ARMENIA MUST PROSECUTE OFFICIALS INVOLVED IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING, US STATE DEPARTMENT SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Jun 13 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 13, NOYAN TAPAN. It is for the third year that Armenia has been included in the US State Department's list of the second - medium group of countries posing danger in terms of human trafficking and thus subject to control, Radio Liberty reported.

According to the 2006 report of the US State Department, Armenia does not make enough effort to establish identities of trafficking victims and to protect them, as well as to reveal possible involvement of officials in cases of human trafficking. Particularly, the Prosecutor General's Office conducted an inadequate investigation into the case of an employee of the body for the fight against human trafficking, as a result of which he was found not guilty, and the matter ended in his demoting and transferring to another body.

Armenia must investigate, prosecute and convict the government officials involved in human trafficking, the State Department states.

According to the report, in 2006, 16 cases of trafficking were investigated in Armenia, which was more by 2 cases than in the previous year. 13 persons were prosecuted in connection with human trafficking cases last year - by 3 persons fewer than in 2005. All 13 persons were sentenced, 9 of them - to 4-5 years' imprisonment.