The global assessment by US State Department continues to place Hungary in Tier 2.
On 15 June 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented the new TIP Report, which provides an update of the state of play of the fight against human trafficking every year and evaluates the performance of the governments in this field. Depending on the level of progress, countries can be classified into four categories: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3. Hungary was upgraded to Tier 2 in 2020 and has successfully maintained its position this year. Only 30 countries achieved the highest ranking, including Austria and Czech Republic from our region; Poland, Slovakia and Romania were also placed in Tier 2, while Serbia and Bulgaria, for example, remained on the watch list.
The TIP Office highlighted a number of worrying trends worldwide. Firstly, the victimisation of male children is a relatively new pattern; UNODC’s report earlier this year identified a five-fold increase in the last 15 years. What’s worse, traditional gender roles make them less likely to ask for help and authorities or charity organizations also rather tend to focus on female victims. The so-called social audits that have become popular in recent years to assess the complicance with human rights, fair working conditions as well as occupational health and safety could be a useful tool to tackle labour exploitation in the global supply chains, but some researches show that suppliers to multinational companies often fraudulently obtain the favourable ratings. In addition, in 11 countries the report has revealed state involvement in human trafficking, one of the frequently cited examples is the enslavement of the Uyghur minority in China.
Detailed country-specific information was not included in the report this time; the evaluation of Hungary was personally communicated in the Ministry of Interior by the representatives of the US Embassy in Budapest and later made available on the website of TIP Office. It pointed out the expanding services available for victims, in particular the network of Victim Support Centres and the child-friendly Hearing and Therapy Centres based on the Barnahus model. The evaluators also commended Hungary for the active involvement of the Police in international criminal cooperation, as well as the establishment of a network of prosecutors specialized in human trafficking. It was also highlighted as a key development that Hungarian courts convicted no fewer than 67 traffickers in 2022, 52 of whom were sentenced to executable penitentiary terms.
The US TIP Office has also made a number of recommendations to enhance the fight against trafficking. Hungary is urged, for instance, to ensure impunity for victims who were forced to commit a crime or misdemeanour, as well as to adopt stricter regulatory supervision of the recruitment of foreign labour.
The full text of the report is available in the Studies and Literature section.