pick cotton or pay for a replacement worker with extorted penalties paid to them; fewer cases of traffickers were investigated and prosecuted, fewer victims of trafficking were identified, and fewer convictions carried a prison sentence; authorities conducted no investigations against corrupt officials extorting money during the cotton harvest (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/bm.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/bm.json index 0865a61b..f378d5c6 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/bm.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/bm.json @@ -1196,10 +1196,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Burma is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking; Burmese adult and child labor migrants travel to East Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and the US, where men are forced to work in the fishing, manufacturing, forestry, and construction industries and women and girls are forced into prostitution, domestic servitude, or forced labor in the garment sector; some Burmese economic migrants and Rohingya asylum seekers have become forced laborers on Thai fishing boats; some military personnel and armed ethnic groups unlawfully conscript child soldiers or coerce adults and children into forced labor; domestically, adults and children from ethnic areas are vulnerable to forced labor on plantations and in mines, while children may also be subject to forced prostitution, domestic service, and begging" + "text": "human traffickers exploit men, women, and children through forced labor, and women and children in sex trafficking in Burma and abroad; Burmese men are forced to work domestically and abroad in fishing, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, and construction; fishermen are lured into forced labor in remote waters and offshore by recruitment agencies in Burma and Southeast Asia; Burmese women increasingly are lured to China for marriage under false pretenses and are subjected to sex trafficking, forced concubinage and childbearing, and forced domestic labor; men, women, and children in ethnic minority areas are at increased risk of sex trafficking and forced labor in farming, manufacturing, and construction; men and boys are recruited locally by traffickers for forced labor in oil palm, banana, and rubber plantations, in mining, fishing, and bamboo, teak, rice, and sugarcane harvesting; some military personnel, civilian brokers, border guard officials, and ethnic armed groups continue to recruit child soldiers, particularly in conflict areas" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Burma does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standard for eliminating human trafficking; in 2014, law enforcement continued to investigate and prosecute cross-border trafficking offenses but did little to address domestic trafficking; no civilians or government officials were prosecuted or convicted for the recruitment of child soldiers, a serious problem that is hampered by corruption and the influence of the military; victim referral and protection services remained inadequate, especially for men, and left victims vulnerable to being re-trafficked; the government coordinated anti-trafficking programs as part of its five-year national action plan (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Burma does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; authorities increased the investigation and prosecution of trafficking crimes, including those involving officials, and the investigation of forced labor in the fishing sector; the government identified and referred more victims to care and enacted legislation enhancing protections for child victims; however, a policy or pattern of forced labor existed; the use of children in labor and support roles by the military increased in conflict zones in Rakhine and Shan States; displacement resulting from military conflict made Rohingya and other ethnic groups vulnerable to human trafficking; the constitutionally guaranteed power of the military continued to limit the government’s ability to address forced adult labor and child soldier recruitment; although authorities allocated increased funding to victim protection, most services to trafficking victims were provided by NGOs and foreign donors (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/bx.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/bx.json index 76f7b101..83003982 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/bx.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/bx.json @@ -1041,6 +1041,14 @@ "text": "20,863 (2019); note - thousands of stateless persons, often ethnic Chinese, are permanent residents and their families have lived in Brunei for generations; obtaining citizenship is difficult and requires individuals to pass rigorous tests on Malay culture, customs, and language; stateless residents receive an International Certificate of Identity, which enables them to travel overseas; the government is considering changing the law prohibiting non-Bruneians, including stateless permanent residents, from owning land" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Brunei; some men and women who migrate to Brunei to work as domestics or in retail or construction are subject to involuntary servitude, debt-based coercion, contract switching, non-payment of wages, passport confiscation, physical abuse, or confinement; some female migrants entering Brunei on tourist visas are forced into prostitution; some traffickers use Brunei as a transit point for victims used for sex and labor trafficking in Malaysia and Indonesia" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Brunei does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government enacted the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Order, which criminalized sex and labor trafficking and separated trafficking crimes from migrant smuggling crimes; the government formalized its interagency anti-trafficking in persons committee; instituted a committee to review foreign worker recruitment practices, ratified the ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, and acceded to the UN TIP Protocol; however, authorities did not formally identify any trafficking cases, did not initiate any new trafficking prosecutions, and did not convict any traffickers; trafficking victims continued to be detained, deported, and charged with crimes without law enforcement determining if they were forced to commit the illegal acts by traffickers; the government again did not allocate money to a fund established in 2004 for victim compensation and repatriation; a draft national action plan to combat trafficking was not completed for the sixth consecutive year (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "drug trafficking and illegally importing controlled substances are serious offenses in Brunei and carry a mandatory death penalty" } diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/cb.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/cb.json index feb701e8..efd3dbbd 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/cb.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/cb.json @@ -1165,10 +1165,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Cambodian men, women, and children migrate to countries within the region and, increasingly, the Middle East for legitimate work but are subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, or forced labor in fishing, agriculture, construction, and factories; Cambodian men recruited to work on Thai-owned fishing vessels are subsequently subjected to forced labor in international waters and are kept at sea for years; poor Cambodian children are vulnerable and, often with the families’ complicity, are subject to forced labor, including domestic servitude and forced begging, in Thailand and Vietnam; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers and tourist spots for sexual exploitation; Cambodian men are the main exploiters of child prostitutes, but men from other Asian countries, and the West travel to Cambodia for child sex tourism" + "text": "human traffickers exploit Cambodian men, women, and children in forced labor and sex trafficking in Cambodia and abroad, and foreign nationals are trafficked in Cambodia; Cambodian adults and children migrate to other countries in the region or increasingly to the Middle East where traffickers force them to work in agriculture, fishing, construction, manufacturing, and domestic servitude; significant numbers of Cambodian men and boys are subject to forced labor on Thai ships in international waters and may experience physical abuse, nonpayment or underpayment of wages, and confinement at sea for years; brick kiln owners exploit thousands of Cambodians, including children, through debt-based coercion; children from poor families are vulnerable to forced labor, often with the complicity of their parents, in domestic servitude, forced begging, or street vending in Thailand and Vietnam; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls from rural areas move to cities and tourist areas where they are sex trafficked" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; authorities made modest progress in prosecutions and convictions of traffickers in 2014 but did not provide comprehensive data; endemic corruption continued to impede law enforcement efforts, and no complicit officials were prosecuted or convicted; the government sustained efforts to identify victims and refer them to NGOs for care, but victim protection remained inadequate, particularly for assisting male victims and victims identified abroad; a new national action plan was adopted, but guidelines for victim identification and guidance on undercover investigation techniques are still pending after several years (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Cambodia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; authorities continued to prosecute and convict traffickers and utilized new victim identification and data collection technologies; the government enacted a five-year national action plan to combat human trafficking; however, corruption continued to impede law enforcement efforts, criminal proceedings, and services to victims; some corrupt officials may have profited directly from sex and labor trafficking or accepted bribes to dismiss charges or reduce sentences; insufficient judicial monitoring systems enabled suspected traffickers to flee before trial; authorities failed to issue formal guidance allowing the use of undercover techniques in anti-trafficking investigations (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/ch.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/ch.json index 25656c45..7086e309 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/ch.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/ch.json @@ -1210,10 +1210,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Chinese adults and children are forced into prostitution and various forms of forced labor, including begging and working in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories; women and children are recruited from rural areas and taken to urban centers for sexual exploitation, often lured by criminal syndicates or gangs with fraudulent job offers; state-sponsored forced labor, where detainees work for up to four years often with no remuneration, continues to be a serious concern; Chinese men, women, and children also may be subjected to conditions of sex trafficking and forced labor worldwide, particularly in overseas Chinese communities; women and children are trafficked to China from neighboring countries, as well as Africa and the Americas, for forced labor and prostitution" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in China and Chinese people abroad; Chinese men, women, and children are victims of forced labor and sex trafficking in at least 60 countries; traffickers also use China as a transit point to subject foreign individuals to trafficking in other countries throughout Asia and in international maritime industries; state-sponsored forced labor is intensifying under the government’s mass detention and political indoctrination campaign against Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; well-organized criminal syndicates and local gangs subject Chinese women and girls to sex trafficking within China; women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and several countries in Africa experience forced labor in domestic service, forced concubinism leading to forced childbearing, and sex trafficking via forced and fraudulent marriage to Chinese men; African and Asian men reportedly experience conditions indicative of forced labor aboard Chinese-flagged fishing vessels; many North Korean refugees and asylum-seekers living in China illegally are particularly vulnerable to trafficking" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - China does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; official data for 2014 states that 194 alleged traffickers were arrested and at least 35 were convicted, but the government’s conflation of human trafficking with other crimes makes it difficult to assess law enforcement efforts to investigate and to prosecute trafficking offenses according to international law; despite reports of complicity, no government officials were investigated, prosecuted, or convicted for their roles in trafficking offenses; authorities did not adequately protect victims and did not provide the data needed to ascertain the number of victims identified or assisted or the services provided; the National People’s Congress ratified a decision to abolish \"reform through labor\" in 2013, but some continued to operate as state-sponsored drug detention or \"custody and education\" centers that force inmates to perform manual labor; some North Korean refugees continued to be forcibly repatriated as illegal economic migrants, despite reports that some were trafficking victims (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — China does not fully meet the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government prosecuted and convicted some traffickers and continued to cooperate with international authorities to address forced and fraudulent marriages in China; however, there was a government policy or pattern of widespread forced labor, including the continued mass arbitrary detention of more than one million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of law enforcement officials allegedly complicit despite continued reports of officials benefiting from, permitting, or directly facilitating sex trafficking; authorities did not report identifying any trafficking victims or referring them to protective services; it is likely that law enforcement arrested and detained unidentified trafficking victims for crimes traffickers compelled them to commit; for the third consecutive year, the government did not report the extent to which it funded anti-trafficking activities in furtherance of the 2013-2020 National Action Plan on Combating Human Trafficking (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/hk.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/hk.json index fa2ea8b4..44b9258a 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/hk.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/hk.json @@ -990,6 +990,14 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

Hong Kong plans to reduce its 2,800-hectare Frontier Closed Area (FCA) to 400 hectares by 2015; the FCA was established in 1951 as a buffer zone between Hong Kong and mainland China to prevent illegal migration from and the smuggling of goods

" }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Hong Kong, and traffickers also exploit victims from Hong Kong abroad; traffickers exploit women from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia in sex trafficking; some women in Hong Kong – often with the assistance of their families – deceive Indian and Pakistani men into arranged marriages involving forced domestic service, bonded labor in construction and other physically demanding industries, and other forms of abuse via exploitative contracts; drug trafficking syndicates coerced South American women to carry drugs into Hong Kong; employment agencies hired foreign domestic workers under false pretenses and forced them into commercial sex, sometimes through debt-based coercion" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List —  Hong Kong does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; Hong Kong is hiring and training 98 new employees within the immigration, customs, labor, and justice departments dedicated to trafficking issues; authorities screened more than 7,000 vulnerable individuals for trafficking; the labor department introduced a victim identification mechanism to its division offices; the government provided anti-trafficking training to various officials; the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any cases of labor trafficking, investigated fewer sex trafficking cases, and did not provide victims any government-funded services; the government continued to penalize victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit; no legislation was enacted to fully criminalize all forms of trafficking (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "despite strenuous law enforcement efforts, faces difficult challenges in controlling transit of heroin and methamphetamine to regional and world markets; modern banking system provides conduit for money laundering; rising indigenous use of synthetic drugs, especially among young people" } diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/kn.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/kn.json index e8f67235..e1511d83 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/kn.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/kn.json @@ -998,10 +998,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; many North Korean workers recruited to work abroad under bilateral contracts with foreign governments, most often Russia and China, are subjected to forced labor and do not have a choice in the work the government assigns them, are not free to change jobs, and face government reprisals if they try to escape or complain to outsiders; tens of thousands of North Koreans, including children, held in prison camps are subjected to forced labor, including logging, mining, and farming; many North Korean women and girls, lured by promises of food, jobs, and freedom, have migrated to China illegally to escape poor social and economic conditions only to be forced into prostitution, domestic service, or agricultural work through forced marriages" + "text": "North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor, forced marriage, and sex trafficking; in the recent past, many North Korean women and girls lured by promises of food, jobs, and freedom migrated to China illegally to escape poor social and economic conditions only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements; North Koreans do not have a choice in the work the government assigns them and are not free to change jobs at will; many North Korean workers recruited to work abroad under bilateral contracts with foreign governments are subjected to forced labor and reportedly face government reprisals if they try to escape or complain to outsiders; thousands of North Koreans, including children, are subjected to forced labor in prison camps" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government continued to participate in human trafficking through its use of domestic forced labor camps and the provision of forced labor to foreign governments through bilateral contracts; officials did not demonstrate any efforts to address human trafficking through prosecution, protection, or prevention measures; no known investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of trafficking offenders or officials complicit in trafficking-related offenses were conducted; the government also made no efforts to identify or protect trafficking victims and did not permit NGOs to assist victims (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — the government of North Korea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; during this reporting period there was a government policy or pattern of forced labor of adults and children in prison camps, labor training centers, and through its imposition of forced labor conditions on North Korean overseas contract workers;  proceeds from state-sponsored forced labor fund government functions and illicit activities; the government has made no effort to address human trafficking (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/la.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/la.json index 839b03d0..6b82a425 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/la.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/la.json @@ -1127,14 +1127,6 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check the spread of avian flu; talks continue on completion of demarcation with Thailand but disputes remain over islands in the Mekong River; Cambodia and Laos have a longstanding border demarcation dispute; concern among Mekong River Commission members that China's construction of eight dams on the Upper Mekong River and construction of more dams on its tributaries will affect water levels, sediment flows, and fisheries; Cambodia and Vietnam are concerned about Laos' extensive plans for upstream dam construction for the same reasons

" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Laos is a source and, to a lesser extent, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Lao economic migrants may encounter conditions of forced labor or sexual exploitation in destination countries, most often Thailand; Lao women and girls are exploited in Thailand’s commercial sex trade, domestic service, factories, and agriculture; a small, possibly growing, number of Lao women and girls are sold as brides in China and South Korea and subsequently sex trafficked; Lao men and boys are victims of forced labor in the Thai fishing, construction, and agriculture industries; some Lao children, as well as Vietnamese and Chinese women and girls, are subjected to sex trafficking in Laos; other Vietnamese and Chinese, and possibly Burmese, adults and girls transit Laos for sexual and labor exploitation in neighboring countries, particularly Thailand" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Laos does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; authorities sustained moderate efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict trafficking offenders; the government failed to make progress in proactively identifying victims exploited within the country or among those deported from abroad; the government continues to rely almost entirely on local and international organizations to provide and fund services to trafficking victims; although Lao men and boys are trafficked, most protective services are only available to women and girls, and long-term support is lacking; modest prevention efforts include the promotion of anti-trafficking awareness on state-controlled media (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "estimated opium poppy cultivation in 2015 was estimated to be 5,700 hectares, compared with 6,200 hectares in 2014; estimated potential production of between 84 and 176 mt of raw opium; unsubstantiated reports of domestic methamphetamine production; growing domestic methamphetamine problem" } diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/mc.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/mc.json index 9f304a9b..df743bf4 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/mc.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/mc.json @@ -902,6 +902,14 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

