US State Department: Georgia maintaining “highest level” in combating trafficking

The Georgian Government has maintained the “highest level” in combating human trafficking, the United States Department of State has said in its annual 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, published on Tuesday.

The report said the Georgian Government fully met the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” and remained on Tier 1 in performance evaluation on the metric. 

The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; [...] These efforts included providing comprehensive victim assistance, including robust pandemic mitigation efforts at government-run shelters”, the State Department noted.

It also highlighted the increased number of labour inspectors and the creation of a new mobile group and crisis centre in Georgia’s Black Sea region of Adjara, with a number of specialised anti-trafficking units operating in the country, including the Anti-Trafficking and Illegal Migration Division and six Mobile Teams within the Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report noted the country’s criminal code fully criminalised sex trafficking and labour trafficking, and provided adequate punishment for the crime with a maximum sentence of 12 to 15 years imprisonment. 

The report positively evaluated the signing of an updated memorandum between the Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and the Labour Inspection, which aimed to detect cases of forced labour through joint inspections by mobile teams and labour inspection units.

It also noted the protection efforts had been “slightly” increased and “equal services for Georgian citizens and foreign national victims” had been provided, granting foreign victims renewable one-year residence permits with the ability to seek legal employment. The maintaining of prevention efforts was also observed in the report.

The Department of State also highlighted the flaws in the Government strategy and stated “any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions” of Government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes had not been reported, adding fewer traffickers had been convicted and the lowest number of victims identified since 2016.

The report included priority recommendations on increasing efforts to identify victims proactively and encouraging their participation in investigations and prosecutions through victim-centred court procedures, as well as on improving measures to order restitution for victims, among other advice.