Georgia in U.S. Report on Human Trafficking

Despite “making significant efforts”, the Georgian government “does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” the U.S. Department of State said in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, released on July 27.

As a result Georgia still remains in tier 2, where it was relegated for the 2012 reporting period after six straight years in tier 1 – the highest ranking, which although does not mean that a country has no human trafficking problem, but indicates that its government undertakes efforts to address this problem and meets minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Tier 3 is the lowest ranking assigned to countries whose governments do not fully comply with minimum standards to eliminate trafficking and are not making significant efforts to do so.

According to the new report, which covers developments in 2014, investigations, prosecutions and convictions in trafficking-related cases increased last year compared to 2013; it also notes increase in the number of anti-trafficking mobile units, but also says that “limited investigative capabilities hampered trafficking investigations.”

“Georgia is a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls subjected to sex trafficking and men, women, and children subjected to forced labor,” reads the report. “Women and girls from Georgia are subjected to sex trafficking within the country, in Turkey, and, to a lesser extent, in China, Egypt, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia. Women from Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries are subjected to forced prostitution in Georgia’s commercial sex trade in the tourist areas of Batumi and Gonio in Adjara province.”

The report notes that some members of anti-trafficking units in Tbilisi and Batumi “lack basic investigative skills” and there is also lack of sufficient well-trained female investigators to interview sex trafficking victims. According to the report investigators focus on interrogating victims for evidence gathering, rather than interviewing them for the purpose of determining whether they were potential victims; it, however, also notes that the government increased victim identification efforts.

According to the report “Georgian, Romani and Kurdish children are subjected to forced begging or coerced into criminality”.

“The government did not outline a strategy to systematically combat street begging; experts reported the police refused to investigate several cases of forced begging, claiming street begging is not a violation of child’s rights under current legislation,” reads the report.