none

" }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "Macau is a destination and, to a much lesser extent, source for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and possibly forced labor; most victims come from the Chinese mainland, but others are trafficked from China, Russia, and Southeast Asia; victims are lured in by false job offers and forced into prostitution, often being confined to massage parlors and illegal brothels where their identity documents are confiscated and they are threatened with violence; Chinese, Russian, and Thai criminal organizations are believed to be involved in recruiting women for Macau’s commercial sex industry" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Macau does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government trained police, customs, and social welfare officials on human trafficking, funded an awareness campaign, and provided services to victims; authorities convicted three sex traffickers but did not sentence anyone to significant prison terms; authorities investigated only one potential trafficking case and made no prosecutions; the government provided no assistance to any victims, and officials did not initiate any prosecutions or sentence convicted traffickers to significant terms of imprisonment; Macau was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for drugs going into mainland China; consumer of opiates and amphetamines" } diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/my.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/my.json index 5f8b9eb2..a8cb74c2 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/my.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/my.json @@ -1210,10 +1210,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; Malaysia is mainly a destination country for foreign workers who migrate willingly from countries, including Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Nepal, Burma, and other Southeast Asian countries, but subsequently encounter forced labor or debt bondage in agriculture, construction, factories, and domestic service at the hands of employers, employment agents, and labor recruiters; women from Southeast Asia and, to a much lesser extent, Africa, are recruited for legal work in restaurants, hotels, and salons but are forced into prostitution; refugees, including Rohingya adults and children, are not legally permitted to work and are vulnerable to trafficking; a small number of Malaysians are trafficked internally and subjected to sex trafficking abroad" + "text": "Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children subjected to conditions of forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; Malaysia is mainly a destination country for foreign workers who migrate willingly from countries including Indonesia, Nepal, India, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam, but subsequently they encounter forced labor or debt bondage at the hands of their employers in the domestic, agricultural, construction, plantation, and industrial sectors; a small number of Malaysian citizens were reportedly trafficked internally and to Singapore, China, and Japan for commercial sexual exploitation; refugees are also vulnerable to trafficking; some officials are reportedly complicit in facilitating trafficking; traffickers lure Rohingya women and girls residing in refugee camps in Bangladesh to Malaysia, where they are coerced to engage in commercial sex" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch list - Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, amendments to strengthen existing anti-trafficking laws, including enabling victims to move freely and to work and for NGOs to run protective facilities, were drafted by the government and are pending approval from Parliament; authorities more than doubled investigations and prosecutions but convicted only three traffickers for forced labor and none for sex trafficking, a decline from 2013 and a disproportionately small number compared to the scale of the country’s trafficking problem; NGOs provided the majority of victim rehabilitation and counseling services with no financial support from the government (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Malaysia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government identified more victims, increased the number of trafficking-specialist prosecutors, drafted victim identification standard operating procedures, identified two volunteer victim assistance specialists that worked with more than 100 victims, and co-hosted the first national conference on anti-trafficking; however, authorities prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers and investigated few trafficking cases; despite the issue of corruption, insufficient efforts were made to prosecute officials’ complicity in trafficking-related crimes or to report the results of investigations into such crimes; insufficient interagency coordination and victim services discouraged foreign victims from participating in criminal proceedings; no resources were devoted to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards; Malaysia was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/pp.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/pp.json index 000db049..a96c8e81 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/pp.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/pp.json @@ -1141,10 +1141,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Papua New Guinea is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; foreign and Papua New Guinean women and children are subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, forced begging, and street vending; parents may sell girls into forced marriages to settle debts or as peace offerings or trade them to another tribe to forge a political alliance, leaving them vulnerable to forced domestic service, or, in urban areas, they may prostitute their children for income or to pay school fees; Chinese, Malaysian, and local men are forced to labor in logging and mining camps through debt bondage schemes; migrant women from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude at logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites" + "text": "Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; women and children are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude; families may sell girls into forced marriages to settle debts, leaving them vulnerable to forced domestic service; local and Chinese men are forced to labor in logging and mining camps; migrant women from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude at logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Papua New Guinea does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the Criminal Code Amendment of 2013, which prohibits all forms of trafficking was brought into force in 2014; the government also formed an anti-trafficking committee, which drafted a national action plan; despite corruption problems, trafficking-related crimes were prosecuted in village courts rather than criminal courts, resulting in restitution to the victim but no prison time for offenders; the government did not investigate, prosecute, or convict any officials or law enforcement personnel complicit in trafficking offenses; the government made no efforts to proactively identify trafficking victims, has no formal victim identification and referral mechanism, and does not provide care facilities to victims or funding to shelters run by NGOs or international organizations (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Papua New Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; despite remaining at Tier 3, the government continued to identify some trafficking victims and a prominent trafficking case was advanced; however, the government did not provide protective services for victims and did not systematically implement its victim identification procedures; corruption among officials in the logging sector remains a problem, and they continue to facilitate sex trafficking and forced labor; no alleged traffickers were convicted; the government dedicates little financial and human resources to combat trafficking, and awareness of trafficking is low among government officials (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/th.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/th.json index 5c92e55c..aef06a13 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/th.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/th.json @@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { - "text": "51.4% of total population (2020)" + "text": "52.2% of total population (2021)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "1.43% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" @@ -441,7 +441,7 @@ }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { - "text": "51.4% of total population (2020)" + "text": "52.2% of total population (2021)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "1.43% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" @@ -1200,14 +1200,6 @@ }, "note": "note: Thai nationality was granted to more than 23,000 stateless persons between 2012 and 2016; in 2016, the Government of Thailand approved changes to its citizenship laws that could make 80,000 stateless persons eligible for citizenship, as part of its effort to achieve zero statelessness by 2024 (2018)" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; victims from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, China, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and India, migrate to Thailand in search of jobs but are forced, coerced, or defrauded into labor in commercial fishing, fishing-related industries, factories, domestic work, street begging, or the sex trade; some Thai, Burmese, Cambodian, and Indonesian men forced to work on fishing boats are kept at sea for years; sex trafficking of adults and children from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Burma remains a significant problem; Thailand is a transit country for victims from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Burma subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Russia, South Korea, the US, and countries in Western Europe; Thai victims are also trafficked in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Thailand does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, authorities investigated, prosecuted, and convicted fewer traffickers and identified fewer victims; some cases of official complicity were investigated and prosecuted, but trafficking-related corruption continues to hinder progress in combatting trafficking; authorities’ efforts to screen for victims among vulnerable populations remained inadequate due to a poor understanding of trafficking indicators, a failure to recognize non-physical forms of coercion, and a shortage of language interpreters; the government passed new labor laws increasing the minimum age in the fishing industry to 18 years old, guaranteeing the minimum wage, and requiring work contracts, but weak law enforcement and poor coordination among regulatory agencies enabled exploitive labor practices to continue; the government increased efforts to raise public awareness to the dangers of human trafficking and to deny entry to foreign sex tourists (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "a minor producer of opium, heroin, and marijuana; transit point for illicit heroin en route to the international drug market from Burma and Laos; eradication efforts have reduced the area of cannabis cultivation and shifted some production to neighboring countries; opium poppy cultivation has been reduced by eradication efforts; also a drug money-laundering center; minor role in methamphetamine production for regional consumption; major consumer of methamphetamine since the 1990s despite a series of government crackdowns" } diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/tt.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/tt.json index 4aaae33d..5eb658a9 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/tt.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/tt.json @@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { - "text": "31.3% of total population (2020)" + "text": "31.7% of total population (2021)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "3.31% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" @@ -438,7 +438,7 @@ }, "Urbanization": { "urban population": { - "text": "31.3% of total population (2020)" + "text": "31.7% of total population (2021)" }, "rate of urbanization": { "text": "3.31% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)" @@ -1105,10 +1105,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Timor-Leste is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Timorese women and girls from rural areas are lured to the capital with promises of legitimate jobs or education prospects and are then forced into prostitution or domestic servitude, and other women and girls may be sent to Indonesia for domestic servitude; Timorese family members force children into bonded domestic or agricultural labor to repay debts; foreign migrant women are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Timor-Leste, while men and boys from Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand are forced to work on fishing boats in Timorese waters under inhumane conditions" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Timor-Leste, and traffickers exploit victims from Timor-Leste abroad; traffickers exploit Timorese women, girls, and occasionally young men and boys from rural areas in sex trafficking or domestic servitude; Timorese men are exploited in forced labor in agriculture, construction, and mining; families place children in bonded domestic and agricultural labor to pay debts; traffickers deceive young men and women with promises of a scholarship or employment opportunities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries in the region only taking them to a different county, taking their passports, and forcing them into labor, including domestic servitude; sex traffickers in Timor-Leste prey on foreign women from East and Southeast Asia; traffickers also recruit Timorese women to send them to China, Indonesia, or Malaysia for commercial sex" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Timor-Leste does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, legislation was drafted but not finalized or implemented that outlines procedures for screening potential trafficking victims; law enforcement made modest progress, including one conviction for sex trafficking, but efforts are hindered by prosecutors’ and judges’ lack of expertise in applying anti-trafficking laws effectively; the government rescued two child victims with support from an NGO but did not provide protective services (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Timor-Leste does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include re-establishing funding to NGOs for victim services and integrating an anti-trafficking curriculum for officials; however, authorities decreased investigations and convictions; victim protection services were inadequate, and no government-wide standard operating procedures for victim identification were implemented; understanding of trafficking remains low among officials (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/east-n-southeast-asia/vm.json b/east-n-southeast-asia/vm.json index c40bba6d..ad161ea1 100644 --- a/east-n-southeast-asia/vm.json +++ b/east-n-southeast-asia/vm.json @@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ }, "Legislative branch": { "description": { - "text": "unicameral National Assembly or Quoc Hoi (500 seats - number following 2016 election - 494; number of current serving members - 484; members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by absolute majority vote; members serve 5-year terms)" + "text": "unicameral National Assembly or Quoc Hoi  (500 seats - number following 2016 election - 494; number of current serving members - 484; members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by absolute majority vote; members serve 5-year terms)" }, "elections": { "text": "last held on 22 May 2016 (next to be held in May 2021)" @@ -1181,6 +1181,14 @@ "text": "30,581 (2019); note - Vietnam's stateless ethnic Chinese Cambodian population dates to the 1970s when thousands of Cambodians fled to Vietnam to escape the Khmer Rouge and were no longer recognized as Cambodian citizens; Vietnamese women who gave up their citizenship to marry foreign men have found themselves stateless after divorcing and returning home to Vietnam; the government addressed this problem in 2009, and Vietnamese women are beginning to reclaim their citizenship" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Vietnam, and traffickers exploit Vietnamese abroad; Vietnamese men and women who migrate abroad for work may be subject to exploitation and illegally high fees from recruiters trapping them in debt bondage; traffickers subject victims to forced labor in construction, fishing, agriculture, mining, maritime industries, logging, and manufacturing, primarily in Taiwan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Laos, Japan, and to a lesser extent, some parts of Europe and the UK; traffickers mislead Vietnamese women and children with fraudulent employment opportunities and sex traffick them to brothels on the borders of China, Cambodia, Laos, and elsewhere in Asia; traffickers use the Internet, gaming sites, and particularly social media to lure victims; domestic traffickers are sometimes  family members or small-scale networks exploiting Vietnamese men, women, and children - including street children and children with disabilities - in forced labor as street beggars or in brick kilns and mines; child sex tourists from elsewhere in Asia and other countries exploit children; prisoners reportedly are forced to work in agriculture, manufacturing, and hazardous industries, such as cashew processing" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Vietnam does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include providing trafficking victims the right to legal representation in judicial proceedings, increasing the amount of shelter time for victims by one month, providing financial support, continuing large-scale awareness campaigns in vulnerable communities and to workers going overseas, and training law enforcement; however, fewer victims were identified or assisted and procedures remained slow and ineffective; provincial officials unfamiliar with anti-trafficking law impede anti-trafficking efforts; labor recruitment firms extorted illegal high fees from workers looking for overseas employment putting them at risk for forced labor; no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials complicit in trafficking offenses were made (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "minor producer of opium poppy; probable minor transit point for Southeast Asian heroin; government continues to face domestic opium/heroin/methamphetamine addiction problems despite longstanding crackdowns; enforces the death penalty for drug trafficking" } diff --git a/europe/bk.json b/europe/bk.json index ba283d38..80b752c7 100644 --- a/europe/bk.json +++ b/europe/bk.json @@ -1147,7 +1147,15 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "75 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 74,714 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" + "note": "note: 75,572 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnians and Herzegovinians abroad; Bosnian and foreign women and girls are sex trafficked within the country; Bosnians are also exploited through forced labor in construction and other industries in neighboring Balkan countries and throughout Europe; thousands of migrants and refugees smuggled through Bosnia and Herzegovina are vulnerable to trafficking, especially women and unaccompanied minors; Romani children are victims of forced begging, sex trafficking, and domestic servitude" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Bosnia and Herzegovina does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; because the government devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet minimum standards, Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted a waiver from being downgraded to Tier 3; the government adopted a national strategy in January 2020; the State Prosecutor’s Office appointed a prosecutor to the anti-trafficking strike force, the only mechanism to coordinate law enforcement efforts across entities on trafficking cases; the government identified more trafficking victims and revised the structure and guidelines of regional coordinating teams to increase effectiveness; however, the lack of an approved state budget delayed funding for anti-trafficking efforts; law enforcement continued to regularly investigate trafficking under lesser offenses, while judges continued to issue sentences below the minimum penalty; the government continued to penalize victims and did not disburse annual funds to NGOs for victim protection (2020)" + } }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "increasingly a transit point for heroin being trafficked to Western Europe; minor transit point for marijuana; remains highly vulnerable to money-laundering activity given a primarily cash-based and unregulated economy, weak law enforcement, and instances of corruption" diff --git a/europe/bo.json b/europe/bo.json index 540807ec..a5fcffdd 100644 --- a/europe/bo.json +++ b/europe/bo.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "3,642 km" + "text": "3,599 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Latvia 161 km, Lithuania 640 km, Poland 418 km, Russia 1312 km, Ukraine 1111 km" + "text": "Latvia 161 km, Lithuania 640 km, Poland 375 km, Russia 1312 km, Ukraine 1111 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -1144,10 +1144,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Belarus is a source, transit, and destination country for women, men, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; more victims are exploited within Belarus than abroad; Belarusians exploited abroad are primarily trafficked to Germany, Poland, Russian, and Turkey but also other European countries, the Middle East, Japan, Kazakhstan, and Mexico; Moldovans, Russians, Ukrainians, and Vietnamese are exploited in Belarus; state-sponsored forced labor is a continuing problem; students are forced to do farm labor without pay and military conscripts are forced to perform unpaid non-military work; the government has retained a decree forbidding workers in state-owned wood processing factories from leaving their jobs without their employers’ permission" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims and exploit Belarusians abroad; the majority of trafficking victims are men subjected to forced labor; most Belarusian victims are trafficked in Belarus and Russia, but also in Poland, Turkey, and other Eurasian and Middle Eastern countries; the government continued to subject factory workers, civil servants, and students to state-sponsored forced labor harvesting crops on state-owned farms or cleaning streets" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Belarus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and was placed on Tier 3 after being on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years without making progress; government efforts to repeal state-sponsored forced labor policies and domestic trafficking were inadequate; no trafficking offenders were convicted in 2014, and the number of investigations progressively declined from 2005-14; efforts to protect trafficking victims remain insufficient, with no identification and referral mechanism in place; care facilities were not trafficking-specific and were poorly equipped, leading most victims to seek assistance from private shelters (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Belarus does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking because of a government policy or pattern of government-sponsored forced labor in public works projects and the agricultural sector; however, authorities convicted traffickers under its trafficking statute for the first time in eight years, increased training for law enforcement officers, and confirmed significantly more victims; the government adopted a national action plan to protect minors from sexual violence and exploitation (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/europe/bu.json b/europe/bu.json index 907267bc..92b35c03 100644 --- a/europe/bu.json +++ b/europe/bu.json @@ -1167,14 +1167,6 @@ }, "note": "note: 60,074 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021); Bulgaria is predominantly a transit country" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Bulgaria is a source and, to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Bulgaria is one of the main sources of human trafficking in the EU; women and children are increasingly sex trafficked domestically, as well as in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and the US; adults and children become forced laborers in agriculture, construction, and the service sector in Europe, Israel, and Zambia; Romanian girls are also subjected to sex trafficking in Bulgaria" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Bulgaria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, authorities prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers and issued suspended sentences for the majority of those convicted; victim protection efforts declined and were minimal relative to the number of victims identified; funding for the state’s two NGO-operated shelters was significantly cut, forcing them to close; specialized services for child and adult male victims were non-existent; the government took action to combat trafficking-related complicity among public officials and police officers (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "major European transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and, to a lesser degree, South American cocaine for the European market; limited producer of precursor chemicals; vulnerable to money laundering because of corruption, organized crime; some money laundering of drug-related proceeds through financial institutions" } diff --git a/europe/cy.json b/europe/cy.json index 068ac541..214b074d 100644 --- a/europe/cy.json +++ b/europe/cy.json @@ -546,10 +546,10 @@ "text": "area under government control: unicameral House of Representatives or Vouli Antiprosopon (80 seats; 56 assigned to Greek Cypriots, 24 to Turkish Cypriots, but only those assigned to Greek Cypriots are filled; members directly elected by both proportional representation and preferential vote; members serve 5-year terms); area administered by Turkish Cypriots: unicameral \"Assembly of the Republic\" or Cumhuriyet Meclisi (50 seats; members directly elected to 5-year terms by proportional representation system using a hybrid d'Hondt method with voter preferences for individual candidates" }, "elections": { - "text": "area under government control: last held on 22 May 2016 (next to be held in May 2021); area administered by Turkish Cypriots: last held on 7 January 2018 (next to be held in 2023, unless early election called)" + "text": "area under government control: last held on 30 May 2021 (next to be held in 2026); area administered by Turkish Cypriots: last held on 7 January 2018 (next to be held in 2023, unless early election called)" }, "election results": { - "text": "area under government control: House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - DISY 30.7%, AKEL 25.7%, DIKO 14.5%, KS-EDEK 6.2%, SP 6% Solidarity Movement 5.2%, other 11.7%; seats by party - DISY 18, AKEL 16, DIKO 9, KS-EDEK 3, Citizen's Alliance 3 (2 left the party in 2017 and 2018 due to disagreements over the party's policy regarding the presidential election campaign; one joined DIKO and the other became an independent MP), Solidarity Movement 3, other 4; area administered by Turkish Cypriots: \"Assembly of the Republic\" - percent of vote by party - UBP 35.6%, CTP 20.9%, HP 17.1%, TDP 8.6%, DP 7.8%, YDP 7%, 3%; seats by party - UBP 21, CTP 12, HP 9, DP 3, TDP 3, YDP 2" + "text": "area under government control: House of Representatives - percent of vote by party/coalition - DISY 27.8%, AKEL 22.3%, DIKO 11.3%, ELAM 6.8%, EDEK-SP 6.7%, DiPa 6.1%, Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Cooperation 4.4%, other 14.6%; percent of vote by party/coalition - DISY 17, AKEL 15, DIKO 9, ELAM 4, EDEK-SP 4, DiPa 4, Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Cooperation 3; area administered by Turkish Cypriots: \"Assembly of the Republic\" - percent of vote by party - UBP 35.6%, CTP 20.9%, HP 17.1%, TDP 8.6%, DP 7.8%, YDP 7%, 3%; seats by party - UBP 21, CTP 12, HP 9, DP 3, TDP 3, YDP 2" } }, "Judicial branch": { @@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ } }, "Political parties and leaders": { - "text": "area under government control:
Citizens' Alliance or SP [Giorgos LILLIKAS]
Democratic Party or DIKO [Nicolas PAPADOPOULOS]
Democratic Rally or DISY [Averof NEOPHYTOU]
Movement of Ecologists and Environmentalists or KOP (Green party) [Giorgos PERDIKIS]
I, the Citizen or EOP [Georgios KOUNTOURIS]
Movement of Social Democrats EDEK [Marinos SIZOPOULOS]
National Popular Front or ELAM [Christos CHRISTOU]
Progressive Party of the Working People or AKEL (Communist party) [Andros KYPRIANOU]
Solidarity Movement [Eleni THEOCHAROUS]
United Democrats or EDI [Praxoula ANTONIADOU]
Democratic Front or DIPA [Marios GAROYIAN]
Animal Party Cyprus or APC [Kyriacos KYRIACOU]
area administered by Turkish Cypriots:
Communal Democracy Party or TDP [Cemal OZYIGIT]
Communal Liberation Party-New Forces or TKP-YG [Mehmet CAKICI]
Cyprus Socialist Party or KSP [Mehmet BIRINCI]
Democratic Party or DP [Serdar DENKTAS]
National Democratic Party or NDP [Buray BUSKUVUTCU]
National Unity Party or UBP [Ersin TATAR]
New Cyprus Party or YKP [Murat KANATLI]
People's Party or HP [Kudret OZERSAY]
Rebirth Party or YDP [Erhan ARIKLI]
Republican Turkish Party or CTP [Tufan ERHURMAN]
United Cyprus Party or BKP [Izzet IZCAN]" + "text": "area under government control:
Citizens' Alliance or SP [Giorgos LILLIKAS]
Democratic Front or DiPa [Marios GAROYIAN]
Democratic Party or DIKO [Nicolas PAPADOPOULOS]
Democratic Rally or DISY [Averof NEOPHYTOU]
Movement of Ecologists - Citizens' Alliance [Theopemptou CHARALAMBOS]
Movement of Social Democrats EDEK [Marinos SIZOPOULOS]
National Popular Front or ELAM [Christos CHRISTOU]
Progressive Party of the Working People or AKEL (Communist party) [Andros KYPRIANOU]

