US lists Afghanistan among worst human trafficking states

The US State Department claimed that there have been frequent reports for child molestation in the Afghan military, and police forces but officers have never been prosecuted for child abuse.

In its annual report – 2020 Trafficking in Person – released on June 25, the US State Department listed 10 countries -Afghanistan, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela – that are allegedly involved in state-sponsored human trafficking.

The report note Bacha Bazi – a slang term in some parts of Afghanistan for a wide variety of activities involving sexual relations between younger adolescent men or boys, who are called dancing boys, and older men – and the presence of children among the Afghan security forces.

The report said, “However, during the reporting period, there was a government policy or pattern of sexual slavery in government compounds (bacha bazı) and recruitment and use of child soldiers. Despite local officials’ widespread acknowledgment that many police, especially commanders at remote checkpoints, recruited boys for Bacha bazı, some high-level and provincial authorities, including at the Ministry of Interior (MOI), categorically denied the existence of bacha bazı among police and would not investigate reports.”

Child molestation is widely criminalized in Afghanistan, and the Human Rights Commission has criticized such behavior among security forces, saying it violates human rights and children’s rights laws, and the government must protect the children.

The State Department has said that it is investigating allegations that 165 children were trafficked in Logar province for sexual exploitation and identified 20 perpetrators.

The report states that some victims of trafficking are forced to have sex in exchange for following up on the case, or that they are raped and sent to prison if they attempt to expose the resulting human traffickers.