How to stop governments from trafficking people

New Atlantic

June 26, 2024 • 10:26 AM ET

How to stop governments from trafficking people

By
John Cotton Richmond

Common images of human trafficking often focus on pimps forcing their victims into commercial sexual exploitation or on criminal networks that target migrants seeking a better future. But what if the trafficker is not an individual criminal, corporation or cartel, but a government? The United Nations (UN) estimated in 2022 that governments trafficked at least 3.9 million people every day. These victims of state-sanctioned human trafficking constitute 14 percent of the estimated number of victims of modern slavery.

The U.S. Department of State released a new report on Monday that sheds what may be the clearest light yet on human trafficking crimes committed by foreign governments.

Which governments are human traffickers?

In 2019, the U.S. Congress directed the State Department to identify which governments have a policy or pattern of human trafficking. In the new 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report), the State Department announces for the fifth time that governments are exploiting people for forced labor and sex trafficking.

Over the past five years, the Department of State has identified thirteen countries involved in these human rights violations, and nine governments have been on the list for all five years. The 2024 TIP report listed thirteen countries as traffickers, including China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia. Sudan is on the list for the first time.

It should surprise no one that governments engage in human trafficking. For most of recorded history, monarchs, tsars, emperors, sultans, pharaohs, warlords, and other tyrants fueled the slave trade as they developed their empires, governments, and central committees. Currently, these patterns of human trafficking vary from country to country.

China: In China, the government forces Uyghurs to work in commercial facilities in Xinjiang and coerces workers under the Belt and Road Initiative around the world. China’s uncompromising embrace of slavery led the U.S. Senate to unanimously pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, known as UFLPA, which prohibits the import of slave-made goods into the United States.

Cuba: The fact that Cuba rakes in eight billion dollars a year from its Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is staggering. Worse still, Cuba forces medical workers to participate in the program and the government siphons off their wages. Cuban victims sued PAHO in US federal courts, drawing condemnation from the international community. During the Department of State event dedicated to the preparation of the 2024 TIP report, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented the “Trafficking in Persons” award to Maria Werlau, an activist fighting Cuba’s history of human trafficking.

Eritrea: In Eritrea, the government forces the poor and vulnerable into extended forced government service. Those with resources and connections can avoid forced labor for the government.

Turkmenistan: The government of Turkmenistan continues the old Soviet practice of forcing individuals to pick cotton. A helpful comparison is reforms by neighboring Uzbekistan, which have dramatically reduced state-sanctioned forced labor in the cotton harvest, from 2.5 million victims in 2007 to eliminating forced labor in 2022. While reforms in Uzbekistan have resulted in the Cotton Campaign and major fashion brands lifted the self-imposed ban on the sale of Uzbek cotton, the government of Turkmenistan refused to employ free workers working on market principles to harvest cotton.

Typical interventions do not apply

The UN reports an estimated 3.9 million victims of human trafficking under state sanctions, and the TIP report lists countries that have committed the crime. However, the world needs a plan to address this aspect of the human trafficking crisis. In the case of individual traffickers or organized crime, typical interventions include encouraging countries to increase victim identification, investigation, prosecution and conviction. To care for survivors, governments and civil society organizations must provide tailored services that recognize the trauma inflicted on traffickers. None of these interventions make sense when the government is the bad guy. It is absurd to ask Afghanistan or Burma to investigate or take responsibility themselves.

The Path Forward

Those focusing on foreign policy and the plight of those who are abused by governments must find a new way forward. Interventions that can encourage governments to end human enslavement include:

Transparency and reporting:Exposing these abuses around the world could motivate some countries to abandon forced labor. The TIP report itself, along with other government and civil society reports, is an attempt to shed light on these abuses.

Ban on contaminated products: Several countries are trying to prevent goods made by slaves from entering their markets. For example, the United States relies on the Tariff Act and the new UFLPA. The European Union is ready to introduce a new law this year banning the placing on the market of all products made as a result of forced labor.

Sanctions: Countries may target individuals, companies, or other governments by imposing financial penalties, freezing assets, or denying visas for engaging in forced labor. Global Magnitsky Act sanctions focus on human rights violators; Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act restricts the flow of money into Iran, North Korea and Russia; while the Tier 3 sanctions in the TIP report focus on countries that do not make significant efforts to meet minimum anti-trafficking standards. While effectiveness is debatable, many people agree that the narrower the focus of sanctions, the more likely the efforts will lead to change.

Private Sector Incentives and Disincentives: The private sector is often more flexible than bureaucrats pushing for change. Major fashion brands that pledged not to use Uzbek cotton made a significant impact when a reform-minded leader took over Uzbekistan’s government. Similarly, companies operating in or sourcing from a given country can engage in trade diplomacy by building coalitions and using their investments to demand reforms. While criminal justice systems play a key role in stopping criminal human trafficking, addressing state-sanctioned human trafficking requires foreign policy solutions and support. Millions of people oppressed by their governments need people of good will to create new initiatives that will transform exploitative government policies into processes that bring freedom.

John Cotton Richmond is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Scowcroft Strategic Initiative at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking from 2018-2021. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @JohnRichmond1.

Which governments are human traffickers?

Typical interventions do not apply

The Path Forward

Further reading