NEW YORK: US removed Cuba from its list of countries not doing enough to combat human trafficking and Venezuela kept on that list, in which remains Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others.
The US Department of State released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, relative to 2014, which points to countries that do not take the necessary action to combat this scourge, which opens the door to the imposition of sanctions freezing non-humanitarian and non-trade assistance.
Cuba, which appeared on the blacklist every year since at least 2003, was moved this year to the category called “special observation”, in which are also Bolivia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica and China, among others.
“The government of Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so,” indicates the US report.
The report was released a week after the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations, broken in 1961, and two months after the Department of State removed the Caribbean island from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
