US lists Georgia among best nations combating human trafficking
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Georgia has been ranked among Tier 1 nations in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2017; an annual report issued by the United States (US) State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
The report ranks governments based on their perceived efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking.
"The Government of Georgia fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period; therefore, Georgia remained on Tier 1”, the report says.
The report praised Georgia’s efforts to investigate and prevent cases of trafficking, also actions carried out to protect victims of trafficking and cooperation measures, as well as activities of law enforcement authorities with respect to proactive investigations to reveal crimes and prosecution of traffickers.
In the report, with regards to effective fight against trafficking, Georgia fell in beside such countries of the European Union as France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal.
However, the report notes that although the Georgian government meets the minimum standards, authorities did not increase anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts and identified fewer victims – three victims in 2016, compared to nine in 2015.
The reports recommends for Georgia to improve efforts to proactively identify trafficking victims, particularly street children and Georgian and foreign victims in vulnerable labor sectors.
Through the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the US State Department annually assesses actions carried out by 188 states to combat trafficking in persons. Assessment of the US State Department is based on such components as prevention of human trafficking, protection of victims of trafficking, criminal prosecution of perpetrators and collaboration between governments and civil society with respect to trafficking.
Georgia is among several countries taking steps to improve anti-trafficking legislation, policy and practice according to today’s report of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) anti-trafficking expert group (GRETA).
For the first time Georgia has been named among a group of nations that best combat human trafficking and whose governments fully comply with the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
The Council of Europe’s (CoE) anti-trafficking expert group (GRETA) has today revealed its second evaluation report, which states Georgia has made vast progress to reduce illegal human trafficking.
The Georgian court has sentenced a Kyrgyzstani citizen to 14 years in jail after she was found guilty of human trafficking.
The US Department of State reads in its 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report that the government of Georgia fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
A Ukrainian woman has been arrested for child trafficking in Georgia, announces the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.
A criminal group involving 11 individuals have been identified and detained on charges of children trafficking and making child pornography in a joint operation of Georgian, US, Australian law enforcers and Europol. One American and one Australian citizen are among the detainees, while others are citizens of Georgia, including the parents and relatives of the affected children.
The Council of Europe’s (СoE) anti-human trafficking monitoring body (GRETA) has released its third evaluation report on Georgia today, which acknowledged the country’s efforts in fighting human trafficking and identified areas for improvement.
Challenges, achievements and the current situation in combatting human trafficking in Georgia were in focus of a meeting hosted in Tbilisi between prosecutors, judges and investigators working on trafficking issues, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia said on Thursday.
A new project designed to help Georgian agencies combat human trafficking and supported by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe was launched on Friday. The project, entitled Combating Trafficking in Human Beings: Sustaining Multi-Agency Collaboration through National Simulation Based Training Exercises, aims to facilitate the introduction of simulation-based training exercises on trafficking in Georgia.