area administered by Turkish Cypriots:
Communal Democracy Party or TDP [Cemal OZYIGIT]
Communal Liberation Party-New Forces or TKP-YG [Mehmet CAKICI]
Cyprus Socialist Party or KSP [Mehmet BIRINCI]
Democratic Party or DP [Serdar DENKTAS]
National Democratic Party or NDP [Buray BUSKUVUTCU]
National Unity Party or UBP [Ersin TATAR]
New Cyprus Party or YKP [Murat KANATLI]
People's Party or HP [Kudret OZERSAY]
Rebirth Party or YDP [Erhan ARIKLI]
Republican Turkish Party or CTP [Tufan ERHURMAN]
United Cyprus Party or BKP [Izzet IZCAN]" }, "International organization participation": { "text": "Australia Group, C, CD, CE, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EMU, EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, NAM, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO" diff --git a/europe/ee.json b/europe/ee.json index a5fbbceb..3503d516 100644 --- a/europe/ee.json +++ b/europe/ee.json @@ -43,10 +43,10 @@ }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { - "text": "Mont Blanc, France 4,810 m" + "text": "Mont Blanc, France 4,810 m" }, "lowest point": { - "text": "Zuidplaspolder, Netherlands -7 m" + "text": "Zuidplaspolder, Netherlands -7 m" } }, "Natural resources": { @@ -100,8 +100,7 @@ }, "female": { "text": "45.5 years (2020 est.)" - }, - "note": "\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
   
" + } }, "Population growth rate": { "text": "-0.69% 0.10% (2021 est.)" @@ -286,12 +285,12 @@ "text": "18 years of age (16 years in Austria); universal; voting for the European Parliament is permitted in each member state" }, "Executive branch": { - "text": "

under the EU treaties there are three distinct institutions, each of which conducts functions that may be regarded as executive in nature:
European Council - brings together heads of state and government, along with the president of the European Commission, and meets at least four times a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the development of the Union and to issue general policy guidelines; the Treaty of Lisbon established the position of \"permanent\" (full-time) president of the European Council; leaders of the EU member states appoint the president for a 2 1/2 year term, renewable once; the president's responsibilities include chairing the EU summits and providing policy and organizational continuity; the current president is Charles MICHEL (Belgium), since 1 December 2019, succeeding Donald TUSK (Poland; 2014 - 2019)
Council of the European Commission - consists of ministers of each EU member state and meets regularly in 10 different configurations depending on the subject matter; it conducts policymaking and coordinating functions as well as legislative functions; ministers of EU member states chair meetings of the Council of the EU based on a 6-month rotating presidency except for the meetings of EU Foreign Ministers in the Foreign Affairs Council that are chaired by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commission - headed by a College of Commissioners comprised of 28 members (one from each member country) including the president; each commissioner is responsible for one or more policy areas; the Commission's main responsibilities include the sole right to initiate EU legislation (except for foreign and security/defense policy), promoting the general interest of the EU, acting as \"guardian of the Treaties\" by monitoring the application of EU law, implementing/executing the EU budget, managing programs, negotiating on the EU's behalf in core policy areas such as trade, and ensuring the Union's external representation in some policy areas; its current president is Ursula VON DER LEYEN (Belgium) elected on 16 July 2019 (took office on 1 December 2019); the president of the European Commission is nominated by the European Council and formally \"elected\" by the European Parliament; the Commission president allocates specific responsibilities among the members of the College (appointed by common accord of the member state governments in consultation with the president-elect); the European Parliament confirms the entire Commission for a 5-year term.



note: for external representation and foreign policy making, leaders of the EU member states appointed Federica MOGHERINI (Italy) as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; MOGHERINI took office on 1 November 2014, succeeding Catherine ASHTON (UK) (2009-14); the High Representative's concurrent appointment as Vice President of the European Commission was meant to bring more coherence to the EU’s foreign policy (horizontally, between policies managed by the Commission that are particularly relevant for EU external relations, such as trade, humanitarian aid and crisis management, neighborhood policy and enlargement; and vertically, between national capitals and the EU); the High Representative helps develop and implement the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy components, chairs the Foreign Affairs Council, represents and acts for the Union in many international contexts, and oversees the European External Action Service, the diplomatic corps of the EU, established on 1 December 2010", - "note": "note: for external representation and foreign policy making, leaders of the EU member states appointed Federica MOGHERINI (Italy) as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; MOGHERINI took office on 1 November 2014, succeeding Catherine ASHTON (UK) (2009-14); the High Representative's concurrent appointment as Vice President of the European Commission was meant to bring more coherence to the EU’s foreign policy (horizontally, between policies managed by the Commission that are particularly relevant for EU external relations, such as trade, humanitarian aid and crisis management, neighborhood policy and enlargement; and vertically, between national capitals and the EU); the High Representative helps develop and implement the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy components, chairs the Foreign Affairs Council, represents and acts for the Union in many international contexts, and oversees the European External Action Service, the diplomatic corps of the EU, established on 1 December 2010" + "text": "

under the EU treaties there are three distinct institutions, each of which conducts functions that may be regarded as executive in nature:
European Council - brings together heads of state and government, along with the president of the European Commission, and meets at least four times a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the development of the Union and to issue general policy guidelines; the Treaty of Lisbon established the position of \"permanent\" (full-time) president of the European Council; leaders of the EU member states appoint the president for a 2 1/2 year term, renewable once; the president's responsibilities include chairing the EU summits and providing policy and organizational continuity; the current president is Charles MICHEL (Belgium), since 1 December 2019, succeeding Donald TUSK (Poland; 2014 - 2019)
Council of the European Commission - consists of ministers of each EU member state and meets regularly in 10 different configurations depending on the subject matter; it conducts policymaking and coordinating functions as well as legislative functions; ministers of EU member states chair meetings of the Council of the EU based on a 6-month rotating presidency except for the meetings of EU Foreign Ministers in the Foreign Affairs Council that are chaired by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commission - headed by a College of Commissioners comprised of 28 members (one from each member country) including the president; each commissioner is responsible for one or more policy areas; the Commission's main responsibilities include the sole right to initiate EU legislation (except for foreign and security/defense policy), promoting the general interest of the EU, acting as \"guardian of the Treaties\" by monitoring the application of EU law, implementing/executing the EU budget, managing programs, negotiating on the EU's behalf in core policy areas such as trade, and ensuring the Union's external representation in some policy areas; its current president is Ursula VON DER LEYEN (Belgium) elected on 16 July 2019 (took office on 1 December 2019); the president of the European Commission is nominated by the European Council and formally \"elected\" by the European Parliament; the Commission president allocates specific responsibilities among the members of the College (appointed by common accord of the member state governments in consultation with the president-elect); the European Parliament confirms the entire Commission for a 5-year term.



note: for external representation and foreign policy making, leaders of the EU member states appointed Joseph BORRELL (Spain) as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; BORRELL took office on 1 December 2019, succeeding Federica MOGHERINI (Italy (2014 - 2019); the High Representative's concurrent appointment as Vice President of the European Commission was meant to bring more coherence to the EU’s foreign policy (horizontally, between policies managed by the Commission that are particularly relevant for EU external relations, such as trade, humanitarian aid and crisis management, neighborhood policy and enlargement; and vertically, between national capitals and the EU); the High Representative helps develop and implement the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy components, chairs the Foreign Affairs Council, represents and acts for the Union in many international contexts, and oversees the European External Action Service, the diplomatic corps of the EU, established on 1 December 2010", + "note": "note: for external representation and foreign policy making, leaders of the EU member states appointed Joseph BORRELL (Spain) as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; BORRELL took office on 1 December 2019, succeeding Federica MOGHERINI (Italy (2014 - 2019); the High Representative's concurrent appointment as Vice President of the European Commission was meant to bring more coherence to the EU’s foreign policy (horizontally, between policies managed by the Commission that are particularly relevant for EU external relations, such as trade, humanitarian aid and crisis management, neighborhood policy and enlargement; and vertically, between national capitals and the EU); the High Representative helps develop and implement the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy components, chairs the Foreign Affairs Council, represents and acts for the Union in many international contexts, and oversees the European External Action Service, the diplomatic corps of the EU, established on 1 December 2010" }, "Legislative branch": { "description": { - "text": "two legislative bodies consisting of the Council of the European Union (27 seats; ministers representing the 27 member states) and the European Parliament (705 seats; seats allocated among member states roughly in proportion to population size; members elected by proportional representation to serve 5-year terms); note - the European Parliament President, Antonio TAJANI (Italian center-right), was elected in January 2017 by a majority of fellow members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally; the Council of the EU and the MEPs share responsibilities for adopting the bulk of EU legislation, normally acting in co-decision on Commission proposals (but not in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy, which is governed by consensus of the EU member state governments)" + "text": "two legislative bodies consisting of the Council of the European Union (27 seats; ministers representing the 27 member states) and the European Parliament (705 seats; seats allocated among member states roughly in proportion to population size; members elected by proportional representation to serve 5-year terms); note - the European Parliament President, David SASSOLI (Italian center-left), was elected in July 2019 by a majority of fellow members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally; the Council of the EU and the MEPs share responsibilities for adopting the bulk of EU legislation, normally acting in co-decision on Commission proposals (but not in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy, which is governed by consensus of the EU member state governments)" }, "elections": { "text": "last held on 23-26 May 2019 (next to be held May 2024)" @@ -302,7 +301,7 @@ }, "Judicial branch": { "highest courts": { - "text": "Court of Justice of the European Union, which includes the Court of Justice (informally known as the European Court of Justice or ECJ) and the General Court (consists of 27 judges, one drawn from each member state; the ECJ includes 11 Advocates General while the General Court can include additional judges; both the ECJ and the General Court may sit in a \"Grand Chamber\" of 15 judges in special cases but usually in chambers of 3 to 5 judges" + "text": "Court of Justice of the European Union, which includes the Court of Justice (informally known as the European Court of Justice or ECJ) and the General Court (consists of 27 judges, one drawn from each member state; the ECJ includes 11 Advocates General while the General Court can include additional judges; both the ECJ and the General Court may sit in a \"Grand Chamber\" of 15 judges in special cases but usually in chambers of 3 to 5 judges" }, "judge selection and term of office": { "text": "judges appointed by the common consent of the member states to serve 6-year renewable terms" @@ -317,7 +316,7 @@ }, "Diplomatic representation in the US": { "chief of mission": { - "text": "Ambassador David O'SULLIVAN (since 18 November 2014)" + "text": "Ambassador Stavros LAMBRINIDIS (since 1 March 2019) " }, "chancery": { "text": "2175 K Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20037" @@ -331,7 +330,7 @@ }, "Diplomatic representation from the US": { "chief of mission": { - "text": "Ambassador Gordon SONDLAND (since 9 July 2018)" + "text": "Ambassador (Vacant); Charge D' Affaires Mark LIBBY (since 20 January 2021)" }, "telephone": { "text": "[32] (2) 811-4100" diff --git a/europe/ei.json b/europe/ei.json index ac10981a..ecf221a9 100644 --- a/europe/ei.json +++ b/europe/ei.json @@ -1150,6 +1150,14 @@ "text": "99 (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Ireland and Irish victims abroad; traffickers subject Irish children and foreign trafficking victims from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America to sex trafficking; victims are exploited in forced domestic work, the restaurant industry, waste management, fishing, seasonal agriculture, and car washing services; Vietnamese and Chinese nationals convicted for cannabis cultivation often report indicators of forced labor, such as document retention, restriction of movement, and non-payment of wages; undocumented workers in the fishing industry and domestic workers, particularly au pairs, are vulnerable to trafficking; women from Eastern Europe forced into marriage in Ireland are at risk for sex trafficking and forced labor; the problem of forced labor in the country is growing" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Ireland does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included increasing prosecutions and funding to NGOs for victim assistance, increasing the number of police and immigration officers receiving anti-trafficking training, and reorganizing its anti-trafficking coordination unit; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts; no traffickers have been convicted since the anti-trafficking law was amended in 2013; weakened deterrence meant impunity for traffickers and undermined efforts to support victims testifying against traffickers; systematic deficiencies in victim identification, a lack of specialized services for victims continued, and the amended working scheme for sea fishers increased their vulnerability to trafficking (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for and consumer of hashish from North Africa to the UK and Netherlands and of European-produced synthetic drugs; increasing consumption of South American cocaine; minor transshipment point for heroin and cocaine destined for Western Europe; despite recent legislation, narcotics-related money laundering - using bureaux de change, trusts, and shell companies involving the offshore financial community - remains a concern" } diff --git a/europe/ez.json b/europe/ez.json index e9cdbbf7..854ea20a 100644 --- a/europe/ez.json +++ b/europe/ez.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "2,143 km" + "text": "2,046 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Austria 402 km, Germany 704 km, Poland 796 km, Slovakia 241 km" + "text": "Austria 402 km, Germany 704 km, Poland 699 km, Slovakia 241 km" } }, "Coastline": { diff --git a/europe/fr.json b/europe/fr.json index 822416ce..84c5c2e4 100644 --- a/europe/fr.json +++ b/europe/fr.json @@ -562,7 +562,7 @@ "subordinate courts": { "text": "appellate courts or Cour d'Appel; regional courts or Tribunal de Grande Instance; first instance courts or Tribunal d'instance; administrative courts" }, - "note": "note: in April 2018, the French Government announced its intention to reform the country's judicial system" + "note": "note: in April 2021, the French Government submitted a bill on judicial reform to Parliament" }, "Political parties and leaders": { "text": "Presidential majority Parties [Edouard PHILIPPE]
     Democratic Movement or MoDem [Francois BAYROU]
     La Republique en Marche! or LREM [Richard FERRAND]
     Movement of Progressives or MDP  Robert HUE]
Parliamentary right Parties [Francois BAROIN]
     Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Tradition or CPNT [Eddie PUYJAION]
     The Republicans or LR [Annie GENEVARD]
     Union of Democrats and Independents or UDI [Jean-Christophe    CAMBADELIS]
     
Parliamentary left Parties [Bernard CAZENEUVE]
     Sociatlist Party or PS [Jean-Christophe CAMBADEMAND]
     Radical Party of the Left or PRG [Sylvia PINEL]
     Citizen and Republican Movement or MRC [Jean-Luc LAURENT]
     Martinican Progressive Party or PPM [Aiem CESAIRE]
Debout la France or DLF [Nicolas DUPONT-AIGNAN]
Ecology Democracy Solidarity or EDS [Paula FORTEZA, Matthieu ORPHELIN
(splinter party formed in May 2020 by defectors of LREM)
Europe Ecologists - the Greens or EELV [David CORMAND]
French Communist Party or PCF [Pierre LAURENT]
La France Insoumise or FI [Jean-Luc MELENCHONLIS]
National Front or FN [Marine LE PEN]

