Lebanon Moves up in Ranking of U.S. Human Trafficking Report
Lebanon was among five countries that moved up from U.S. State Department’s blacklist of human trafficking to be included among the 42 countries now on a watchlist.
Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama granted Lebanon a waiver to allow the continuation of U.S. assistance to Lebanon, which was at risk of being blocked due to the country’s ranking in the bottom blacklist known as tier 3 in the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report.
Governments of countries on the Tier 3 may be subject to certain sanctions, whereby the U.S. government may withhold or withdraw non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance.
In addition, countries on Tier 3 may not receive funding for government employees’ participation in educational and cultural exchange programs.
However, the 2012 report, which was unveiled on Tuesday, pushed Lebanon to the tier 2 watchlist in the four-tier ranking system.
This tier 2 ranking could lead to sanctions unless the records of the countries improve.
Out of the 185 countries included in this year’s report, only 33 complied fully with laws in place to end human trafficking, putting them at the top of the system, said the State Department.
Up to 27 million people are living in slavery around the world, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton estimated as she unveiled the annual report.
"Those victims of modern slavery are women and men, girls and boys, and their stories remind us of the kind of inhumane treatment we are capable of as human beings," said Clinton.
"Whatever their background, they are the living, breathing reminders that the work to eradicate slavery remains unfinished."
20 June 2012, 12:44
03
Great...we get better at all the wrong things. I wish we the Lebanese can stop pretending "we are giants among our surrounding" and start dealing with our problems from the bottom up. Let's start with ourselves and our families...some self-critic would do us no harm!
20 June 2012, 13:17
00
True, very shameful the way the ABSOLUTE majority of us treat people we employ (enslave) at our domiciles.
20 June 2012, 14:15
13
we are the worst racists in this world:
- we think we are better than everyone else.
- we still call a maid: صانعة
- a black person: عبد
- ....
if we really take a look at us, we have become the worst people ever, and the best of us have left the country.
20 June 2012, 14:40
00
This is so sad. Probably not a lot of people understand what happens to those who are in slavery. Unfortunately, many of those slaves are sex slaves. Many of them are under age (18 and below).
This article is dealing with Lebanon being on the list of human traffickers. But it fails to talk about the horrors of those being trafficked.
I totally agree wiht Lebneneh and Geha. Lebanese are delusional. We talk about how good we are and how beautiful our country is. But the reality of things is the opposite.
They have destroyed a lot of our nature in Lebanon by building.
Racism is the worst in Lebanon
Religious freedom is at rock bottom
Human trafficking is at its worst
No Electricity
Hardly any water (basic living conditions are bad)
And the people are still holding on to the same leadership (government) that has dug the country in a hole financially economically for the past 30- 40 years.
Eh Tfeh, if I will go back to Lebanon.
20 June 2012, 15:13
00
Dear bubbaman,
your comment does not make any sense whatsoever...not related to the subject and very immature...
20 June 2012, 15:20
00
bubbaman you need to grow up.no wonder why tou live like parasite in our country while you should be "shipped" to Iran or to what "remains" of asaad regime;)
20 June 2012, 16:57
11
I dont believe these things. It´s typical that all the countries "getting the wrong regimes" directly fall like stones in the US based ranking systems.
Who really believes that this got worse the last years? It should be the opposite as we have less tourists ( Saudi ones specially)
I would like to see a study about which nationals buys more thai child prostitues for example. THAT would be interesting.
20 June 2012, 17:34
00
Lebanon was 3, now it is 2 on the watchlist. It means an improvement. Plus Switzerland is 2. LOL
21 June 2012, 08:05
00
But with all do respect, he qualified to end up in it as well...
21 June 2012, 12:07
00
just because the US makes some report about human trafficking does not mean anything....that's just Americas policy to bring down Lebanon and to put further red tape and question marks on Lebanon's independence and no I do support Nasrallah as I believe he has also ruined the independence of Lebanon...Lets get this thing Right, America does not have the answers they are in fact one off the worst countries in the world on so many levels....Lebanon's real problem is that it has way too much democracy in religious freedom and the media, more than what America has itself.. and this why democracy the disease it is.... is dividing Lebanon apart and this is why monkeys like Nasrallah can gain power anywhere they can... Human trafficking is a Global problem it is everywhere and the Americans are really good at contradicting themselves (say one thing and do another) but they don't care because they have the power and everyone else just has to follow to what they say and report...
