Human trafficking is "all acts involved in the recruitment, abduction, transport, harboring, transfer, sale or receipt of persons, within national or across international borders, through force, coercion, fraud or deception."(http://oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking/what-is). Human trafficking is of significance globally as it affects nearly every country either as a point of origin, transit or destination. The victims are from over 127 countries, so the issue is truly global. The pattern of the trade of humans is usually from developing (third world countries) to developed countries ( first world countries). With approximately 20.9 million victims globally and over 800,000 being trafficked internationally yearly, it is an ever expanding problem. If left without control, human trafficking will continue to spread and grow because there is increasing monetary gains to be made by the criminals involved in this trade at very low risk to them. This will result in further social, political and economic impacts all over the world.
The United States government reports on human trafficking every year and government responses to this issue. Countries in this report are rated in 4 tiers based upon the efforts of their government to prevent trafficking. The tiers are as follows:.
Tier 1 – countries whose governments fully comply with trafficking victim's protection act's (TVPA) minimum standards.
Tier 2 – countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 Watch list – 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 significant increasing number of victims.
2. They have failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons, or.