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Belarus committed to fight human trafficking, says interior ministry spokesman

Belarus complies with its international commitments in combating human trafficking, a spokesman for the interior ministry told BelaPAN on Tuesday.

In its 2011 annual Global Trafficking in Persons Report released on Monday, the US State Department ranked Belarus as Tier Two on a three-tier system, saying that the country failed last year to step up efforts to combat prostitution and forced labor. The Tier Two Watch List features states that do not comply with US norms and while they are making significant efforts to do so, there is little or no evidence that these efforts are proving effective.

The interior ministry’s spokesman told BelaPAN that Belarus had been ranked as Tier Two in the State Department`s report for the last several years, moving up one spot from Tier Three. The country`s record improved thanks to efforts made at the state level to fight human trafficking by improving, among other things, relevant national regulations, the spokesman said.

Belarus has earned international recognition for its fight against the evil, the spokesman said, noting that the director general of the International Organization for Migration, for instance, took part in the opening of an international center for training of anti-trafficking experts at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the summer of 2007. At the opening ceremony, Director General Brunson McKinley praised the government of Belarus for its firm political will and determination to combat human trafficking, the spokesman added.