Belize Again on Tier Two Watch List of the U.S. State Department Human Trafficking Report

The annual report of Human Trafficking Activities for 2020 produced by the U.S. State Department was released today and the news is that Belize remains on Tier Two. This is because “the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making efforts to do so.” The government, according to the report, did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts from the previous reporting period.  It also states that government did not initiate any new prosecutions against traffickers and continued to apply victim identification procedures inconsistently.  The report points out that although reports of official complicity were common, the government did not investigate any instances of official complicity in trafficking-related offenses. This is the second year that Belize is on Tier Two Watch List.