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International-UN-NGOs
US lumps Middle East allies in human trafficking blacklist
2007-06-13
WASHINGTON - US Middle East allies Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, as well as Malaysia were added Tuesday to a Washington blacklist of countries trafficking in people, the State Department said.
We never said they were perfect.
Algeria and Guinea were the other additions to the blacklist of the State Department’s annual ‘Trafficking in Persons Report,’ which analyzed efforts in about 150 countries to combat trafficking for forced labor, prostitution, military service and other purposes.

The seven countries, all of whom were on a special watch list last year, join Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela in the dreaded ‘Tier 3’ list as the worst offenders of human trafficking. Being in the blacklist, they could face sanctions, including withholding by the United States of non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign aid. Countries that receive no such foreign assistance would be subject to withholding of funding for participation by government officials in educational and cultural exchange programs.

‘Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling of our day,’ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in the 236-page report. ‘Together with our allies and friends, we will continue our efforts to bring this cruel practice to an end,’ she said.

US government research shows 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders, about 80 percent of them women and girls and up to half minors, the State Department said. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation, it said.

Belize, Laos and Zimbabwe were removed from the blacklist this year. Singapore, which had been in the Tier 1 list, was relegated to Tier 2 this year.
Posted by:Steve White

#3  Well, the Middle East is the greatest offender of it. Glad to see common sense applied rather than PC tactics.

Expect to see this reversed in a month because of Dhimocrat crying about our "allies".
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-06-13 12:39  

#2  Â‘Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling of our day,Â’

'and to that end, we will be tireless in our use of empty gestures and mealy-mouthed rhetoric.'
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2007-06-13 10:14  

#1  A bunch of Communist/Stalinist or Islamic nations as human rights-free zones? Say it ain't so!
Posted by: Chuckles Grotch9320   2007-06-13 02:56  

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