US upgrades Azerbaijan to Tier 2 in Trafficking in Persons Report

The US State Department removed Azerbaijan from the Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2 in the Trafficking in Persons Report, according to Report.

“The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore, Azerbaijan was upgraded to Tier 2. These efforts included convicting slightly more traffickers and continuing to issue more significant sentences and fewer suspended sentences than in previous years. The government increased victim protection efforts, including identifying more victims and increasing funding toward victim assistance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA)-run anti-trafficking shelter. The government amended laws to expand victim identification efforts to include the State Migration Service (SMS) and measures to prevent revictimization of foreign national victims. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government investigated and prosecuted fewer suspects and lacked proactive identification efforts, particularly for Azerbaijani victims of internal trafficking and victims of forced labor. While the MIA funded repairs for an NGO-run shelter and funded another NGO-run shelter to buy land for a new shelter, the government allocated fewer resources to NGOs, including operational costs for NGO-run shelters. The government continued its moratorium on scheduled and unannounced labor inspections through 2022,” reads the report.