U.S. Report on Human Trafficking: Algeria slammed for not meeting ‘minimum standards’

The United Stated slammed Algeria for not respecting the “minimum standards” for the elimination of human trafficking and not making any significant efforts to do so.

“The Government of Algeria does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so”, stresses the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, which was presented in Washington Thursday by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

Algeria was downgraded to Tier 3, at the bottom of the ranking established by Washington. The Tier 3 list includes countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and are not making significant efforts to combat the phenomenon.

“The government conducted fewer investigations and prosecutions, and its efforts to identify and assist trafficking victims remained insufficient,” states the document.

“Due to the government’s ineffective screening measures for victims among vulnerable populations, such as sub-Saharan African migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and individuals in commercial sex, authorities likely continued to inappropriately penalize trafficking victims solely for immigration offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked,” the report points out.

“The government’s ongoing measures to deport undocumented migrants without effective screening for trafficking indicators deterred some victims among this population from reporting trafficking crimes to the police or seeking much-needed assistance,” the US State Department underlines in the annual report.

Algeria’s inhumane treatment of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers has been repeatedly condemned for years by several international human rights watchdogs that denounced the deportation of thousands of men, women, and children to Niger and Mali in inhumane conditions, and in many cases without considering their legal status in Algeria or their individual vulnerabilities.

The deportees, mostly sub-Saharan migrants of various nationalities, including migrants in dire need of help, were expelled en masse at the border with Niger or Mali, in most instances with no food and little water. They were forced to march dozens of kilometers in the desert, in high temperatures, before reaching towns where they found assistance or private transportation, the NGOs repeatedly deplored.