Human Trafficking: Country Rankings

The U.S. Department of State divides the countries to three categories according to their level of compliance to the TVPA’s standards. Tier 1 countries fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Tier 2 countries that 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 are countries that do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and:

a) the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;

b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecution, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or

c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over the next year.

Tier 3 countries that do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.