" diff --git a/europe/gm.json b/europe/gm.json index d04f3b5a..e5490c88 100644 --- a/europe/gm.json +++ b/europe/gm.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "3,714 km" + "text": "3,694 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Austria 801 km, Belgium 133 km, Czech Republic 704 km, Denmark 140 km, France 418 km, Luxembourg 128 km, Netherlands 575 km, Poland 467 km, Switzerland 348 km" + "text": "Austria 801 km, Belgium 133 km, Czechia 704 km, Denmark 140 km, France 418 km, Luxembourg 128 km, Netherlands 575 km, Poland 447 km, Switzerland 348 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ } }, "Political parties and leaders": { - "text": "Alliance '90/Greens [Annalena BAERBOCK and Robert HABECK]
Alternative for Germany or AfD [Alexander GAULAND and Joerg MEUTHEN]
Christian Democratic Union or CDU [Armin LASCHET]
Christian Social Union or CSU [Markus SOEDER]
Free Democratic Party or FDP [Christian LINDNER]
The Left or Die Linke [Katja KIPPING and Bernd RIEXINGER]
Social Democratic Party or SPD [Saskia ESKEN and Norbert WALTER-BORJANS]" + "text": "Alliance '90/Greens [Annalena BAERBOCK and Robert HABECK]
Alternative for Germany or AfD [Alexander GAULAND - Honorary President, Joerg MEUTHEN and Tino CHRUPALLA]
Christian Democratic Union or CDU [Armin LASCHET]
Christian Social Union or CSU [Markus SOEDER]
Free Democratic Party or FDP [Christian LINDNER]
The Left or Die Linke [Janine WISSLER and Susanne HENNING-WELLSOW]
Social Democratic Party or SPD [Saskia ESKEN and Norbert WALTER-BORJANS]" }, "International organization participation": { "text": "ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS, CD, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EITI (implementing country), EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, FATF, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, G-20, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSMA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Pacific Alliance (observer), Paris Club, PCA, Schengen Convention, SELEC (observer), SICA (observer), UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMISS, UNRWA, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC" diff --git a/europe/gr.json b/europe/gr.json index 796ebfaa..b4058d40 100644 --- a/europe/gr.json +++ b/europe/gr.json @@ -1170,7 +1170,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "4,734 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 1,207,593 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021); as of the end of December 2020, an estimated 119,700 migrants and refugees were stranded in Greece since 2015-16" + "note": "note: 1,207,658 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-June 2021); as of the end of December 2020, an estimated 119,700 migrants and refugees were stranded in Greece since 2015-16" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor chemicals to the East; some South American cocaine transits or is consumed in Greece; money laundering related to drug trafficking and organized crime" diff --git a/europe/hr.json b/europe/hr.json index cef3a31f..be6f2cc5 100644 --- a/europe/hr.json +++ b/europe/hr.json @@ -1165,7 +1165,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "2,886 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 721,736 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-March 2021); flows slowed considerably in 2017; Croatia is predominantly a transit country and hosts about 340 asylum seekers as of the end of June 2018" + "note": "note: 723,059 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-April 2021); flows slowed considerably in 2017; Croatia is predominantly a transit country and hosts about 340 asylum seekers as of the end of June 2018" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "primarily a transit country along the Balkan route for maritime shipments of South American cocaine bound for Western Europe and other illicit drugs and chemical precursors to and from Western Europe; no significant domestic production of illicit drugs" diff --git a/europe/it.json b/europe/it.json index 6dc74b7c..6aa91588 100644 --- a/europe/it.json +++ b/europe/it.json @@ -1190,7 +1190,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "15,822 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 537,001 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals by sea (January 2015-May 2021); hosts an estimated 96,862 migrants and asylum seekers as of the end of October 2019" + "note": "note: 538,607 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals by sea (January 2015-June 2021); hosts an estimated 96,862 migrants and asylum seekers as of the end of October 2019" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "important gateway for and consumer of Latin American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin entering the European market; money laundering by organized crime and from smuggling" diff --git a/europe/kv.json b/europe/kv.json index cc020073..522384a4 100644 --- a/europe/kv.json +++ b/europe/kv.json @@ -930,7 +930,7 @@ "IDPs": { "text": "16,000 (primarily ethnic Serbs displaced during the 1998-1999 war fearing reprisals from the majority ethnic-Albanian population; a smaller number of ethnic Serbs, Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians fled their homes in 2,004 as a result of violence) (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 6,293 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-March 2021)" + "note": "note: 6,343 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-April 2021)" } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/europe/lg.json b/europe/lg.json index a588d3b8..6096ec85 100644 --- a/europe/lg.json +++ b/europe/lg.json @@ -495,7 +495,7 @@ "note": "etymology: of the several theories explaining the name's origin, the one relating to the city's role in Baltic and North Sea commerce is the most probable; the name is likely related to the Latvian word \"rija,\" meaning \"warehouse,\" where the 'j' became a 'g' under the heavy German influence in the city from the late Middle Ages to the early 20th century" }, "Administrative divisions": { - "text": "

110 municipalities (novadi, singular - novads) and 9 cities

municipalities: Adazi, Aglona, Aizkraukle, Aizpute, Akniste, Aloja, Alsunga, Aluksne, Amata, Ape, Auce, Babite, Baldone, Baltinava, Balvi, Bauska, Beverina, Broceni, Burtnieki, Carnikava, Cesis, Cesvaine, Cibla, Dagda, Daugavpils, Dobele, Dundaga, Durbe, Engure, Ergli, Garkalne, Grobina, Gulbene, Iecava, Ikskile, Ilukste, Incukalns, Jaunjelgava, Jaunpiebalga, Jaunpils, Jekabpils, Jelgava, Kandava, Karsava, Kegums, Kekava, Koceni, Koknese, Kraslava, Krimulda, Krustpils, Kuldiga, Lielvarde, Ligatne, Limbazi, Livani, Lubanas, Ludza, Madona, Malpils, Marupe, Mazsalaca, Mersrags, Naukseni, Nereta, Nica, Ogre, Olaine, Ozolnieki, Pargauja, Pavilosta, Plavinas, Preili, Priekule, Priekuli, Rauna, Rezekne, Riebini, Roja, Ropazi, Rucava, Rugaji, Rujiena, Rundale, Salacgriva, Sala, Salaspils, Saldus, Saulkrasti, Seja, Sigulda, Skriveri, Skrunda, Smiltene, Stopini, Strenci, Talsi, Tervete, Tukums, Vainode, Valka, Varaklani, Varkava, Vecpiebalga, Vecumnieki, Ventspils, Viesites, Vilaka, Vilani, Zilupe

cities: Daugavpils, Jekabpils, Jelgava, Jurmala, Liepaja, Rezekne, Riga, Valmiera, Ventspils

" + "text": "

35 municipalities (novadi, singular - novads) and 7 state cities (valstpilsetu pasvaldibas, singular valstspilsetas pasvaldiba)

municipalities: Adazi, Aizkraukle, Aluksne, Augsdaugava, Balvi, Bauska, Cesis, Dienvidkurzeme, Dobele, Gulbene, Jekabpils, Jelgava, Kekava, Kraslava, Kuldiga, Limbazi, Livani, Ludza, Madona, Marupe, Ogre, Olaine, Preili, Rezekne, Ropazi, Salaspils, Saldus, Saulkrasti, Sigulda, Smiltene, Talsi, Tukums, Valka, Valmiera, Ventspils

cities: Daugavpils, Jelgava, Jurmala, Liepaja, Rezekne, Riga, Ventspils

" }, "Independence": { "text": "18 November 1918 (from Soviet Russia); 4 May 1990 (declared from the Soviet Union); 6 September 1991 (recognized by the Soviet Union)" diff --git a/europe/lh.json b/europe/lh.json index 74451c7c..d92ab7a9 100644 --- a/europe/lh.json +++ b/europe/lh.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "1,549 km" + "text": "1,545 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Belarus 640 km, Latvia 544 km, Poland 104 km, Russia (Kaliningrad) 261 km" + "text": "Belarus 640 km, Latvia 544 km, Poland 100 km, Russia (Kaliningrad) 261 km" } }, "Coastline": { diff --git a/europe/lo.json b/europe/lo.json index d04c5363..979b1b80 100644 --- a/europe/lo.json +++ b/europe/lo.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "1,611 km" + "text": "1,587 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Austria 105 km, Czech Republic 241 km, Hungary 627 km, Poland 541 km, Ukraine 97 km" + "text": "Austria 105 km, Czechia 241 km, Hungary 627 km, Poland 517 km, Ukraine 97 km" } }, "Coastline": { diff --git a/europe/mj.json b/europe/mj.json index 669e9f43..3742114f 100644 --- a/europe/mj.json +++ b/europe/mj.json @@ -1141,7 +1141,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "142 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 18,446 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" + "note": "note: 18,603 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/europe/mk.json b/europe/mk.json index cc3c935c..6aaa9750 100644 --- a/europe/mk.json +++ b/europe/mk.json @@ -1102,7 +1102,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "567 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 512,970 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" + "note": "note: 513,799 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and hashish; minor transit point for South American cocaine destined for Europe; although not a financial center and most criminal activity is thought to be domestic, money laundering is a problem due to a mostly cash-based economy and weak enforcement" diff --git a/europe/pl.json b/europe/pl.json index fd05e784..5d2fe9fe 100644 --- a/europe/pl.json +++ b/europe/pl.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "3,071 km" + "text": "2,865 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Belarus 418 km, Czech Republic 796 km, Germany 467 km, Lithuania 104 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 210 km, Slovakia 541 km, Ukraine 535 km" + "text": "Belarus 375 km, Czechia 699 km, Germany 467 km, Lithuania 100 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 209 km, Slovakia 517 km, Ukraine 498 km" } }, "Coastline": { diff --git a/europe/ri.json b/europe/ri.json index 3933457e..190d592e 100644 --- a/europe/ri.json +++ b/europe/ri.json @@ -1162,7 +1162,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "1,951 (includes stateless persons in Kosovo) (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 766,022 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021); Serbia is predominantly a transit country and hosts an estimated 5,450 migrants and asylum seekers as of March 2021" + "note": "note: 767,786 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021); Serbia is predominantly a transit country and hosts an estimated 5,450 migrants and asylum seekers as of March 2021" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin moving to Western Europe on the Balkan route; economy vulnerable to money laundering" diff --git a/europe/ro.json b/europe/ro.json index 57bfeb5d..16cfb818 100644 --- a/europe/ro.json +++ b/europe/ro.json @@ -1160,7 +1160,15 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "192 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 7,516 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-April 2021)" + "note": "note: 7,659 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Romania and Romanians abroad;  Romania remains a primary source country for sex and labor trafficking victims in Europe; Romanian men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor in agriculture, construction, hotels, manufacturing, domestic service, commercial sex, and forced begging and theft; Romania is a destination country for a limited number of foreign trafficking victims, including migrants from Africa, Europe, and South and Southeast Asia, exploited in the construction, hotel, and food-processing industries" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Romania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government identified more trafficking victims during the reporting period, participated in more international investigations, and conducted awareness campaigns; however, authorities investigated, prosecuted, and convicted fewer traffickers; officials complicit in trafficking crimes, especially with minors in government-run homes or placement centers, were not prosecuted; government funding of services for child trafficking victims remained inadequate (2020)" + } }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route and small amounts of Latin American cocaine bound for Western Europe; although not a significant financial center, role as a narcotics conduit leaves it vulnerable to laundering, which occurs via the banking system, currency exchange houses, and casinos" diff --git a/europe/sp.json b/europe/sp.json index 99c6821c..266eda77 100644 --- a/europe/sp.json +++ b/europe/sp.json @@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ "note": "note: data represent population by country of birth" }, "Languages": { - "text": "Castilian Spanish (official nationwide) 74%, Catalan (official in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community (where it is known as Valencian)) 17%, Galician (official in Galicia) 7%, Basque (official in the Basque Country and in the Basque-speaking area of Navarre) 2%, Aranese (official in the northwest corner of Catalonia (Vall d'Aran) along with Catalan, <5,000 speakers)

note: Aragonese, Aranese Asturian, Basque, Calo, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian are recognized as regional languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages", + "text": "Castilian Spanish (official nationwide) 74%, Catalan (official in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community (where it is known as Valencian)) 17%, Galician (official in Galicia) 7%, Basque (official in the Basque Country and in the Basque-speaking area of Navarre) 2%, Aranese (official in the northwest corner of Catalonia (Vall d'Aran) along with Catalan, <5,000 speakers)

note: Aragonese, Aranese Asturian, Basque, Calo, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian are recognized as regional languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages", "note": "note: Aragonese, Aranese Asturian, Basque, Calo, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian are recognized as regional languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" }, "Religions": { @@ -1196,7 +1196,7 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "4,246 (2019)" }, - "note": "note: 217,247 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-May 2021)" + "note": "note: 218,798 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-June 2021)" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "despite rigorous law enforcement efforts, North African, Latin American, Galician, and other European traffickers take advantage of Spain's long coastline to land large shipments of cocaine and hashish for distribution to the European market; consumer for Latin American cocaine and North African hashish; destination and minor transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin; money-laundering site for Colombian narcotics trafficking organizations and organized crime" diff --git a/europe/up.json b/europe/up.json index 35bcd0bf..5f8e7fb5 100644 --- a/europe/up.json +++ b/europe/up.json @@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "5,618 km" + "text": "5,581 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Belarus 1111 km, Hungary 128 km, Moldova 1202 km, Poland 535 km, Romania 601 km, Russia 1944 km, Slovakia 97 km" + "text": "Belarus 1111 km, Hungary 128 km, Moldova 1202 km, Poland 498 km, Romania 601 km, Russia 1944 km, Slovakia 97 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -1179,14 +1179,6 @@ "text": "35,642 (2019); note - citizens of the former USSR who were permanently resident in Ukraine were granted citizenship upon Ukraine's independence in 1991, but some missed this window of opportunity; people arriving after 1991, Crimean Tatars, ethnic Koreans, people with expired Soviet passports, and people with no documents have difficulty acquiring Ukrainian citizenship; following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, thousands of Crimean Tatars and their descendants deported from Ukraine under the STALIN regime returned to their homeland, some being stateless and others holding the citizenship of Uzbekistan or other former Soviet republics; a 1998 bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Uzbekistan simplified the process of renouncing Uzbek citizenship and obtaining Ukrainian citizenship" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Ukraine is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Ukrainian victims are sex trafficked within Ukraine as well as in Russia, Poland, Iraq, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Seychelles, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Moldova, China, the United Arab Emirates, Montenegro, UK, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, and other countries; small numbers of foreigners from Moldova, Russia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cameroon, and Azerbaijan were victims of labor trafficking in Ukraine; Ukrainian recruiters most often target Ukrainians from rural areas with limited job prospects using fraud, coercion, and debt bondage" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Ukraine does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government’s focus on its security situation constrained its anti-trafficking capabilities; law enforcement efforts to pursue trafficking cases weakened in 2014, continuing a multi-year decline, and no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials were made, despite reports of official complicity in the sex and labor trafficking of children living in state-run institutions; fewer victims were identified and referred to NGOs, which continued to provide and to fund the majority of victims’ services (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS consumption; some synthetic drug production for export to the West; limited government eradication program; used as transshipment point for opiates and other illicit drugs from Africa, Latin America, and Turkey to Europe and Russia; Ukraine has improved anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and Territories List in February 2004; Ukraine's anti-money-laundering regime continues to be monitored by FATF" } diff --git a/middle-east/aj.json b/middle-east/aj.json index 9ebddefc..e6877830 100644 --- a/middle-east/aj.json +++ b/middle-east/aj.json @@ -1142,6 +1142,14 @@ "text": "3,585 (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Azerbaijan and exploit Azerbaijanis abroad; Azerbaijani men and boys experience forced labor domestically and in Qatar, Russia, and the UAE; Azerbaijani women and children are subjected to sex trafficking domestically and in Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, and the UAE; Azerbaijan is a destination country for sex and forced labor trafficking victims from China, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan; some children are exploited domestically for forced begging and forced labor as roadside vendors and at tea houses and wedding venues" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Azerbaijan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; more traffickers were convicted and judges received guidance to issue stricter sentences; the government significantly increased funding for victim protection by establishing grants for civil society; however, authorities identified fewer victims than in the previous year, did not regularly screen vulnerable populations, and continued to lack proactive identification methods, resulting in victims being penalized for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020)" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS consumption; small government eradication program; transit point for Southwest Asian opiates bound for Russia and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe" } diff --git a/middle-east/am.json b/middle-east/am.json index d5ec5451..d66e2b24 100644 --- a/middle-east/am.json +++ b/middle-east/am.json @@ -1107,6 +1107,14 @@ "text": "961 (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "Armenians may be exploited domestically or abroad, and foreigners may be subjected to sex trafficking or forced labor in Armenia; Armenian women and children are exploited in sex and labor trafficking domestically, as well as sex trafficking in the UAE and Turkey; Armenian migrants experience forced labor in Russia, the UAE, and Turkey; Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian women working as dancers are vulnerable to sex trafficking, while Indian employment seekers are subjected to forced labor in Armenia" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "

Tier 2 Watch List — Armenia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; law enforcement authorities did not conduct proactive investigations and relied on victims to self-identify; prevention efforts decreased and protection efforts were weak, with the government continuing to lack a formal victim-witness protection program; the government had no convictions, including convictions of complicit government employees, for the second consecutive year and has not had a forced labor conviction since 2014; legislation was passed to strengthen the health and labor body and training was provided to law enforcement officials; government and local NGOs provided legal, medical, and psychological assistance, housing, and monetary compensation to victims; however, civil society continued to provide reintegration and long-term support services without government funding (2020)

" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "illicit cultivation of small amount of cannabis for domestic consumption; minor transit point for illicit drugs - mostly opium and hashish - moving from Southwest Asia to Russia and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe" } diff --git a/middle-east/ir.json b/middle-east/ir.json index a0ee9805..106210e4 100644 --- a/middle-east/ir.json +++ b/middle-east/ir.json @@ -1166,10 +1166,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; organized groups sex traffic Iranian women and children in Iran and to the UAE and Europe; the transport of girls from and through Iran en route to the Gulf for sexual exploitation or forced marriages is on the rise; Iranian children are also forced to work as beggars, street vendors, and in domestic workshops; Afghan boys forced to work in construction or agriculture are vulnerable to sexual abuse by their employers; Pakistani and Afghan migrants being smuggled to Europe often are subjected to forced labor, including debt bondage" + "text": "Iran is a presumed source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Iranian and Afghan boys and girls are forced into prostitution domestically; Iranian women are subjected to sex trafficking in Iran, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and Europe; Azerbaijani women and children are also sexually exploited in Iran; Afghan migrants and refugees and Pakistani men and women are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Iran; NGO reports indicate that criminal organizations play a significant role in human trafficking in Iran" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Iran does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government does not share information on its anti-trafficking efforts, but publically available information from NGOs, the media, and international organizations indicates that Iran is not taking adequate measures to address its trafficking problems, particularly protecting victims; Iranian law does not prohibit all forms of human trafficking; female victims find it extremely difficult to get justice because Iranian courts accord women’s testimony half the weight of men's, and female victims of sexual abuse, including trafficking, are likely to be prosecuted for adultery; the government did not identify or provide protection services to any victims and continued to punish victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; the government made some effort to cooperate with neighboring governments and an international organization to combat human trafficking and other crimes (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Iran does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; therefore, Iran remained in Tier 3; the government continued a policy of recruiting and using child soldiers, government officials perpetrated sex trafficking of adults and children and continued trafficking both in Iran and overseas; the government continued to force or coerce children and adults to fight for Iranian-led militias operating in Syria and provided financial support to militias fighting in armed conflicts in the region using child soldiers; authorities failed to identify and protect trafficking victims among vulnerable populations; law enforcement treated trafficking victims as criminals, facing severe punishment or death for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/middle-east/is.json b/middle-east/is.json index d8aa87ca..b081cfa2 100644 --- a/middle-east/is.json +++ b/middle-east/is.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "1,057 km" + "text": "1,068 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Egypt 206 km, Gaza Strip 59 km, Jordan 328 km (20 km are within the Dead Sea), Lebanon 106 km, Syria 80 km, West Bank 278 km" + "text": "Egypt 208 km, Gaza Strip 59 km, Jordan 327 km (20 km are within the Dead Sea), Lebanon 81 km, Syria 83 km, West Bank 330 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -514,19 +514,19 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "President Reuben RIVLIN (since 24 July 2014)" + "text": "President Issac HERZOG (assumes office on 9 July 2021)" }, "head of government": { - "text": "Prime Minister Binyamin NETANYAHU (since 31 March 2009); note - NETANYAHU failed to form a new government within the four-week window following the 23 March 2021 Knesset election, and his mandate was returned to President RIVLIN on 4 May" + "text": "Prime Minister Binyamin NETANYAHU (since 31 March 2009); note - on 2 June 2021, Knesset opposition leader Yair LAPID announced the formation of a new coalition government, selecting Naftali BENNET as prime minister, followed by Yair LAPID" }, "cabinet": { "text": "Cabinet selected by prime minister and approved by the Knesset" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": "president indirectly elected by the Knesset for a single 7-year term; election last held on 10 June 2014 (next to be held on 5 July 2021); following legislative elections, the president, in consultation with party leaders, tasks a Knesset member (usually the member of the largest party) with forming a new government" + "text": "president indirectly elected by the Knesset for a single 7-year term; election last held on 2 June 2021 (next to be held in June 2028); following legislative elections, the president, in consultation with party leaders, tasks a Knesset member (usually the member of the largest party) with forming a new government" }, "election results": { - "text": "Reuven RIVLIN elected president in second round; Knesset vote - Reuven RIVLIN (Likud) 63, Meir SHEETRIT (The Movement) 53, other/invalid 4" + "text": "Issac HERZOG elected president; Knesset vote - Issac HERZOG (independent) 87, Miriam PERETZ (independent) 26, invalid/blank 7" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/middle-east/jo.json b/middle-east/jo.json index 6f439c15..42947b40 100644 --- a/middle-east/jo.json +++ b/middle-east/jo.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "1,727 km" + "text": "1,744 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Iraq 179 km, Israel 328 km, Saudi Arabia 731 km, Syria 341 km, West Bank 148 km" + "text": "Iraq 179 km, Israel 307 km, Saudi Arabia 731 km, Syria 379 km, West Bank 148 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -1133,7 +1133,15 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "2,272,411 (Palestinian refugees) (2020); 665,834 (Syria), 66,760 (Iraq), 13,902 (Yemen), 6,024 Sudan (2021)" + "text": "2,272,411 (Palestinian refugees) (2020); 666,692 (Syria), 66,760 (Iraq), 13,902 (Yemen), 6,024 Sudan (2021)" + } + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Jordan and Jordanians abroad; victims are primarily from South and Southeast Asia, East Africa, Egypt, and Syria; foreign migrants, many undocumented, working in construction, agriculture, textiles, and domestic work are the most vulnerable to trafficking because of informal work agreements and frequently changing employers; forced labor victims experience withheld or unpaid wages, confiscation of identity documents, restricted freedom of movement, unsafe living conditions, long hours without rest, isolation, and verbal and physical abuse; child labor and potential forced child labor increased; traffickers exploit Lebanese, North African, and Eastern European women who have migrated to Jordan to work in restaurants and nightclubs are subject to sex trafficking

" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Jordan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government increased the training of law enforcement personnel and victim advocates, maintained a trafficking shelter offering a wide range of services, partnered with civil society actors to proactively identify and protect trafficking victims, and conducted anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts as fewer traffickers were investigated, prosecuted, and convicted; fewer victims were identified and assisted, and victims were still arrested, detained, and deported for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit; under Jordan’s anti-trafficking law, penalties for sex trafficking offenses were not commensurate with penalties for other serious crimes (2020)" } } } diff --git a/middle-east/ku.json b/middle-east/ku.json index cfcf5800..fd7db6f3 100644 --- a/middle-east/ku.json +++ b/middle-east/ku.json @@ -1074,14 +1074,6 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "92,020 (2019); note - Kuwait's 1959 Nationality Law defined citizens as persons who settled in the country before 1920 and who had maintained normal residence since then; one-third of the population, descendants of Bedouin tribes, missed the window of opportunity to register for nationality rights after Kuwait became independent in 1961 and were classified as bidun (meaning \"without\"); since the 1980s Kuwait's bidun have progressively lost their rights, including opportunities for employment and education, amid official claims that they are nationals of other countries who have destroyed their identification documents in hopes of gaining Kuwaiti citizenship; Kuwaiti authorities have delayed processing citizenship applications and labeled biduns as \"illegal residents,\" denying them access to civil documentation, such as birth and marriage certificates" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Kuwait is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser degree, forced prostitution; men and women migrate from South and Southeast Asia, Egypt, the Middle East, and increasingly Africa to work in Kuwait, most of them in the domestic service, construction, and sanitation sectors; although most of these migrants enter Kuwait voluntarily, upon arrival some are subjected to conditions of forced labor by their sponsors and labor agents, including debt bondage; Kuwait’s sponsorship law restricts workers’ movements and penalizes them for running away from abusive workplaces, making domestic workers particularly vulnerable to forced labor in private homes" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - Kuwait does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making sufficient efforts to do so; although investigations into visa fraud rings lead to the referral of hundreds of people for prosecution, including complicit officials, the government has not prosecuted or convicted any suspected traffickers; authorities made no effort to enforce the prohibition against withholding workers’ passports, as mandated under Kuwaiti law; punishment of forced labor cases was limited to shutting down labor recruitment firms, assessing fines, and ordering the return of withheld passports and the paying of back-wages; the government made progress in victims’ protection by opening a high-capacity shelter for runaway domestic workers but still lacks formal procedures to identify and refer victims to care services (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/middle-east/le.json b/middle-east/le.json index 3aabb7a0..fedb3f04 100644 --- a/middle-east/le.json +++ b/middle-east/le.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "475 km" + "text": "484 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Israel 106 km, Syria 369 km" + "text": "Israel 81 km, Syria 403 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -1128,14 +1128,6 @@ "text": "undetermined (2016); note - tens of thousands of persons are stateless in Lebanon, including many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Syrian Kurds denaturalized in Syria in 1962, children born to Lebanese women married to foreign or stateless men; most babies born to Syrian refugees, and Lebanese children whose births are unregistered" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Lebanon is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a transit point for Eastern European women and children subjected to sex trafficking in other Middle Eastern countries; women and girls from South and Southeast Asia and an increasing number from East and West Africa are recruited by agencies to work in domestic service but are subject to conditions of forced labor; under Lebanon’s artiste visa program, women from Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Dominican Republic enter Lebanon to work in the adult entertainment industry but are often forced into the sex trade; Lebanese children are reportedly forced into street begging and commercial sexual exploitation, with small numbers of Lebanese girls sex trafficked in other Arab countries; Syrian refugees are vulnerable to forced labor and prostitution" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Lebanon does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Lebanon was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; law enforcement efforts in 2014 were uneven; the number of convicted traffickers increased, but judges lack of familiarity with anti-trafficking law meant that many offenders were not brought to justice; the government relied heavily on an NGO to identify and provide service to trafficking victims; and its lack of thoroughly implemented victim identification procedures resulted in victims continuing to be arrested, detained, and deported for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "Lebanon is a transit country for hashish, cocaine, heroin, and fenethylene; fenethylene, cannabis, hashish, and some opium are produced in the Bekaa Valley; small amounts of Latin American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin transit country on way to European markets and for Middle Eastern consumption; money laundering of drug proceeds fuels concern that extremists are benefiting from drug trafficking" } diff --git a/middle-east/qa.json b/middle-east/qa.json index 309c22b8..d6743775 100644 --- a/middle-east/qa.json +++ b/middle-east/qa.json @@ -1073,14 +1073,6 @@ "stateless persons": { "text": "1,200 (2019)" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Qatar is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution; the predominantly foreign workforce migrates to Qatar legally for low- and semi-skilled work but often experiences situations of forced labor, including debt bondage, delayed or nonpayment of salaries, confiscation of passports, abuse, hazardous working conditions, and squalid living arrangements; foreign female domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to trafficking because of their isolation in private homes and lack of protection under Qatari labor laws; some women who migrate for work are also forced into prostitution" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Qatar does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government investigated 11 trafficking cases but did not prosecute or convict any offenders, including exploitative employers and recruitment agencies; the primary solution for resolving labor violations was to transfer a worker’s sponsorship to a new employer with minimal effort to investigate whether a forced labor violation had occurred; authorities increased their efforts to protect some trafficking victims, although many victims of forced labor, particularly domestic workers, remained unidentified and unprotected and were sometimes punished for immigration violations or running away from an employer or sponsor; authorities visited worksites throughout the country to meet and educate workers and employers on trafficking regulations, but the government failed to abolish or reform the sponsorship system, perpetuating Qatar’s forced labor problem (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/middle-east/sa.json b/middle-east/sa.json index 7ffca1eb..339e79dd 100644 --- a/middle-east/sa.json +++ b/middle-east/sa.json @@ -1129,10 +1129,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution; men and women from South and East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa who voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or low-skilled laborers subsequently face conditions of involuntary servitude, including nonpayment and withholding of passports; some migrant workers are forced to work indefinitely beyond the term of their contract because their employers will not grant them a required exit visa; female domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because of their isolation in private homes; women, primarily from Asian and African countries, are believed to be forced into prostitution in Saudi Arabia, while other foreign women were reportedly kidnapped and forced into prostitution after running away from abusive employers; children from South Asia, East Africa, and Yemen are subjected to forced labor as beggars and street vendors in Saudi Arabia, facilitated by criminal gangs" + "text": "Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution; men and women primarily from South and Southeast Asia and Africa voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia to work in domestic service, construction, agriculture or other low-skilled jobs, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude (many are forced to work months or years beyond their contract term because employers withhold passports and required exit visas); women, primarily from Asian and African countries, are reported to be forced into prostitution in Saudi Arabia" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List - Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; government officials and high-level religious leaders demonstrated greater political will to combat trafficking and publically acknowledged the problem – specifically forced labor; the government reported increased numbers of prosecutions and convictions of trafficking offenders; however, it did not proactively investigate and prosecute employers for potential labor trafficking crimes following their withholding of workers’ wages and passports, which are illegal; authorities did not systematically use formal criteria to proactively identify victims, resulting in some unidentified victims being arrested, detained, deported, and sometimes prosecuted; more victims were identified and referred to protective services in 2014 than the previous year, but victims of sex trafficking and male trafficking victims were not provided with shelter and remained vulnerable to punishment (2015)" + "text": "

Tier 2 Watch List — Saudi Arabia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so and was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List;

the government enacted the country’s first-ever national referral mechanism (NRM) and increased the number of prosecutions and convictions under the anti-trafficking law; victims are identified and referred for care; the government convicted and sentenced two Saudi officials complicit in trafficking crimes; however, the government continued to fine, jail, and/or deport migrant workers for prostitution or immigration violations who may have been trafficking victims; authorities regularly misclassified potential trafficking crimes as labor law violations rather than as criminal offenses (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/middle-east/sy.json b/middle-east/sy.json index abec6bd9..7312c134 100644 --- a/middle-east/sy.json +++ b/middle-east/sy.json @@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "2,298 km" + "text": "2,363 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Iraq 599 km, Israel 80 km, Jordan 341 km, Lebanon 369 km, Turkey 909 km" + "text": "Iraq 599 km, Israel 83 km, Jordan 379 km, Lebanon 403 km, Turkey 899 km" } }, "Coastline": { @@ -518,10 +518,10 @@ "text": "Council of Ministers appointed by the president" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 7-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 3 June 2014 (next to be held in June 2021); the president appoints the vice presidents, prime minister, and deputy prime ministers" + "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 7-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 26 May 2021(next to be held in 2028); the president appoints the vice presidents, prime minister, and deputy prime ministers" }, "election results": { - "text": "Bashar al-ASAD elected president; percent of vote - Bashar al-ASAD (Ba'th Party) 88.7%, Hassan al-NOURI (independent) 4.3%, Maher HAJJER (independent) 3.2%, other/invalid 3.8%" + "text": "Bashar al-ASAD elected president; percent of vote - Bashar al-ASAD (Ba'th Party)95.2%, Mahmoud Ahmad MAREI (Democratic Arab Socialist Union) 3.3%, Abdullah Sallum ABDULLAH (Socialist Unionist Party) 1.5%" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -547,7 +547,7 @@ } }, "Political parties and leaders": { - "text": "legal parties/alliances:
 Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party [Bashar al-ASAD, regional secretary]
Arab Socialist Renaissance (Ba'th) Party [President Bashar al-ASAD]
Arab Socialist Union of Syria or ASU [Safwan al-QUDSI]
National Progressive Front or NPF [Bashar al-ASAD, Suleiman QADDAH] (alliance includes Arab Socialist Renaissance (Ba'th) Party, Socialist Unionist Democratic Party)
Socialist Unionist Democratic Party [Fadlallah Nasr al-DIN]
Syrian Communist Party (two branches) [Wissal Farha BAKDASH, Yusuf Rashid FAYSAL]
Syrian Social Nationalist Party or SSNP [Ali HAIDAR]
Unionist Socialist Party [Fayez ISMAIL]

Major Kurdish parties 
Kurdish Democratic Union Party or PYD [Shahoz HASAN and Aysha HISSO]
Kurdish National Council [Sa'ud MALA]
 
other: Syrian Democratic Party [Mustafa QALAAJI]" + "text": "legal parties/alliances:
 Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party [Bashar al-ASAD, regional secretary]
Arab Socialist Renaissance (Ba'th) Party [President Bashar al-ASAD]
Arab Socialist Union of Syria or ASU [Safwan al-QUDSI]
Democratic Arab Socialist Union [Hassan Abdul AZIM, general secretary] 
National Progressive Front or NPF [Bashar al-ASAD, Suleiman QADDAH] (alliance includes Arab Socialist Renaissance (Ba'th) Party, Socialist Unionist Democratic Party)
Socialist Unionist Party [Fayiz ISMAIL]
Socialist Unionist Democratic Party [Fadlallah Nasr al-DIN]
Syrian Communist Party (two branches) [Wissal Farha BAKDASH, Yusuf Rashid FAYSAL]
Syrian Social Nationalist Party or SSNP [Ali HAIDAR]
Unionist Socialist Party [Fayez ISMAIL]

