Israel has one of the world's best track records in the battle against human trafficking, a US State Department report said Sunday. This is the eighth consecutive year in which Israel's efforts have been especially noteworthy.
The 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report ranked Israel as a Tier 1 state, leading the world in the struggle against the illegal trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation. This grave phenomenon is believed to affect millions of men, women, and children, who fall prey to this nefarious, multibillion-dollar industry each year.
The top tier group includes only 33 countries.
The Justice Ministry said Israeli law enforcement agencies wage an aggressive and uncompromising battle against the local human trafficking industry, which is believed to generate about $1 billion annually.
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The State Department's report noted that Israel takes a three-pronged approach to combating human trafficking, focusing its efforts on prevention, enforcement, and protecting the victims. It said that during the course of 2018, 59 victims of trafficking and slavery were identified in Israel, 139 criminal investigations were opened and 22 indictments were filed in connection with trafficking offenses.
The report, which reviews global efforts against human trafficking, has been published since 2001. It is divided into three groups, according to the efforts each country invests in combating this criminal enterprise.
For more than a decade, Israel had ranked in the third and lowest tier, listing countries whose efforts in this field were inadequate and made them vulnerable to economic sanctions by the US. This changed in 2012, and since then, Israel has maintained its top tier status, all while several Western countries, including Germany, Italy, and Denmark, have lost their top ranking.
Justice Ministry Director General Emi Palmor, who heads a committee of directors general for the struggle against human trafficking, said the ministerial unit that heads these efforts "continues to lead the use of integrated tools in the various spheres in the struggle against the human trafficking. There is a good reason why Israel is on the highest level of the US State Department's report for the eighth consecutive year. We will continue to advance Israel's efforts in this area and preserve its clear achievements while coping with new patterns of human trafficking in all of its forms in Israel."
Justice Minister Amir Ohana said that "this is the eighth year in a row in which Israel's efforts to eradicate human trafficking have been recognized internationally, and I commend the continued commitment and cooperation of all government ministries with the [Justice] ministry. We will continue to act to increase enforcement against offenders in order to eradicate the phenomenon and to assist the victims of the crime."
