The US accused 14 nations of failing to do enough to stop the modern-day trade in prostitutes, child sex slaves and forced laborers. The countries include Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terror.
Three other US allies in the Middle East -- Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar -- were newly listed this year as nations failing to deal adequately with the illegal trafficking of people. The State Department said Friday that the 14 countries could be subject to sanctions if they do not crack down.
As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, the State Department said in its annual survey of international human trafficking. Most are women and children.
PHOTO: AFP
"Trafficking in human beings is nothing less than a modern form of slavery," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "The US has a particular duty to fight this scourge because trafficking in persons is an affront to the principles of human dignity and liberty upon which this nation was founded."
The other countries listed as poor performers in stopping trafficking are Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Togo and Venezuela.
`politicizing rights'
Venezuela, which has had a tense relationship with the US in recent months, denied that it was ignoring the trafficking problem. A written statement from the Venezuelan Embassy called the country's inclusion in the list "a sad demonstration of how the administration has politicized its work on human rights."
The State Department report placed China, South Africa and 25 other countries on a watch list. Those nations have trafficking problems, but their governments are making what the State Department calls significant efforts to combat them.
Saudi Arabia has turned a blind eye to the problem of poor or low-skilled workers brought into the country and exploited or who go there voluntarily but find themselves in "involuntary servitude," the report said.
Saudi employers physically and sexually abuse migrants from South Asia, Africa and other places, withhold pay and travel documents or use migrant children as forced beggars, the report said. Some migrants work as domestics in the homes of wealthy Saudis.
"The government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so," the 2005 Trafficking in Persons report said.
The report said the Saudis apparently prosecuted only one employer during the period covered by the report, from March last year to March of this year.
Despite periodic differences, Saudi Arabia and the US have a tight alliance built on economic and military cooperation. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler since his half brother King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, visited President George W. Bush at his Texas ranch in April.
The US spends US$96 million to help other countries combat trafficking, Rice said. The US is not included on the list, although Miller said the country is far from immune.
"Modern-day slavery plagues every country, including the US," Miller said.
The Justice Department is due to issue a separate report this month on trafficking in the US.
Congress began requiring the international ranking reports in 2000. This is the fifth report, and it covers trafficking to and from 150 countries. Miller said the goal "is not to punish but to stimulate government action to eliminate" human trafficking. Countries that fail to crack down can be subject to a variety of sanctions, including the withholding of some kinds of US foreign aid. The US will not cut off trade and humanitarian aid, the report said.
Countries that receive no such assistance can be declared ineligible to take part in cultural and educational exchange programs.
Two countries have been sanctioned since the reports began, Equatorial Guinea and Venezuela.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
RSS