WASHINGTON, June 6 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. State Department has kept Russia on the list of 32 countries whose governments are not doing enough in the fight against trafficking in human beings, an annual report said.
Russia has been placed on Tier 2 Watch List in the Annual Trafficking in Persons Report "for a third consecutive year for its continued failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking, particularly in the area of victim protection and assistance."
"The [Russian] government made uneven progress during the reporting period [2005]," says the report, presented Monday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Fifty three criminal prosecutions were launched in human-trafficking cases in Russia in 2005, up from 11 in 2004, and the country's courts convicted at least nine traffickers and sentenced six to time in prison, the report says, but Russia remains a source, transit, and destination country for trafficking in persons.
In particular, Russia "remains a significant source of women trafficked to over 50 countries for commercial sexual exploitation," the report says.
Presenting the report at the State Department, Rice said up to 800,000 people, primarily women and children, are victims of trafficking in human beings every year.
