The US State Department has released the 2023 edition of the annual Global Human Trafficking Report. Algeria is singled out for non-compliance with the “minimum requirements” for the fight against human trafficking and lack of efforts to combat this phenomenon.
In this report, presented Thursday by the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, it is clearly underlined that the Algerian government does not respect “the minimum requirements for the elimination of trafficking and does not make significant efforts to achieve it”.
This is how Algeria was demoted from level 2 to level 3, the lowest in the ranking established by Washington. This list includes countries that are not making serious efforts to combat this problem.
“The government conducted fewer investigations and prosecutions, and its efforts to identify and assist trafficking victims remained insufficient,” still deplores the American report which points the finger at measures “ineffective” to protect victims among vulnerable populations, such as migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, refugees or asylum seekers.
And the report of the State Department to also denounce the actions of the Algerian authorities who continue to “inappropriately penalize trafficked persons for immigration offenses committed solely as a direct result of their being trafficked”.
“Ongoing government measures to deport undocumented migrants without effective identification of indicators of trafficking have deterred some victims among this population from reporting these crimes to the police or seeking much-needed assistance,” deplores American diplomacy.