Burundi Trafficking in persons

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Trafficking in persons: current situation: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Burundi and victims from Burundi abroad; traffickers take advantage of Burundians in precarious or desperate situations, including returned refugees; children were reportedly recruited by armed groups and forced to participate in anti-government activities; non-state armed groups allegedly used threats, intimidation, and physical assaults to coerce refugees in a camp in Rwanda to support the Burundian opposition; children and young adults are trafficked by relatives, neighbors, and friends and are subjected to forced labor in agriculture, mining, informal commerce, charcoal production, and fishing; some girls and young women are forced into domestic servitude and sex trafficking in restaurants and bars around Lake Tanganyika; women and girls who go to the Middle East for domestic service jobs report physical and sexual abuse

tier rating: Tier 3 — Burundi does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government worked with an international organization to provide training to immigration officials, identified victims of trafficking abroad, and conducted public awareness campaigns with an international organization; however, authorities did not convict any traffickers for the fifth consecutive year and did not investigate, prosecute, or convict officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking; the government did not have standard operating procedures to identify and refer victims to services and did not have adequate protection services for victims; authorities continued to lack a clear understanding of trafficking despite the government providing training to immigration officials (2020)

Definition: Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. The International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues, estimated in 2011 that 20.9 million people worldwide were victims of forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude. Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat, depriving people of their human rights and freedoms, risking global health, promoting social breakdown, inhibiting development by depriving countries of their human capital, and helping fuel the growth of organized crime. In 2000, the US Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), reauthorized in 2003 and 2005, which provides tools for the US to combat trafficking in persons, both domestically and abroad. One of the law's key components is the creation of the US Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which assesses the government response (i.e., the current situation) in some 150 countries with a significant number of victims trafficked across their borders who are recruited, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained for forced labor or sexual exploitation. Countries in the annual report are rated in three tiers, based on government efforts to combat trafficking. The countries identified in this entry are those listed in the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report as 'Tier 2 Watch List' or 'Tier 3' based on the following tier rating definitions:
Tier 2 Watch List countries do not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so, and meet one of the following criteria:
1. they display high or significantly increasing number of victims,
2. they have failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons, or,
3. they have committed to take action over the next year.
Tier 3 countries neither satisfy the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking nor demonstrate a significant effort to do so. Countries in this tier are subject to potential non-humanitarian and non-trade sanctions.

Source: CIA World Factbook - This page was last updated on Saturday, September 18, 2021

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