The US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2018 states that the Argentine Government has made “key achievements” in the fight against trafficking in persons.

The US upgraded Argentina’s ranking to the highest level, Tier 1, for countries that fully meet “minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.”

The ranking appears in an annual report issued by the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.  

Between 2011 and 2017 Argentina was placed in Tier 2, which includes nations taking insufficient action to tackle trafficking. 

Among the key achievements mentioned in the report's chapter on Argentina are “prosecuting and convicting complicit officials, identifying and assisting more victims, establishing additional legal protections for victims, increasing the number of prosecutions, providing more training to government officials and civil society members, and improving data collection.”

The report evaluates the country’s current scenario in three main areas: prevention, protection and prosecution. It contains a diagnosis of the countries’ main achievements, as well as specific recommendations to continue fighting human trafficking and exploitation.

The recommendations include increasing efforts to prosecute and punish traffickers with dissuasive sentences, providing mid to long-term assistance for victims and revising the definition of human trafficking under Argentine law, enacted in 2012, to align more closely with the definition in the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (TIP).

Argentina now shares Tier 1 status with Chile and Colombia, the only other Latin American countries in this category. 

Argentina has therefore become one of the few countries in the region with the necessary tools to tackle human trafficking and exploitation. The ranking upgrade is both an incentive and a challenge to continue strengthening the country’s human trafficking policy.

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The US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2018 can be found here: https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2018/index.htm