The United States released the "Trafficking in Persons Report" and China ranked behind for eight consecutive years

On June 24, the U.S. State Department released the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, detailing the situation in 188 countries around the world. The report pointed out that there are currently about 27 million exploited people in the world who are forced to engage in forced labor or commercial sex due to violence, fraud and other coercion. The report also emphasized that although digital technology contributes to the problem of human trafficking, it can also become a tool to combat human trafficking.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference on the report that civil society groups and private companies are currently using artificial intelligence to detect and prevent trafficking activities: "In addition to civil society groups launching mobile applications that provide information on potential wages, labor conditions and other rights and interests to vulnerable individuals and groups, there are also digital tools to help workers record and report trafficking. The U.S. State Department has set up a WhatsApp hotline in Brazil, allowing millions of coffee migrant workers to report abuse in union groups and get the necessary support." 

Cindy Dyer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for monitoring and combating human trafficking, pointed out that traffickers use online platforms to anonymously recruit, lure, and defraud victims, and use digital currencies to hide illegal transactions. However, if governments can work with the private sector and make good use of digital technology, they can strengthen anti-trafficking measures to jointly prevent and protect victims: "This year's report also explores new practices developed in consultation with survivors, namely victim-centered trauma informed approaches." 

The above report released by the US State Department pointed out that sex trafficking and forced labor are still the most serious problems in the world. However, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol have pointed out in recent years that the scale of human trafficking for the purpose of stealing organs may be larger than known. North Africa and the Middle East have the highest proportion of victims discovered due to their large vulnerable populations, limited medical services and corruption. However, the Chinese government has systematically forcibly harvested organs from political prisoners, especially from specific ethnic minority groups detained for language or religion.

The report on China points out that while the Chinese government has raised public awareness of online fraud in Southeast Asia and cooperated with foreign law enforcement agencies to extradite criminals, the authorities continue to arbitrarily detain and imprison ethnic minorities and religious groups such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz on a large scale in the name of "poverty alleviation", "vocational training" and "anti-extremism", and forcibly repatriate the above-mentioned minority groups living abroad. In addition, when Chinese citizens participate in the government's "Belt and Road" projects, they also encounter forced labor problems due to insufficient supervision of recruitment channels and contracts by the authorities. Not only has China's diplomatic department failed to identify or assist the exploited population, but the public security and other departments have not published complete law enforcement data for many years to reveal the identities of the relevant victims, the case, or report the actual effectiveness of hotlines, asylum, legal and medical assistance.

The report also pointed out that China's gender imbalance caused by the implementation of the one-child policy in the past has not only contributed to human trafficking crimes, but the current household registration system continues to restrict rural residents from legally changing their place of residence, which has also led to nearly 170 million people in China facing a high risk of forced labor in brick kilns, coal mines and factories.

The report shows that based on the above factors, the Chinese government has been rated by the U.S. State Department as a third-tier country for insufficient efforts to address human trafficking and even participating in it, exacerbating the problem, for the eighth consecutive year (2017-2024), ranking alongside more than 20 countries and regions including Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia, Russia, and Cuba.