Major Kurdish parties 
Kurdish Democratic Union Party or PYD [Shahoz HASAN and Aysha HISSO]
Kurdish National Council [Sa'ud MALA]
 
other: Syrian Democratic Party [Mustafa QALAAJI]" }, "International organization participation": { "text": "ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICRM, ICSID, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNRWA, UNWTO, UPU, WBG, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)" @@ -1118,10 +1118,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "as conditions continue to deteriorate due to Syria’s civil war, human trafficking has increased; Syrians remaining in the country and those that are refugees abroad are vulnerable to trafficking; Syria is a source and destination country for men, women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Syrian children continue to be forcibly recruited by government forces, pro-regime militias, armed opposition groups, and terrorist organizations to serve as soldiers, human shields, and executioners; ISIL forces Syrian women and girls and Yazidi women and girls taken from Iraq to marry its fighters, where they experience domestic servitude and sexual violence; Syrian refugee women and girls are forced into exploitive marriages or prostitution in neighboring countries, while displaced children are forced into street begging domestically and abroad" + "text": "due to Syria’s civil war, hundreds of thousands of Syrians, foreign migrant workers, and refugees have fled the country and are vulnerable to human trafficking; the lack of security and inaccessibility of the majority of the country makes it impossible to conduct a thorough analysis of the impact of the ongoing conflict on the scope and magnitude of Syria’s human trafficking situation; prior to the uprising, the Syrian armed forces and opposition forces used Syrian children in combat and support roles and as human shields" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 - the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Syria’s violent conditions enabled human trafficking to flourish; the government made no effort to investigate, prosecute, or convict trafficking offenders or complicit government officials, including those who forcibly recruited child soldiers; authorities did not identify victims and failed to ensure victims, including child soldiers, were protected from arrest, detention, and severe abuse as a result of being trafficked (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Syria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government does not hold any traffickers, including complicit officials, criminally accountable for trafficking; no trafficking victims were identified or received protection during the reporting period; government and pro-Syrian militias continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers; the government does not prevent armed opposition forces and designated terrorist organizations from recruiting children; authorities continued to arrest, detain, and severely abuse trafficking victims, including child soldiers, and punished them for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/middle-east/tu.json b/middle-east/tu.json index defe0b29..f9822113 100644 --- a/middle-east/tu.json +++ b/middle-east/tu.json @@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { - "text": "3,671,761 (Syria) (2021); 173,250 (Iraq) (asylum seekers), 116,400 (Afghanistan) (asylum seekers), 27,000 (Iran) (asylum seekers) (2020)" + "text": "3,672,646 (Syria) (2021); 173,250 (Iraq) (asylum seekers), 116,400 (Afghanistan) (asylum seekers), 27,000 (Iran) (asylum seekers) (2020)" }, "IDPs": { "text": "1.099 million (displaced from 1984-2005 because of fighting between the Kurdish PKK and Turkish military; most IDPs are Kurds from eastern and southeastern provinces; no information available on persons displaced by development projects) (2019)" diff --git a/middle-east/ym.json b/middle-east/ym.json index 7362986b..67545cb3 100644 --- a/middle-east/ym.json +++ b/middle-east/ym.json @@ -1170,14 +1170,6 @@ "IDPs": { "text": "4,002,012 (conflict in Sa'ada Governorate; clashes between al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula and government forces) (2020)" } - }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Yemen is a source and, to a lesser extent, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking; trafficking activities grew in Yemen in 2014, as the country’s security situation deteriorated and poverty worsened; armed groups increased their recruitment of Yemeni children as combatants or checkpoint guards, and the Yemeni military and security forces continue to use child soldiers; some other Yemeni children, mostly boys, migrate to Yemeni cities or Saudi Arabia and, less frequently Oman, where they end up as beggars, drug smugglers, prostitutes, or forced laborers in domestic service or small shops; Yemeni children increasingly are also subjected to sex trafficking in country and in Saudi Arabia; tens of thousands of Yemeni migrant workers deported from Saudi Arabia and thousands of Syrian refugees are vulnerable to trafficking; additionally, Yemen is a destination and transit country for women and children from the Horn of Africa who are looking for work or receive fraudulent job offers in the Gulf states but are subjected to sexual exploitation or forced labor upon arrival; reports indicate that adults and children are still sold or inherited as slaves in Yemen" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Yemen does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; weak government institutions, corruption, economic problems, security threats, and poor law enforcement capabilities impeded the government’s ability to combat human trafficking; not all forms of trafficking are criminalized, and officials continue to conflate trafficking and smuggling; the status of an anti-trafficking law drafted with assistance from an international organization remains unknown following the dissolution of the government in January 2015; the government did not report efforts to investigate, prosecute, or convict anyone of trafficking or slavery offenses, including complicit officials, despite reports of officials willfully ignoring trafficking crimes and using child soldiers in the government’s armed forces; the government acknowledged the use of child soldiers and signed a UN action plan to end the practice in 2014 but made no efforts to release child soldiers from the military and provide them with rehabilitative services; authorities failed to identify victims and refer them to protective services; the status of a draft national anti-trafficking strategy remains unknown (2015)" - } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/north-america/ca.json b/north-america/ca.json index 7497a376..4c7e47b8 100644 --- a/north-america/ca.json +++ b/north-america/ca.json @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "8,893 km" + "text": "8,891 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "US 8893 km (includes 2477 km with Alaska)" + "text": "US 8,891 km (includes 2,475 km with Alaska)" }, "note": "note: Canada is the world's largest country that borders only one country" }, diff --git a/north-america/mx.json b/north-america/mx.json index 0f4b9c14..4d730a4b 100644 --- a/north-america/mx.json +++ b/north-america/mx.json @@ -557,13 +557,13 @@ "text": "President Andres Manuel LOPEZ OBRADOR (since 1 December 2018)" }, "cabinet": { - "text": "Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of attorney general, the head of the Bank of Mexico, and senior treasury officials require consent of the Senate " + "text": "Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of attorney general, the head of the Bank of Mexico, and senior treasury officials require consent of the Senate" }, "elections/appointments": { "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a single 6-year term; election last held on 1 July 2018 (next to be held in July 2024)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Andres Manuel LOPEZ OBRADOR elected president; percent of vote - Andres Manuel LOPEZ OBRADOR (MORENA) 53.2%, Ricardo ANAYA (PAN) 22.3%, Jose Antonio MEADE Kuribrena (PRI) 16.4%, Jaime RODRIGUEZ Calderon 5.2% (independent), other 2.9%" + "text": "
2018: Andres Manuel LOPEZ OBRADOR elected president; percent of vote - Andres Manuel LOPEZ OBRADOR (MORENA) 53.2%, Ricardo ANAYA (PAN) 22.3%, Jose Antonio MEADE Kuribrena (PRI) 16.4%, Jaime RODRIGUEZ Calderon 5.2% (independent), other 2.9%

2012: Enrique PENA NIETO elected president; percent of vote - Enrique PENA NIETO (PRI) 38.2%, Andres Manuel LOPEZ OBRADOR (PRD) 31.6%, Josefina Eugenia VAZQUEZ Mota (PAN) 25.4%, other 4.8%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/north-america/us.json b/north-america/us.json index 64e43006..feda3d78 100644 --- a/north-america/us.json +++ b/north-america/us.json @@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { - "text": "12,048 km" + "text": "12,002 km" }, "border countries": { - "text": "Canada 8893 km (including 2477 km with Alaska), Mexico 3155 km" + "text": "Canada 8,891 km (including 2,475 km with Alaska), Mexico 3,111 km" }, "note": "note: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is leased by the US and is part of Cuba; the base boundary is 28.5 km" }, @@ -1134,7 +1134,7 @@ } }, "Military and security service personnel strengths": { - "text": "the US Armed Forces have approximately 1.385 million active duty personnel (482,000 Army; 347,000 Navy; 334,000 Air Force; 181,000 Marine Corps; 41,000 Coast Guard); 336,000 Army National Guard; 106,000 Air National Guard (Dec 2020)" + "text": "the US Armed Forces have approximately 1.39 million active duty personnel (482,000 Army; 347,000 Navy; 336,000 Air Force; 181,000 Marine Corps; 41,000 Coast Guard; 16,000 Space Force); 336,000 Army National Guard; 106,000 Air National Guard (April 2021)" }, "Military equipment inventories and acquisitions": { "text": "the US military's inventory is comprised almost entirely of domestically-produced weapons systems (some assembled with foreign components) along with a smaller mix of imported equipment from a variety of Western countries; since 2010, Germany and the UK are the leading suppliers of military hardware; the US defense industry is capable of designing, developing, maintaining, and producing the full spectrum of weapons systems; the US is the world's leading arms exporter (2020)" diff --git a/south-america/ar.json b/south-america/ar.json index aa965bd7..136974ac 100644 --- a/south-america/ar.json +++ b/south-america/ar.json @@ -516,19 +516,19 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "President Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ (since 10 December 2019); Vice President Cristina FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER (since 10 December 2019); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government  (2019)" + "text": "President Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ (since 10 December 2019); Vice President Cristina FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER (since 10 December 2019); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government (2019)" }, "head of government": { - "text": "President Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ (since 10 December 2019); Vice President Cristina FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER (since 10 December 2019)  (2018)" + "text": "President Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ (since 10 December 2019); Vice President Cristina FERNANDEZ DE KIRCHNER (since 10 December 2019) (2018)" }, "cabinet": { - "text": " Cabinet appointed by the president  (2017)" + "text": "Cabinet appointed by the president (2017)" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": " president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by qualified majority vote (to win, a candidate must receive at least 45% of votes or 40% of votes and a 10-point lead over the second place candidate; if neither occurs, a second round is held ); the president serves a 4-year term (eligible for a second consecutive term); election last held on 27 October 2019 (next to be held in October 2023)" + "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by qualified majority vote (to win, a candidate must receive at least 45% of votes or 40% of votes and a 10-point lead over the second place candidate; if neither occurs, a second round is held ); the president serves a 4-year term (eligible for a second consecutive term); election last held on 27 October 2019 (next to be held in October 2023)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ elected president; percent of vote - Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ (TODOS) 48.1%, Mauricio MACRI (PRO) 40.4%, Roberto LAVAGNA (independent) 6.2%, other 5.3% " + "text": "
2019: Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ elected president; percent of vote - Alberto Angel FERNANDEZ (TODOS) 48.1%, Mauricio MACRI (PRO) 40.4%, Roberto LAVAGNA (independent) 6.2%, other 5.3%

2015: Mauricio MACRI elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Daniel SCIOLI (PJ) 37.1%, Mauricio MACRI (PRO) 34.2%, Sergio MASSA (FR/PJ) 21.4%, other 7.3%; percent of vote in second round - Mauricio MACRI (PRO) 51.4%, Daniel SCIOLI (PJ) 48.6%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/bl.json b/south-america/bl.json index 765af98a..f19008e7 100644 --- a/south-america/bl.json +++ b/south-america/bl.json @@ -527,7 +527,7 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "President Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (since 8 November 2020); Vice President David CHOQUEHUANCA Cespedes (since 8 November 2020); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government

note: former President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma resigned from office on 10 November 2019 over alleged election rigging; resignations of all his constitutionally designated successors followed, including the Vice President, President of the Senate, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and First Vice President of the Senate, leaving the Second Vice President of the Senate, Jeanine ANEZ Chavez, the highest-ranking official still in office; her appointment to the presidency was endorsed by Bolivia's Constitutional Court, and she served as interim president until the inauguration of Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora, winner of the 18 October 2020 presidential election" + "text": "President Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (since 8 November 2020); Vice President David CHOQUEHUANCA Cespedes (since 8 November 2020); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government" }, "head of government": { "text": "President Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (since 8 November 2020); Vice President David CHOQUEHUANCA Cespedes (since 8 November 2020)" @@ -536,10 +536,10 @@ "text": "Cabinet appointed by the president" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot one of 3 ways: candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, or at least 40% of the vote and 10% more than the next highest candidate; otherwise a second round is held and the winner determined by simple majority vote; president and vice president are elected by majority vote to serve a 5-year term; no term limits (changed from two consecutive term limit by Constitutional Court in late 2017); election last held on 18 October 2020" + "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot one of 3 ways: candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, or at least 40% of the vote and 10% more than the next highest candidate; otherwise a second round is held and the winner determined by simple majority vote; president and vice president are elected by majority vote to serve a 5-year term; no term limits (changed from two consecutive term limit by Constitutional Court in late 2017); election last held on 18 October 2020 (next to be held in October 2025)" }, "election results": { - "text": "
Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora elected president; percent of vote - Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (MAS) 55.1%; Carlos Diego MESA Gisbert (CC) 28.8%; Luis Fernando CAMACHO Vaca (Creemos) 14%; other 2.1%" + "text": "
2020: Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora elected president; percent of vote - Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (MAS) 55.1%; Carlos Diego MESA Gisbert (CC) 28.8%; Luis Fernando CAMACHO Vaca (Creemos) 14%; other 2.1%

2018:  Juan Evo MORALES Ayma reelected president; percent of vote - Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (MAS) 61%; Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana (UN) 24.5%; Jorge QUIROGA Ramirez (POC) 9.1%; other 5.4%; note - MORALES resigned from office on 10 November 2019 over alleged election rigging; resignations of all his constitutionally designated successors followed, including the Vice President, President of the Senate, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and First Vice President of the Senate, leaving the Second Vice President of the Senate, Jeanine ANEZ Chavez, the highest-ranking official still in office; her appointment to the presidency was endorsed by Bolivia's Constitutional Court, and she served as interim president until the inauguration of Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora, winner of the 18 October 2020 presidential election" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -1166,14 +1166,6 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile offers instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian products; contraband smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal narcotic trafficking are problems in the porous areas of its border regions with all of its neighbors (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru)

" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Bolivia is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking domestically and abroad; rural and poor Bolivians, most of whom are indigenous, and LGBT youth are particularly vulnerable; Bolivians perform forced labor domestically in mining, ranching, agriculture, and domestic service, and a significant number are in forced labor abroad in sweatshops, agriculture, domestic service, and the informal sector; women and girls are sex trafficked within Bolivia and in neighboring countries, such as Argentina, Peru, and Chile; a limited number of women from nearby countries are sex trafficked in Bolivia" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Bolivia does not comply fully with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts, and poor data collection made it difficult to assess the number of investigations, prosecutions, and victim identifications and referrals to care services; authorities did not adequately differentiate between human trafficking and other crimes, such as domestic violence and child abuse; law enforcement failed to implement an early detection protocol for identifying trafficking cases and lacked a formal process for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations; specialized victim services were inadequately funded and virtually non-existent for adult women and male victims (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru) with an estimated 37,500 hectares under cultivation in 2016, a 3 percent increase over 2015; third largest producer of cocaine, estimated at 275 metric tons potential pure cocaine in 2016; transit country for Peruvian and Colombian cocaine destined for Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Europe; weak border controls; some money-laundering activity related to narcotics trade; major cocaine consumption" } diff --git a/south-america/br.json b/south-america/br.json index 206e0b45..800f5325 100644 --- a/south-america/br.json +++ b/south-america/br.json @@ -506,9 +506,6 @@ "time difference": { "text": "UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)" }, - "daylight saving time": { - "text": "+1hr, begins third Sunday in October; ends third Sunday in February" - }, "note": "note: Brazil has four time zones, including one for the Fernando de Noronha Islands

etymology: name bestowed on the new capital of Brazil upon its inauguration in 1960; previous Brazilian capitals had been Salvador from 1549 to 1763 and Rio de Janeiro from 1763 to 1960


" }, "Administrative divisions": { @@ -565,7 +562,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a single 4-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 7 October 2018 with runoff on 28 October 2018 (next to be held in October 2022)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Jair BOLSONARO elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Jair BOLSONARO (PSL) 46%, Fernando HADDAD (PT) 29.3%, Ciro GOMEZ (PDT) 12.5%, Geraldo ALCKMIN (PSDB) 4.8%, other 7.4%; percent of vote in second round - Jair BOLSONARO (PSL) 55.1%, Fernando HADDAD (PT) 44.9%" + "text": "
2018: Jair BOLSONARO elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Jair BOLSONARO (PSL) 46%, Fernando HADDAD (PT) 29.3%, Ciro GOMEZ (PDT) 12.5%, Geraldo ALCKMIN (PSDB) 4.8%, other 7.4%; percent of vote in second round - Jair BOLSONARO (PSL) 55.1%, Fernando HADDAD (PT) 44.9%

2014: Dilma ROUSSEFF reelected president in second round; percent of vote - Dilma ROUSSEFF (PT) 51.6%, Aecio NEVES (PSDB) 48.4%; note - on 12 May 2016, Brazil's Senate voted to hold an impeachment trial of President Dilma ROUSSEFF, who was then suspended from her executive duties; Vice President Michel TEMER took over as acting president; on 31 August 2016 the Senate voted 61-20 in favor of conviction and her removal from office; TEMER served as president for the remainder of ROUSSEFF's term, which ended 1 January 2019" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/ci.json b/south-america/ci.json index 80993910..b9624967 100644 --- a/south-america/ci.json +++ b/south-america/ci.json @@ -539,7 +539,7 @@ "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a single 4-year term; election last held on 19 November 2017 with a runoff held 17 December 2017 (next to be held on 21 November 2021 with runoff if need on 19 December)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Sebastian PINERA Echenique elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Sebastian PINERA Echenique (independent) 36.6%; Alejandro GUILLIER (independent) 22.7%; Beatriz SANCHEZ (independent) 20.3%; Jose Antonio KAST (independent) 7.9%; Carolina GOIC (PDC) 5.9%; Marco ENRIQUEZ-OMINAMI (PRO) 5.7%; other 0.9%; percent of vote in second round - Sebastian PINERA Echenique 54.6%, Alejandro GUILLIER 45.4%" + "text": "
2017: Sebastian PINERA Echenique elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Sebastian PINERA Echenique (independent) 36.6%; Alejandro GUILLIER (independent) 22.7%; Beatriz SANCHEZ (independent) 20.3%; Jose Antonio KAST (independent) 7.9%; Carolina GOIC (PDC) 5.9%; Marco ENRIQUEZ-OMINAMI (PRO) 5.7%; other 0.9%; percent of vote in second round - Sebastian PINERA Echenique 54.6%, Alejandro GUILLIER 45.4%

