U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 24 announces this year's Trafficking in Persons Report at the Department of State in Washington. (Yonhap News)

By Yoon Sojung

The U.S. Department of State on June 24 restored Korea's rank in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report to Tier 1, restoring the nation's position to the highest tier after downgrading it to Tier 2 in 2022.

The report on 188 countries including the U.S. assesses the efforts of each government to crack down on human trafficking from April 1 to March 31 the following year.

Countries in Tier 1 are deemed to fully meet the minimum requirements of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act designed to root out human trafficking. This year's report placed 33 states in the category including Korea, the U.S., U.K., Australia, France and Taiwan.

The report said, "The Government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government made key achievements to do so during the reporting period; therefore the ROK was upgraded to Tier 1."

Among Seoul's achievements in the field were "increasing trafficking investigations, prosecuting and convicting more traffickers, implementing the victim identification index, identifying 55 trafficking victims, initiating the prosecution of an alleged complicit official, and increasing cooperation with civil society organizations."

In the lowest grade of Tier 3, the report categorized 21 countries including North Korea, China, Russia, Syria and Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul said, "Our country's return to the top tier within two years reflects our government's faithful response to human trafficking and efforts to protect victims since the 2023 effectuation of the Act on Prevention of Human Trafficking and Protection of Victims." 

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"The government boosted its institutional foundation to respond to human trafficking crimes, protect victims at the pan-governmental level and actively cooperate with civic groups," it added. "To lead the promotion of universal values such as human rights and democracy, we will keep raising our efforts to respond to human trafficking by closely working with related ministries."

arete@korea.kr