U.S. Issues First Report on Trafficking in Persons

In July 2001, the U.S. Department of State issued its first Trafficking in Persons Report pursuant to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act 2000 (The Act), classifying countries into three groups depending on their status in terms of combating trafficking in human beings. The Act sets forth “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” as follows: (1) the government should prohibit trafficking and punish acts of trafficking; (2) the government should prescribe punishment commensurate with that for serious crimes, such as forcible sexual assault, the knowing commission of trafficking in some of its most reprehensible forms (trafficking for sexual purposes, trafficking involving rape or kidnapping, or trafficking that causes a death); (3) for knowing commission of any act of trafficking, the government should prescribe punishment that is adequately harsh to deter and that sufficiently reflects the offense’s terrible nature; and (4) the government should make serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking…[more]