2013: Michelle BACHELET Jeria elected president in runoff; percent of vote - Michelle BACHELET Jeria (PS/New Majority) 62.2%; Evelyn Rose MATTHEI Fornet (UDI/Let's Go Chile Coalition) 37.8%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/co.json b/south-america/co.json index df482a9d..dfb0f777 100644 --- a/south-america/co.json +++ b/south-america/co.json @@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority vote in 2 rounds if needed for a single 4-year term; election last held on 27 May 2018 with a runoff held on 17 June 2018 (next to be held in 2022); note - political reform in 2015 eliminated presidential reelection" }, "election results": { - "text": "Ivan DUQUE Marquez elected president in second round; percent of vote - Ivan DUQUE Marquez (CD) 54%, Gustavo PETRO (Humane Colombia) 41.8%, other/blank/invalid 4.2%" + "text": "2018: Ivan DUQUE Marquez elected president in second round; percent of vote - Ivan DUQUE Marquez (CD) 54%, Gustavo PETRO (Humane Colombia) 41.8%, other/blank/invalid 4.2%

2014: Juan Manuel SANTOS Calderon reelected president in second round; percent of vote - Juan Manuel SANTOS Calderon (U Party) 51.0%, Oscar Ivan ZULUAGA (CD) 45.0%, other 4.0%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/ec.json b/south-america/ec.json index c526806a..f178577d 100644 --- a/south-america/ec.json +++ b/south-america/ec.json @@ -545,10 +545,10 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "President Lenin MORENO Garces (since 24 May 2017); Vice President María Alejandra MUNOZ (since 22 July 2020); the president is both chief of state and head of government" + "text": "President Guillermo LASSO Mendoza (since 24 May 2021); Vice President Alfredo Enrique BORRERO Vega (since 24 May 2021); the president is both chief of state and head of government" }, "head of government": { - "text": "President Lenin MORENO Garces (since 24 May 2017); Vice President María Alejandra MUNOZ (since 22 July 2020)" + "text": "President Guillermo LASSO Mendoza (since 24 May 2021); Vice President Alfredo Enrique BORRERO Vega (since 24 May 2021)" }, "cabinet": { "text": "Cabinet appointed by the president" @@ -557,7 +557,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 4-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 7 February 2021 with a runoff on 11 April 2021 (next to be held in February 2025)" }, "election results": { - "text": "

Guillermo LASSO Mendoza elected president; first round election results: percent of vote - Andres ARAUZ (UNES) 32.72%, Guillermo LASSO Mendoza (CREO) 19.74%, Yaku PEREZ Guartambel (MUPP) 19.38%, Xavier HERVAS Mora (Independent) 15.68%, other 12.48%; second round election results: percent of vote - Guillermo LASSO Mendoza (CREO) 52.5%, Andres ARAUZ (UNES) 47.5%; note – LASSO is scheduled to take office on 24 May 2021

" + "text": "
2021: Guillermo LASSO Mendoza elected president; first round election results: percent of vote - Andres ARAUZ (UNES) 32.72%, Guillermo LASSO Mendoza (CREO) 19.74%, Yaku PEREZ Guartambel (MUPP) 19.38%, Xavier HERVAS Mora (Independent) 15.68%, other 12.48%; second round election results: percent of vote - Guillermo LASSO Mendoza (CREO) 52.5%, Andres ARAUZ (UNES) 47.5%

2017: Lenin MORENO Garces elected president in second round; percent of vote - Lenin MORENO Garces (Alianza PAIS Movement) 51.1%, Guillermo LASSO (CREO) 48.9%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/gy.json b/south-america/gy.json index 38e23d29..6743f02f 100644 --- a/south-america/gy.json +++ b/south-america/gy.json @@ -1125,14 +1125,6 @@ "text": "11,881 (Venezuela) (economic and political crisis; includes Venezuelans who have claimed asylum, are recognized as refugees, or received alternative legal stay) (2019)" } }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Guyana is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor – children are particularly vulnerable; women and girls from Guyana, Venezuela, Suriname, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic are forced into prostitution in Guyana’s interior mining communities and urban areas; forced labor is reported in mining, agriculture, forestry, domestic service, and shops; Guyanese nationals are also trafficked to Suriname, Jamaica, and other Caribbean countries for sexual exploitation and forced labor" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Guyana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Guyana was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; the government released its anti-trafficking action plan in June 2014 but made uneven efforts to implement it; law enforcement was weak, investigating seven trafficking cases, prosecuting four alleged traffickers, and convicting one trafficker – a police officer – who was released on bail pending appeal; in 2014, as in previous years, Guyanese courts dismissed the majority of ongoing trafficking prosecutions; the government referred some victims to care services, which were provided by NGOs with little or no government support (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "transshipment point for narcotics from South America - primarily Venezuela - to Europe and the US; producer of cannabis; rising money laundering related to drug trafficking and human smuggling" } diff --git a/south-america/ns.json b/south-america/ns.json index 3005fd14..9f6695ae 100644 --- a/south-america/ns.json +++ b/south-america/ns.json @@ -1115,14 +1115,6 @@ "Disputes - international": { "text": "

area claimed by French Guiana between Riviere Litani and Riviere Marouini (both headwaters of the Lawa); Suriname claims a triangle of land between the New and Kutari/Koetari rivers in a historic dispute over the headwaters of the Courantyne; Guyana seeks UN Convention on the Law of the Sea arbitration to resolve the longstanding dispute with Suriname over the axis of the territorial sea boundary in potentially oil-rich waters

" }, - "Trafficking in persons": { - "current situation": { - "text": "Suriname is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and men, women, and children subjected to forced labor; women and girls from Suriname, Guyana, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic are subjected to sex trafficking in the country, sometimes in interior mining camps; migrant workers in agriculture and on fishing boats and children working in informal urban sectors and gold mines are vulnerable to forced labor; traffickers from Suriname exploit victims in the Netherlands" - }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Suriname does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Suriname was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; authorities increased the number of trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions as compared to 2013, but resources were insufficient to conduct investigations in the country’s interior; more trafficking victims were identified in 2014 than in 2013, but protective services for adults and children were inadequate, with a proposed government shelter for women and child trafficking victims remaining unopened (2015)" - } - }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "growing transshipment point for South American drugs destined for Europe via the Netherlands and Brazil; transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing" } diff --git a/south-america/pa.json b/south-america/pa.json index bb6fb21c..e9f62376 100644 --- a/south-america/pa.json +++ b/south-america/pa.json @@ -546,7 +546,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by simple majority popular vote for a single 5-year term; election last held on 22 April 2018 (next to be held in April 2023)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Mario Abdo BENITEZ elected president; percent of vote - Mario Abdo BENITEZ (ANR) 46.4%, Efrain ALEGRE (PLRA) 42.7%, Juan Bautista YBANEZ 3.3%, other 7.6%" + "text": "
2018: Mario Abdo BENITEZ elected president; percent of vote - Mario Abdo BENITEZ (ANR) 46.4%, Efrain ALEGRE (PLRA) 42.7%, Juan Bautista YBANEZ 3.3%, other 7.6%

2013: Horacio CARTES elected president; percent of vote - Horacio CARTES (ANR) 48.5%, Efrain ALEGRE (PLRA) 39%, Mario FERREIRO (AP) 6.2%, Anibal CARRILLO (FG) 3.5%, other 2.8%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/pe.json b/south-america/pe.json index 58b608cc..33f0de94 100644 --- a/south-america/pe.json +++ b/south-america/pe.json @@ -556,10 +556,10 @@ "text": "Council of Ministers appointed by the president" }, "elections/appointments": { - "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for nonconsecutive terms); election last held on 11 April 2021 with a runoff on 6 June 2021 (next to be held on 12 April 2021 and a runoff if needed on 8 June)" + "text": "president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for nonconsecutive terms); election last held on 11 April 2021 with a runoff on 6 June 2021 (next to be held in April 2026)" }, "election results": { - "text": "
2016 election results:  Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Keiko FUJIMORI Higuchi (Popular Force) 39.9%, Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard (PPK) 21.1%, Veronika MENDOZA (Broad Front) 18.7%, Alfredo BARNECHEA (Popular Action) 7%, Alan GARCIA (APRA) 5.8%, other 7.5%; percent of vote in second round - Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard 50.1%, Keiko FUJIMORI Higuchi 49.9%

2021 election results: percent of vote in first round - Jose Pedro CASTILLO Terrones (Free Peru) 19.1%, Keiko Sofia FUJIMORI Higuchi (Popular Force) 13.4%, Rafael LOPEZ ALIAGA (Popular Renewal) 11.7%, Hernando DE SOTO (Social Integration Party) 11.6%, Yonhy LESCANO (Popular Action) 9.1% Veronika MENDOZA (JP) 7.9%; note - CASTILLO and FUJIMORI will participate in a runoff election on 6 June 2021" + "text": "
2021: percent of vote in first round - Jose Pedro CASTILLO Terrones (Free Peru) 18.9%, Keiko Sofia FUJIMORI Higuchi (Popular Force) 13.4%, Rafael LOPEZ ALIAGA Cazorla (Popular Renewal) 11.8%, Hernando DE SOTO Polar (Social Integration Party) 11.6%, Yonhy LESCANO Ancieta (Popular Action) 9.1%, Veronika MENDOZA Frisch (JP) 7.9%, Cesar ACUNA Peralta (APP) 6%, George FORSYTH Sommer (VN) 5.7%, Daniel Belizario URRESTI Elera (We Can Peru) 5.6%, other 10%; note - official results are pending in the 6 June 2021 runoff election between CASTILLO and FUJIMORI; the new president will take office on 28 July 2021

2016: Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard elected president in second round; percent of vote in first round - Keiko FUJIMORI Higuchi (Popular Force) 39.9%, Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard (PPK) 21.1%, Veronika MENDOZA (Broad Front) 18.7%, Alfredo BARNECHEA (Popular Action) 7%, Alan GARCIA (APRA) 5.8%, other 7.5%; percent of vote in second round - Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard 50.1%, Keiko FUJIMORI Higuchi 49.9%" }, "note": "note: President Martin Alberto VIZCARRA Cornejo assumed office after President Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI Godard resigned from office on 21 March 2018; after VIZCARRA was impeached on 9 November 2020, the constitutional line of succession led to the inauguration of the President of the Peruvian Congress, Manuel Arturo MERINO, as President of Peru on 10 November 2020; following his resignation only days later on 15 November 2020, Francisco Rafael SAGASTI Hochhausler - who had been elected by the legislature to be the new President of Congress on 16 November 2020 - was then sworn in as President of Peru on 17 November 2020 by line of succession\r\n

note: Prime Minister Violeta BERMUDEZ (since 18 November 2020) does not exercise executive power; this power rests with the president

" }, @@ -586,7 +586,7 @@ } }, "Political parties and leaders": { - "text": "

Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso) or APP [Cesar ACUNA Peralta]
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance or APRA [Cesar TRELLES Lara]
Broad Front (Frente Amplio; also known as El Frente Amplio por Justicia, Vida y Libertad) (coalition includes Nuevo Peru [Veronika MENDOZA], Tierra y Libertad [Marco ARANA Zegarra], and Fuerza Social [Susana VILLARAN de la Puente]
Free Peru (Peru Libre) [Vladimir CERRON Rojas]
National Solidarity (Solidaridad Nacional) or SN [Luis CASTANEDA Lossio]
Peru Posible or PP (coalition includes Accion Popular and Somos Peru) [Alejandro TOLEDO Manrique]
Peruvian Aprista Party (Partido Aprista Peruano) or PAP [Javier VELASQUEZ Quesquen] (also referred to by its original name Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana or APRA)
Peruvian Nationalist Party [Ollanta HUMALA]
Peruvians for Change (Peruanos Por el Kambio) or PPK [Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI]
Popular Action (Accion Popular) or AP [Mesias GUEVARA Amasifuen]
Popular Christian Party (Partido Popular Cristiano) or PPC [Lourdes FLORES Nano]
Popular Force (Fuerza Popular; formerly Fuerza 2011) [Keiko FUJIMORI Higuchi]
Popular Renewal (Renovacion Popular) [Rafael LOPEZ ALIAGA]
Purple Party (Partido Morado) [Julio Armando GUZMAN Caceres]
Social Integration Party (Avanza Pais - Partido de Integracion Social) [Pedro CENAS Casamayor]
Together For Peru (Juntos por el Peru) or JP [Robert SANCHEZ Palomino]
We Are Peru (Somos Peru) [Patricia LI]
We Can Peru (Podemos Peru) [Jose Leon LUNA Galvez]

" + "text": "

Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso) or APP [Cesar ACUNA Peralta]
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance or APRA [Cesar TRELLES Lara]
Broad Front (Frente Amplio; also known as El Frente Amplio por Justicia, Vida y Libertad) (coalition includes Nuevo Peru [Veronika MENDOZA], Tierra y Libertad [Marco ARANA Zegarra], and Fuerza Social [Susana VILLARAN de la Puente]
Free Peru (Peru Libre) [Vladimir CERRON Rojas]
National Solidarity (Solidaridad Nacional) or SN [Luis CASTANEDA Lossio]
National Victory (Victoria Nacional) or VN [George FORSYTH Sommer]
Peru Posible or PP (coalition includes Accion Popular and Somos Peru) [Alejandro TOLEDO Manrique]
Peruvian Aprista Party (Partido Aprista Peruano) or PAP [Javier VELASQUEZ Quesquen] (also referred to by its original name Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana or APRA)
Peruvian Nationalist Party [Ollanta HUMALA]
Peruvians for Change (Peruanos Por el Kambio) or PPK [Pedro Pablo KUCZYNSKI]
Popular Action (Accion Popular) or AP [Mesias GUEVARA Amasifuen]
Popular Christian Party (Partido Popular Cristiano) or PPC [Lourdes FLORES Nano]
Popular Force (Fuerza Popular; formerly Fuerza 2011) [Keiko FUJIMORI Higuchi]
Popular Renewal (Renovacion Popular) [Rafael LOPEZ ALIAGA]
Purple Party (Partido Morado) [Julio Armando GUZMAN Caceres]
Social Integration Party (Avanza Pais - Partido de Integracion Social) [Pedro CENAS Casamayor]
Together For Peru (Juntos por el Peru) or JP [Robert SANCHEZ Palomino]
We Are Peru (Somos Peru) [Patricia LI]
We Can Peru (Podemos Peru) [Jose Leon LUNA Galvez]

" }, "International organization participation": { "text": "APEC, BIS, CAN, CD, CELAC, EITI (compliant country), FAO, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (NGOs), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUSCO, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, Pacific Alliance, PCA, SICA (observer), UN, UNAMID, UNASUR, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNISFA, UNMISS, UNOCI, UN Security Council (temporary), UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO" diff --git a/south-america/uy.json b/south-america/uy.json index 2090601f..9dfe15f2 100644 --- a/south-america/uy.json +++ b/south-america/uy.json @@ -538,7 +538,7 @@ "text": "president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot by absolute majority vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for nonconsecutive terms); election last held on 27 October 2019 with a runoff election on 24 November 2019 (next to be held in October 2024, and a runoff if needed in November 2024)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Luis Alberto LACALLE POU elected president - results of the first round of presidential elections: percent of vote - Daniel MARTINEZ (FA) 40.7%, Luis Alberto LACALLE POU (Blanco) 29.7%, Ernesto TALVI (Colorado Party) 12.8%, and Guido MANINI RIOS (Open Cabildo) 11.3%, other 5.5%; results of the second round: percent of vote - Luis Alberto LACALLE POU (Blanco) 50.6%, Daniel MARTINEZ (FA) 49.4%" + "text": "
2019: Luis Alberto LACALLE POU elected president - results of the first round of presidential elections: percent of vote - Daniel MARTINEZ (FA) 40.7%, Luis Alberto LACALLE POU (Blanco) 29.7%, Ernesto TALVI (Colorado Party) 12.8%, and Guido MANINI RIOS (Open Cabildo) 11.3%, other 5.5%; results of the second round: percent of vote - Luis Alberto LACALLE POU (Blanco) 50.6%, Daniel MARTINEZ (FA) 49.4%

2014: Tabare VAZQUEZ elected president in second round; percent of vote - Tabare VAZQUEZ (Socialist Party) 56.5%, Luis Alberto LACALLE Pou (Blanco) 43.4%" } }, "Legislative branch": { diff --git a/south-america/ve.json b/south-america/ve.json index ae88f146..898ece5b 100644 --- a/south-america/ve.json +++ b/south-america/ve.json @@ -497,7 +497,7 @@ }, "Executive branch": { "chief of state": { - "text": "Notification Statement: the United States recognizes Juan GUAIDO as the Interim President of Venezuela

President Nicolas MADURO Moros (since 19 April 2013); Executive Vice President Delcy RODRIGUEZ Gomez (since 14 June 2018); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government " + "text": "Notification Statement: the United States recognizes Juan GUAIDO as the Interim President of Venezuela

