by Kyle Kim July 18th, 2011
SUMMARY: A Public Data Ferret interactive mapped data project below shows the full country-by-country assessments in the U.S. Department of State’s recently-released 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report. Of 184 counties evaluated in the report, the State Department ranked 23 in the “Tier 3″ or worst category. Countries with a Tier 3 ranking are governments who do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards of human trafficking prevention and are not making significant efforts to do so. Roughly 70 percent of the Tier 3 countries are located in Northern Africa and the Middle East. The State Department identified 33,113 victims of human trafficking in 2010, a third less than the amount reported the previous year. However, since human trafficking crimes are underreported, the numbers provided by the department may not reflect the full extent of actual occurrences.
The U.S. State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report globally assessed forced labor, sex slavery, forced conscription of child soldiers and related concerns. (View complete list of human trafficking categories). Public Data Ferret created an interactive map below with information for each ranked country (view spreadsheet of compiled data). Countries are ranked in one of four categories.
Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards.
Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 watch list: Countries where trafficking is significant or significantly increasing and governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making serious efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
Special cases: the worst three countries – Somalia, Sierra Leone and Haiti, each of which has been subject to either extreme natural disaster or severe conflict. (Details here in a recent Public Data Ferret synopsis).
DATA MAP INSTRUCTIONS: Red indicates Tier 3 countries and special cases; Yellow is Tier 2; and Green are Tier 1. Use the navigation arrows and zoom in or zoom out (plus or minus signs) as desired, and click on any country. A pop-up box will confirm the country’s name and ranking, and provide a link to the section of the State Department 2011 report detailing human trafficking findings for that nation.
RELATED: U.S. State Department 2010 Trafficking In Persons Report, Public Data Ferret, June 14, 2010.