Tier Placements1

Adapted from U.S. State Dept Trafficking

 in Persons Report, June 2023

Tier Placement Maps

by Region

Africa

East Asia

Eurasia

Near East

South Asia

Western Hemisphere

Tier 1 - Countries whose governments fully meet the [Trafficking Victims Protection Act] TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

 

Argentina

Colombia

Germany

Singapore

Australia

Cyprus

Guyana

Spain

Austria

Czech Republic

Iceland

Sweden

The Bahamas

Denmark

Lithuania

Taiwan

Bahrain

Estonia

Luxembourg

United Kingdom - UK

Belgium

Finland

Netherlands

USA

Canada

France

Philippines

 

Chile

Georgia

Seychelles

 

 

Tier 2 - Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

 

Albania

Ghana

Malta

Senegal

Angola

Greece

Mauritania

Sierra Leone

Antigua & Barbuda

Guatemala

Mexico

Slovak Republic

Armenia

Guinea

Micronesia

Slovenia

Aruba

Honduras

Moldova

Sri Lanka

Azerbaijan

Hong Kong S.A.R.

Mongolia

St Vincent & Gren

Bangladesh

Hungary

Morocco

Sudan

Barbados

India

Namibia

Suriname

Belize

Indonesia

Nepal

Switzerland

Benin

Ireland

New Zealand

Tajikistan

Bhutan

Israel

Niger

Tanzania

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Italy

Nigeria

Thailand

Brazil

Jamaica

North Macedonia

Timor Leste

Burkina Faso

Japan

Norway

Togo

Burundi

Jordan

Oman

Tonga

Cabo Verde

Kazakhstan

Pakistan

Tunisia

Cameroon

Kenya

Palau

Turkey

Central African Rep

Korea, South

Panama

Uganda

Comoros

Kosovo

Paraguay

Ukraine

Congo (ROC)

Kyrgyz Republic

Peru

United Arab Emirates

Costa Rica

Laos

Poland

Uruguay

Cote d'Ivoire

Latvia

Portugal

Uzbekistan

Croatia

Lesotho

Qatar

Zambia

Ecuador

Liberia

Romania

Zimbabwe

Ethiopia

Malawi

Rwanda

 

Fiji

Maldives

Saint Lucia

 

The Gambia

Mali

Saudi Arabia

 

 

Tier 2 Watch List - Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and for which:

a) the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions;

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.

 

Bolivia

El Salvador

Madagascar

Solomon Islands

Botswana

Eswatini

Malaysia

South Africa

Brunei

Gabon

Marshall Islands

Trinidad & Tobago

Bulgaria

Haiti

Mauritius

Vanuatu

Congo (DRC)

Iraq

Montenegro

Vietnam

Dominican Republic

Kuwait

Mozambique

 

Egypt

Lebanon

Serbia

 

 

Tier 3 - Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

 

Afghanistan

China

Guinea-Bissau

Russia

Algeria

Cuba

Iran

St. Maarten

Belarus

Curacao

Korea, North

South Sudan

Burma

Djibouti

Macau S.A.R.

Syria

Cambodia

Equatorial Guinea

Nicaragua

Turkmenistan

Chad

Eritrea

Papua New Guinea

Venezuela

 

Special Cases  -  No Tier Rating

 

Libya

Somalia

Yemen

 

 

 

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1.  Determination of Tier Placements

The Department places each country included on the TIP Report into one of the three lists, described here as tiers, mandated by the TVPA [Trafficking Victims Protection Act]. This placement is based more on the extent of government action to combat trafficking, rather than the size of the problem, important though that is. The Department first evaluates whether the government fully complies with the TVPA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Governments that do fully comply are placed in Tier 1. For other governments, the Department considers whether they are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance. Governments that are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2. Governments that do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3. Finally, the Special Watch List criteria are considered and, when applicable, Tier 2 countries are placed on the Tier 2 Watch List.

2  Minimum Standards

1.      The government should prohibit trafficking and punish acts of trafficking.

2.      The government should prescribe punishment commensurate with that for grave crimes, such as forcible sexual assault, for the knowing commission of trafficking in some of its most reprehensible forms (trafficking for sexual purposes, trafficking involving rape or kidnapping, or trafficking that causes a death).

3.      For knowing commission of any act of trafficking, the government should prescribe punishment that is sufficiently stringent to deter, and that adequately reflects the offense’s heinous nature.

4.      The government should make serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking.

a)      Whether the government vigorously investigates and prosecutes acts of trafficking within its territory.

b)      Whether the government protects victims of trafficking, encourages victims’ assistance in investigation and prosecution, provides victims with legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they would face retribution or hardship, and ensures that victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts as a direct result of being trafficked.

c)      Whether the government has adopted measures, such as public education, to prevent trafficking.

d)     Whether the government cooperates with other governments in investigating and prosecuting trafficking.

e)      Whether the government extradites persons charged with trafficking as it does with other serious crimes.

f)       Whether the government monitors immigration and emigration patterns for evidence of trafficking, and whether law enforcement agencies respond appropriately to such evidence.

g)      Whether the government vigorously investigates and prosecutes public officials who participate in or facilitate trafficking, and takes all appropriate measures against officials who condone trafficking.

3  Significant Efforts

Three factors were considered in determining whether a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with these minimum standards.  (1) the extent of trafficking in the country;  (2) the extent of governmental noncompliance with the minimum standards, particularly the extent to which government officials have participated in, facilitated, condoned, or are otherwise complicit in trafficking; and (3) what measures are reasonable to bring the government into compliance with the minimum standards in light of the government’s resources and capabilities.