Middle East Remains Major Concern in State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report; Iran's Continued Inclusion as Tier 3 Country Further Evidence of Bad Nuclear Deal
Statement
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, made the following statement after the State Department released its 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report which places countries into one of four tiers to indicate "the extent of government action to combat trafficking." Six countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, were placed on the Tier 3 List, the highest level of concern, while five additional countries in the region were placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
"Failure to combat human trafficking remains a major problem in the Middle East and North Africa with over half the countries in the region rating at the highest levels of concern in the State Department's latest TIP report. In a region already vulnerable due to weak and corrupt institutions, human trafficking in the Middle East has been exacerbated by terrorist groups like ISIL that are exploiting the chaos they cause."
"Iran's inclusion again as a Tier 3 country in the TIP report is further evidence of the administration's irresponsibility in pretending Iran's nuclear program exists in a vacuum. The administration decided to negotiate with Iran exclusively on its nuclear program while ignoring Iran's other illicit activity and human rights record and is incorrectly arguing that it is only lifting nuclear related sanctions. Despite the administration's claims, the sanctions being lifted on Iran were never intended solely for its nuclear program but were also designed to address its human rights record, including human trafficking, among other issues. As Iran's Tier 3 placement shows, human trafficking and human rights are not improving in Iran. We must not lift Iran's human rights sanctions as part of this weak nuclear deal."
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