Trafficking in persons: current situation:
human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Jordan and Jordanians abroad; victims are primarily from South and Southeast Asia, East Africa, Egypt, and Syria; foreign migrants, many undocumented, working in construction, agriculture, textiles, and domestic work are the most vulnerable to trafficking because of informal work agreements and frequently changing employers; forced labor victims experience withheld or unpaid wages, confiscation of identity documents, restricted freedom of movement, unsafe living conditions, long hours without rest, isolation, and verbal and physical abuse; child labor and potential forced child labor increased; traffickers exploit Lebanese, North African, and Eastern European women who have migrated to Jordan to work in restaurants and nightclubs are subject to sex trafficking
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Jordan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government increased the training of law enforcement personnel and victim advocates, maintained a trafficking shelter offering a wide range of services, partnered with civil society actors to proactively identify and protect trafficking victims, and conducted anti-trafficking awareness campaigns; the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts as fewer traffickers were investigated, prosecuted, and convicted; fewer victims were identified and assisted, and victims were still arrested, detained, and deported for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit; under Jordan’s anti-trafficking law, penalties for sex trafficking offenses were not commensurate with penalties for other serious crimes (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
