The conclusions are contained in the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, released this Thursday by the US Department of State and which divides countries into three categories and a subcategory, based on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) from the United States of America (USA).
No country in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) managed to enter the "level one" category, that is, countries whose governments fully meet the minimum standards of the TVPA for the elimination of human trafficking, among which are the USA itself, the Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Luxembourg, Guyana, among others.
"While 'level one' is the highest rating, it does not mean that a country does not have human trafficking problems or that it is doing enough to combat crime. Rather, a 'level one' rating indicates that a government has made efforts that meet TVPA's minimum standards to address the problem," the State Department explained.
At "level two" are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Portugal and Timor-Leste, with US authorities considering them "countries whose governments do not fully meet TVPA's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to conform to these standards".
At the same level, there are also countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Israel, Italy, Mali, Switzerland, Rwanda, Sudan, Qatar, among others.
This is followed by the "level two watch list" subcategory, aimed at States that make efforts to combat human trafficking, but that have a "very significant" number of victims of serious forms of trafficking or that fail to provide evidence of their growing efforts.
In this subcategory, Mozambique is the only Portuguese-speaking country present.
Finally, on the "black list" of countries with insufficient measures to stop human trafficking ("level three") are Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, which join states such as Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
São Tomé and Príncipe was the only CPLP country not included in this US report, to which information from US embassies, government officials, non-governmental and international organizations, reports, news, academic studies, and consultations contributed. with authorities and organizations in all regions of the world.
"The United States is committed to fighting human trafficking because it is an assault on human rights and freedoms," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in presenting the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The US estimates that around 27 million people in the world are victims of human trafficking and forced labor, a phenomenon that affects mainly women, people from the LGBT community (short for lesbians, 'gays', bisexuals and transgenders) and ethnic and religious minorities.
Blinken also considered that the covid-19 pandemic facilitated labor exploitation due to the interruption of production chains in several industries.
He also warned that human traffickers are increasingly using the Internet to recruit their victims, who are increasingly younger.
The US Secretary of State also highlighted positive cases, such as the opening of a direct telephone line in Hong Kong to help victims or an increase in the Danish budget to combat trafficking.
