US Human Trafficking Reports Fail to Reveal Evidence for Judging Countries

The US Department of State’s annual reports criticizing countries for their alleged failure to combat human trafficking fails to present the evidence for giving nations high or low grades, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Key shortcomings have been found in State's 2015 and 2016 reports, the GAO report said on Monday.

"The reports lacked clear explanations for some countries' rankings, or for decisions to upgrade or downgrade a country to a different tier."

These weaknesses potentially limited the reports’ usefulness as tools to encourage governments to fight trafficking, the GAO cautioned.

The State Department annually reports on global anti-trafficking efforts — ranking countries into one of four tiers based on their actions, the report noted.

"We recommended that State improve the transparency of its decision-making," the GAO advised.

To improve the transparency and clarity of the report, the US Secretary of State should, on an annual basis, ensure the full implementation of guidelines including posting a detailed description of the credible evidence used to support the downgrading of countries’ status, the report added.