Russia and China were downgraded to bottom tier nations for their efforts to fight human trafficking, by a U.S. government report.
In the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, China and Russia were relegated to Tier 3 - the lowest of four rankings which names countries whose governments do not fully comply with minimum anti-trafficking standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
The classification includes countries like Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and Tier 3 countries are open to sanctions from the U.S. government.
In 2008, the U.S. Congress put a limit on the number of years a country could remain ranked as Tier 2 Watch without concrete signs of action. After that limit is reached there is an automatic downgrade.
China was Tier 2 Watch for eight years and Russia was on the list for nine,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
Tier 2 Watch is the third-ranked grouping which identifies governments that do not fully comply with minimum standards, are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance - but face increasing trafficking problems.
Tier 1 countries fully comply with the minimum anti-trafficking standards and Tier 2 countries do not fully comply but are making significant efforts to reach those standards.
The TIP Report ranks nations on efforts to fight trafficking,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], not just the number of trafficking issues a nations faces.
CNN's Jim Clancy said initial reaction from the anti-trafficking groups were calling this year's report "tough but fair.&quot,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych];
Just Dillion, CEO of Made in a Free World, said: "Speaking truthfully about the modern-day slavery situation in countries that have diplomatic and economic importance to us in other areas,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], proves that we can commit on things that we all agree on. Living up to our laws and shared values is a universal responsibility."
Russia and China have not yet offered an official response to the downgrading.
China was named as a source, transit and destination for trafficked people from all over the world, while its own citizens also risk being trapped in forced labor abroad.
The TIP Report says state-sponsored forced labor also takes place in re-education camps.
Criminal gangs ship Chinese women and girls abroad, the report says. It also says Chinese women and girls can be trafficked domestically for sex; and others are imported into the country from neighboring countries.
It adds that &quot,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych];despite modest signs of interest in anti-trafficking reforms the Chinese government did not demonstrate significant efforts to comprehensively prohibit and punish all forms of trafficking and to prosecute traffickers.

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