US Adds Russia To List Of Countries Engaged In Trafficking In Persons, Highlights Use Of Child Soldiers

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Wikimedia Commons/US State Department/Ron Przysucha)

JAKARTA - The United States on Tuesday placed Russia on a list of countries that engage in "policies or patterns" of trafficking and forced labour, or whose security forces or government-backed armed groups recruit or use child soldiers.

The State Department includes the list in its annual human trafficking report, which is featured for the first time under a 2019 Congressional mandate, the "State-Sponsored Trafficking in Persons" section.

Russia appears frequently throughout reports because of its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, with what the document describes as vulnerability to the trafficking of millions of Ukrainian refugees in the countries from which they fled.

"Millions of Ukrainians have had to leave their homes. Some left the country altogether, most with only what they could carry," Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said at an event as he presented the report.

"That makes them very vulnerable to exploitation," continued Foreign Minister Blinken.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report's allegations.

Furthermore, Foreign Minister Blinken revealed that currently there are nearly 25 million victims of human trafficking worldwide.

In addition to Russia, the List also lists Afghanistan, Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and five other countries with a documented 'policy or pattern' of trafficking in persons, forced labor in government-affiliated sectors, sexual slavery in government camps. or who employ or recruit child soldiers.

The report contains a separate list of 12 countries that employ or recruit child soldiers. The list includes Russia and some of those in the new state sponsors section.

The report doesn't detail why each government was included, but each country's chapter details the scale of trade in each and how they deal with it, ranking each country's efforts according to four levels.

Regarding Russia, the report said Moscow was "actively involved in the forced labor" of North Korean migrant workers, including by issuing visas to thousands of people in an apparent effort to evade UN resolutions demanding their repatriation.

It also cited reports that after seizing parts of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014, Russian-led separatists used children to guard checkpoints and serve as fighters and at other posts.

Following this year's 'full-scale invasion', the report said "the media are highlighting new unsupported reports by Russian forces using children as human shields".

In addition, the report also cites, Russian-led forces have forced thousands of Ukrainians, including children, through "filtration camps," where their documents are confiscated, they are forced to take Russian passports and then transported to remote areas in Russia.