President Nicolas MADURO Moros (since 19 April 2013); Executive Vice President Delcy RODRIGUEZ Gomez (since 14 June 2018); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government" }, "head of government": { "text": "President Nicolas MADURO Moros (since 19 April 2013); Executive Vice President Delcy RODRIGUEZ Gomez (since 14 June 2018)" @@ -509,7 +509,7 @@ "text": "president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 6-year term (no term limits); election last held on 20 May 2018 (next election scheduled for 2024)" }, "election results": { - "text": "Nicolas MADURO Moros reelected president; percent of vote - Nicolas MADURO Moros (PSUV) 68%, Henri FALCON (AP) 21%, Javier BERTUCCI 11%; note - the election was marked by serious shortcomings and electoral fraud; voter turnout was approximately 46% due largely to an opposition boycott of the election" + "text": "2018: Nicolas MADURO Moros reelected president; percent of vote - Nicolas MADURO Moros (PSUV) 68%, Henri FALCON (AP) 21%, Javier BERTUCCI 11%; note - the election was marked by serious shortcomings and electoral fraud; voter turnout was approximately 46% due largely to an opposition boycott of the election

2013: Nicolas MADURO Moros elected president; percent of vote - Nicolas MADURO Moros (PSUV) 50.6%, Henrique CAPRILES Radonski (PJ) 49.1%, other 0.3%" } }, "Legislative branch": { @@ -1132,14 +1132,15 @@ "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { "text": "67,622 (Colombia) (2019)" - } + }, + "note": "note: As of December 2020, more than 800,000 Venezuelans have applied for asylum worldwide" }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Venezuela is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Venezuelan women and girls, sometimes lured from poor interior regions to urban and tourist areas, are trafficked for sexual exploitation within the country, as well as in the Caribbean; Venezuelan children are exploited, frequently by their families, in domestic servitude; people from South America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa are sex and labor trafficking victims in Venezuela; thousands of Cuban citizens, particularly doctors, who work in Venezuela on government social programs in exchange for the provision of resources to the Cuban Government experience conditions of forced labor" + "text": "Venezuela is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, lured from the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas; women from Colombia, Peru, Haiti, China, and South Africa are also reported to have been sexually exploited in Venezuela; some Venezuelan women are transported to Caribbean islands, particularly Aruba, Curacao, and Trinidad & Tobago, where they are subjected to forced prostitution; some Venezuelan children are forced to beg on the streets or work as domestic servants, while Ecuadorian children, often from indigenous communities, are subjected to forced labor; the government provided support to FARC dissidents and the ELN, which grew through the recruitment of child soldiers and exploitation of children in sex trafficking and forced labor; Illegal armed groups lure children in vulnerable conditions and dire economic circumstances with gifts and promises of basic sustenance to later recruit them into their ranks" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 3 – Venezuela does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, the government appeared to increase efforts to hold traffickers criminally accountable, but a lack of government data made anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts difficult to assess; publically available information indicated many cases pursued under anti-trafficking law involved illegal adoption rather than sex and labor trafficking; authorities identified a small number of trafficking victims, and victim referrals to limited government services were made on an ad hoc basis; because no specialized facilities are available for trafficking victims, women and child victims accessed centers for victims of domestic violence or at-risk youth, and services for men were virtually non-existent; NGOs provided some services to sex and labor trafficking victims; Venezuela has no permanent anti-trafficking interagency body, no national anti-trafficking plan, and still has not passed anti-trafficking legislation drafted in 2010 (2015)" + "text": "Tier 3 — Venezuela does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government created a specialized prosecutor’s office to oversee trafficking investigations and prosecutions; authorities began legal proceedings against three complicit officials in a notable case; however, the government did not assist any victims or investigate, prosecute, or convict any traffickers; little effort was made to curb the forced recruitment of Venezuelan children by Colombian armed groups operating illegally in Venezuela; authorities made little effort to screen Cuban medical professionals for trafficking indicators as the Cuban Government may have forced them to work by withholding their documentation, and coercing them to falsify medical records (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/south-asia/af.json b/south-asia/af.json index 1a984f34..0652f25f 100644 --- a/south-asia/af.json +++ b/south-asia/af.json @@ -1156,6 +1156,14 @@ "text": "2.993 million (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to natural disasters and political instability) (2019)" } }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims and returning Afghan migrants and exploit Afghan victims abroad; internal trafficking is more prevalent than transnational trafficking; traffickers exploit men, women, and a large number of children domestically; victims are subjected to forced labor in agriculture, brick kilns, carpet weaving, domestic servitude, commercial sex, begging, poppy cultivation and harvesting, salt mining, transnational drug smuggling, and truck driving; Afghan security forces and non-state armed groups, including the pro-government militias and the Taliban, continue to unlawfully recruit and use child soldiers; sexual exploitation of boys remains pervasive nationwide, and traffickers subject some boys to sexual exploitation abroad" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "

Tier 3 — Afghanistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government decreased law enforcement efforts against civilian and official perpetrators of trafficking, and officials complicit in recruitment and use of child soldiers and the sexual exploitation of boys continued to operate with impunity; authorities continued to arrest, detain, and penalize many trafficking victims, including punishing sex trafficking victims for “moral crimes”; the judiciary remained underfunded, understaffed, and undertrained (2020)

" + } + }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "world's largest producer of opium; poppy cultivation increased 63 percent, to 328,304 hectares in 2017; while eradication increased slightly, it still remains well below levels achieved in 2015; the 2017 crop yielded an estimated 9,000 mt of raw opium, a 88% increase over 2016; the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the opiate trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Taliban inside Afghanistan; widespread corruption and instability impede counterdrug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; Afghanistan is also struggling to respond to a burgeoning domestic opiate addiction problem; a 2015 national drug use survey found that roughly 11% of the population tested positive for one or more illicit drugs; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; illicit cultivation of cannabis and regional source of hashish (2018)" } diff --git a/south-asia/bt.json b/south-asia/bt.json index 8a5e3e60..700572c7 100644 --- a/south-asia/bt.json +++ b/south-asia/bt.json @@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ "text": "Ngalop (also known as Bhote) 50%, ethnic Nepali 35% (predominantly Lhotshampas), indigenous or migrant tribes 15%" }, "Languages": { - "text": "Sharchhopka 28%, Dzongkha (official) 24%, Lhotshamkha 22%, other 26% (includes foreign languages) (2005 est.)" + "text": "Sharchopkha 28%, Dzongkha (official) 24%, Lhotshamkha 22%, other 26% (includes foreign languages) (2005 est.)" }, "Religions": { "text": "Lamaistic Buddhist 75.3%, Indian- and Nepali-influenced Hinduism 22.1%, other 2.6% (2005 est.)" @@ -1017,6 +1017,14 @@ "Transnational Issues": { "Disputes - international": { "text": "

lacking any treaty describing the boundary, Bhutan and China continue negotiations to establish a common boundary alignment to resolve territorial disputes arising from substantial cartographic discrepancies, the most contentious of which lie in Bhutan's west along China’s Chumbi salient

" + }, + "Trafficking in persons": { + "current situation": { + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bhutan and Bhutanese abroad; some traffickers posing as recruiters use the lure of well-paying jobs overseas to exploit Bhutanese citizens for forced labor; some Bhutanese working in hospitality, retail, and service industries in the Gulf states and India, Thailand, and the UK reported trafficking indicators, including illegal recruitment fees, wage deductions, restricted movement, passport retention, and non-payment of wages; Bhutanese women and girls working as domestics, caregivers, and entertainers are subject to sex and labor trafficking domestically; Bhutanese and Indian women may be forced to work in hotels, massage parlors, and nightclubs, while male Indian workers face unauthorized deductions and non-payment of wages in the construction and hydropower sectors" + }, + "tier rating": { + "text": "

Tier 2 Watch List — Bhutan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; among its accomplishments, Bhutan convicted one trafficker, appealed the dismissal of trafficking charges in a second case, finalized and disseminated standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral, and initiated an investigation into reports of labor exploitation; the government also continued to work with an international organization on anti-trafficking training and public awareness events; however, Bhutanese courts continued to dismiss and refile on lesser charges human trafficking cases due to inconsistencies between Bhutanese law and the international definition of trafficking; additionally, authorities did not identify any trafficking victims during the reporting period and did not provide protective services to Bhutanese victims of forced labor abroad (2020)

" + } } } } \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/south-asia/ce.json b/south-asia/ce.json index ee1b28d0..95ce473f 100644 --- a/south-asia/ce.json +++ b/south-asia/ce.json @@ -1191,10 +1191,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Sri Lanka is primarily a source and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; some Sri Lankan adults and children who migrate willingly to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Afghanistan to work in the construction, garment, and domestic service sectors are subsequently subjected to forced labor or debt bondage (incurred through high recruitment fees or money advances); some Sri Lankan women are forced into prostitution in Jordan, Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries; within Sri Lanka, women and children are subjected to sex trafficking, and children are also forced to beg and work in the agriculture, fireworks, and fish-drying industries; a small number of women from Asia, Central Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have been forced into prostitution in Sri Lanka in recent years" + "text": "Sri Lanka is primarily a source and, to a much lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the majority of trafficking cases involve traffickers forcing Sri Lankan workers into labor overseas; men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the United States in construction, garment manufacturing, and domestic service; authorities have identified labor trafficking victims among Sri Lankan female migrant workers who seek employment in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Japan, and South Korea; traffickers force children, individuals with physical deformities, and those from socially vulnerable groups to beg or engage in criminal activity in Sri Lanka’s largest cities" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Sri Lanka does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, Sri Lanka was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; law enforcement continues to demonstrate a lack of understanding of trafficking crimes and inadequate investigations, relying on trafficking cases to be prosecuted under the procurement statute rather than the trafficking statute, which carries more stringent penalties; authorities convicted only one offender under the procurement statute, a decrease from 2013; the government approved guidelines for the identification of victims and their referral to protective services but failed to ensure that victims were not jailed and charged for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked; no government employees were investigated or prosecuted, despite allegations of complicity (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Sri Lanka does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts include convicting traffickers under its trafficking statute, identifying victims, and working on anti-trafficking training and raising awareness; however, some officials reportedly complicit in trafficking are inadequately investigated; fewer victims were identified in country and abroad; social and legal assistance for victims remained inadequate and inconsistent; the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment did not refer potential trafficking cases to police for criminal investigation; police continued to arrest  trafficking victims for prostitution, vagrancy, and immigration offenses; child sex trafficking victims remained in government detention centers (2020)" } } } diff --git a/south-asia/mv.json b/south-asia/mv.json index 909d08ef..74baf04c 100644 --- a/south-asia/mv.json +++ b/south-asia/mv.json @@ -1054,10 +1054,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Maldives is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for women and children subjected to labor and sex trafficking; primarily Bangladeshi and Indian migrants working both legally and illegally in the construction and service sectors face conditions of forced labor, including fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, nonpayment and withholding of wages, and debt bondage; a small number of women from Asia, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet states are trafficked to Maldives for sexual exploitation; Maldivian women may be subjected to sex trafficking domestically or in Sri Lanka; some Maldivian children are transported to the capital for domestic service, where they may also be victims of sexual abuse and forced labor" + "text": "Maldives is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking and a source country for Maldivian children subjected to human trafficking within the country; Bangladeshi and Indian migrants working both legally and illegally in the construction and service sectors face conditions of forced labor, including fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, nonpayment of wages, and debt bondage; a small number of women from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Eastern Europe, and former Soviet states are trafficked to Maldives for sexual exploitation; some Maldivian children are transported to the capital for forced domestic service, where they may also be sexually abused" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Maldives does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government adopted a national action plan for 2015-19 and is continuing to develop victim identification, protection, and referral procedures, but overall its anti-trafficking efforts did not increase; only five trafficking investigations were conducted, no new prosecutions were initiated for the second consecutive year, and no convictions were made, down from one in 2013; some officials warned businesses in advance of planned raids for suspected trafficking offenses; victim protection deteriorated when the state-run shelter for female victims barred access to victims shortly after opening in January 2014, in part because of bureaucratic disputes, which dissuaded victims from pursuing charges against perpetrators; the government did not prosecute or hold accountable any employers or government officials for withholding passports (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Maldives does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; efforts included convicting two individuals for trafficking-related offenses, convening the National Anti-Trafficking Steering Committee for the first time in two years; drafting and finalizing a 2020-2022 national action plan; however, efforts to hold employers accountable for trafficking did not increase, non-payment of wages and of the retention of migrant workers’ passports continued; standard operating procedures for victim identification, protection, and referral were not adopted; insufficient resources were devoted to the national action plan; Maldives was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 (2020)" } } } diff --git a/south-asia/pk.json b/south-asia/pk.json index 7fa0f7d5..e0a10c61 100644 --- a/south-asia/pk.json +++ b/south-asia/pk.json @@ -1237,10 +1237,10 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; the largest human trafficking problem is bonded labor in agriculture, brickmaking and, to a lesser extent, fishing, mining and carpet-making; children are bought, sold, rented, and placed in forced begging rings, domestic service, small shops, brick-making factories, or prostitution; militant groups also force children to spy, fight, or die as suicide bombers, kidnapping the children or getting them from poor parents through sale or coercion; women and girls are forced into prostitution or marriages; Pakistani adults migrate to the Gulf States and African and European states for low-skilled jobs and sometimes become victims of forced labor, debt bondage, or prostitution; foreign adults and children, particularly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, may be subject to forced labor, and foreign women may be sex trafficked in Pakistan, with refugees and ethnic minorities being most vulnerable" + "text": "human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Pakistan and Pakistanis abroad; the largest human trafficking problem is bonded labor, where traffickers exploit a debt assumed by a worker as part of the terms of employment, entrapping sometimes generations of a family; bonded laborers are forced to work in agriculture, brick kilns, fisheries, mining, textile manufacturing, bangle- and carpet-making; traffickers buy, sell, rent, and kidnap children for forced labor in begging, domestic work, small shops, sex trafficking and stealing; some children are maimed to bring in more money for begging; Afghans, Iranians, and Pakistanis are forced into drug trafficking in border areas and Karachi; Pakistani traffickers lure women and girls away from their families with promises of marriage and exploit the women and girls in sex trafficking; militant groups kidnap, buy, or recruit children and force them to spy, fight, and conduct suicide attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan" }, "tier rating": { - "text": "Tier 2 Watch List – Pakistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government lacks political will and capacity to fully address human trafficking, as evidenced by ineffective law enforcement efforts, official complicity, penalization of victims, and the continued conflation of migrant smuggling and human trafficking by many officials; not all forms of trafficking are prohibited; an anti-trafficking bill drafted in 2013 to address gaps in existing legislation remains pending, and a national action plan drafted in 2014 is not finalized; feudal landlords and brick kiln owners use their political influence to protect their involvement in bonded labor, while some police personnel have taken bribes to ignore prostitution that may have included sex trafficking; authorities began to use standard procedures for the identification and referral of trafficking victims, but it is not clear how widely these methods were practiced; in other instances, police were reluctant to assist NGOs with rescues and even punished victims for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked (2015)" + "text": "Tier 2 Watch List — Pakistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; government efforts include convicting traffickers under the comprehensive human trafficking law, convicting more traffickers for bonded labor, and increasing registration of brick kilns nationwide for the oversight of workers traffickers target; more trafficking victims were identified; authorities initiated eight investigations against suspected traffickers of Pakistani victims overseas; authorities collaborated with international partners and foreign governments on anti-trafficking efforts; however, the government  significantly decreased investigations and prosecutions of sex traffickers; bonded labor exists on farms and in brick kilns in Punjab province; no action was taken against officials involved in trafficking; several high-profile trafficking cases were dropped during the reporting period; resources were lacking for the care of identified victims; Pakistan was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2020)" } }, "Illicit drugs": { diff --git a/world/xx.json b/world/xx.json index c26f7f04..089845b0 100644 --- a/world/xx.json +++ b/world/xx.json @@ -760,12 +760,9 @@ }, "Trafficking in persons": { "current situation": { - "text": "the International Labour Organization conservatively estimated that 20.9 million people in 2012 were victims of forced labor, representing the full range of human trafficking (also referred to as 'modern-day slavery') for labor and sexual exploitation; about one-third of reported cases involved crossing international borders, which is often associated with sexual exploitation; trafficking in persons is most prevalent in southeastern Europe, Eurasia, and Africa and least frequent in EU member states, Canada, the US, and other developed countries (2012)" + "text": "approximately 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked annually across national borders, not including millions trafficked within their own countries; at least 80% of the victims are female and up to 50% are minors; 75% of all victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; almost two-thirds of the global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East Asia and the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia (170,000 to 210,000 people)" }, - "tier rating": { - "text": "  (2015)" - }, - "note": "Tier 2 Watch List: countries that do not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so; (44 countries) Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cambodia, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Tier 3: countries that neither satisfy the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking nor demonstrate a significant effort to do so; (23 countries) Algeria, Belarus, Belize, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe" + "note": "Tier 2 Watch List:  (44 countries) Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia

Tier 3:  (19 countries) Afghanistan, Algeria, Belarus, Burma, Burundi, China, Comoros, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Lesotho, Nicaragua, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Venezuela (2020)" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "cocaine: worldwide coca leaf cultivation in 2013 likely amounted to 165,000 hectares, assuming a stable crop in Bolivia; Colombia produced slightly less than half of the worldwide crop, followed by Peru and Bolivia; potential pure cocaine production increased 7% to 640 metric tons in 2013; Colombia conducts an aggressive coca eradication campaign, Peru has increased its eradication efforts, but remains hesitant to eradicate coca in key growing areas;

opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation increased in 2013, with potential opium production reaching 6,800 metric tons; Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting for 82% of the global supply; Southeast Asia was responsible for 12% of global opium; Pakistan produced 3% of global opium; Latin America produced 4% of global opium, and most was refined into heroin destined for the US market (2015)"