Israel is not making enough effort against human trafficking, says US
A US State Department report has found that Israel does not make enough efforts to fight human trafficking and does not meet the minimum standards to eliminate this phenomenon, Haaretz reported on Wednesday
Erin
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The report was issued on Tuesday after officials monitored the issue during 2021 and is critical of Israel for the second year. According to Haaretz, it denounces Israel's "insufficient efforts to prosecute employers suspected of trafficking or slavery" and the occupation state's "lack of proactive policy to identify both victims and criminals."
Moreover, said the State Department, the Israeli government did not investigate reports about alleged victims of slavery received from human rights groups and did not make adequate efforts to investigate migrants workers' employers suspected of human trafficking or holding victims of forced labour.
The government apparently reported that it had received 58 victim referrals from NGOs and government sources in 2021, compared with 74 in 2020. Of the 58 referrals, the government conferred official trafficking victim status on only 51 individuals, down on the 69 victims recognised in 2020. Seventeen of the 58 were victims of sex trafficking, and 34 were victims of forced labour.
The US report pointed out that the Israeli police anti-trafficking unit – the only official body in Israel authorised to grant recognition to the victims of human trafficking – has been assigned just one additional officer. The unit, therefore, "remained severely understaffed for the sixth consecutive year, which further hindered the efficiency of victim identification procedures and referral of victims to protection services."
The State Department's recommendations for Israel included expediting processes to identify and refer trafficking victims to appropriate care proactively, and authorising more government officials across the country to identify victims.
Source: Middle East Monitor under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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