The US Department of States has released the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, with Liberia remaining on Tier 2—a spot it has held since 2022.
According to the report, the Government of Liberia (GOL) does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so, demonstrating overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore, Liberia remained on Tier 2. “These efforts included prosecuting and convicting an official complicit in human trafficking and identifying more victims and referring them to services. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Investigations decreased and law enforcement officials continued to lack adequate resources and understanding of trafficking to effectively investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes. Victim services, especially shelter, remained insufficient,” the report observed. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Liberia, and traffickers exploit victims from Liberia abroad. Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than transnational trafficking, and the majority of victims are children. Traffickers recruit and exploit most trafficking victims within the country’s borders in domestic servitude, forced begging, sex trafficking, or forced labor in street vending, gold and alluvial diamond mines, and on small-scale rubber plantations. Traffickers typically operate independently and are commonly family members who promise impoverished relatives a better life for their children or promise young women a better life for themselves. They take the children or women to urban areas and exploit them in forced labor in street vending, domestic service, or sex trafficking. Traffickers are also often well-respected community members who exploit the “foster care” system common across West Africa. Liberian law requires parents to register children within 14 days of birth; while about two-thirds of children under the age of five are registered, only about 30 percent have obtained a birth certificate. Although the government has expanded birth registration accessibility, continued lack of birth registration and identity documents increase individuals’ vulnerability to trafficking.
Traffickers exploit orphaned children in street vending and child sex trafficking. Some parents encourage their daughters’ exploitation in sex trafficking to supplement family income. Liberian nationals and, to a lesser extent, foreigners exploit children in sex trafficking in Monrovia. Traffickers allegedly compel children to sell illicit drugs. Cuban nationals working in Liberia may have been forced to work by the Cuban government. In the past, officials have identified trafficking victims from the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, and India. Nationals from other West African countries, including Sierra Leone and Guinea operate in Liberia. Traffickers exploit a small number of Liberian men, women, and children in other West African countries, including Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. In the past, traffickers exploited Liberian victims in Thailand, Lebanon, and Finland. Traffickers exploit Liberian women for forced labor in the Middle East, including Oman. Some government employees may have been directly complicit in child trafficking, including for domestic service and street vending, and reports indicate law enforcement occasionally accept bribes from suspected traffickers.
The State Department recommended that Liberia expand victim services, particularly for victims outside the capital, males, and victims requiring long-term care;
increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases, including those involving internal trafficking, sex trafficking, related criminal networks, and officials accused of complicity; train labor inspectors and social workers on standard victim identification procedures and the national referral mechanism; improve collaboration between anti-trafficking police units, immigration, labor, and judicial authorities; increase financial or in-kind support to NGOs that support trafficking victims; train law enforcement and judicial officials on identifying, investigating, and prosecuting trafficking cases under the revised 2021 anti-trafficking law; increase labor inspections in the informal sector and mining regions to improve identification of trafficking cases, including child forced labor; increase efforts to raise public awareness of human trafficking, including internal trafficking; allocate financial and in-kind resources to the national anti-trafficking task force; and screen foreign workers, including Cuban overseas workers, for forced labor indicators and refer identified forced labor victims to appropriate services.
