By Miltary.com | Created at 2026-10-09 14:01:06 | Updated at 2026-10-10 18:16:20
1 day ago
Published Oct 9, 2026, 9:57 AM EDT
Child soldiers and tech continue to draw traffickers toward victims, according to a new U.S. State Department analysis of global incidents.
Published Oct 9, 2026, 9:57 AM EDT
The U.S. government has ranked countries based on their ability to deal with human trafficking, downgrading Hong Kong to the lowest available ranking tier shared by China.
A report published Oct. 8 by the U.S. State Department on the state of human trafficking worldwide used information from embassies, government officials, nongovernmental and international organizations, published reports, news articles, academic studies and more to evaluate the propensity of such incidents and in comparison to past years.
Using the information it garnered from its research period from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, the department placed each country into categories based on the extent to which they meet the United States' standards for eliminating human trafficking.
Military.com reached out to the State Department for comment.
The scene was calm outside the US Embassy in Ukraine after the State Department announced it will close its embassy in Kyiv and move all remaining staffers there to a city near the Polish border. (Associated Press)The Tier System Explained
The report utilizes different tiers to rank nations based on their attempts, or lack thereof, to address issues correlated to human trafficking.
Tier 1 means a government has made the most efforts to address a problem, while Tier 3 countries have been deemed to have done the least.
Tier 1 countries include Australia, Chile, France, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the U.S., among others.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche listens as Angie Salazar, acting director of the Administration for Children and Families in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, speaks during a news conference on unaccompanied children at the Justice Department, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)Tier 3 countries include Iran, Russia, Sudan, Chad, Venezuela and Afghanistan. There are 20 in total.
“The 2026 TIP Report is a stark reminder that modern-day slavery remains a global scourge—and that governments must be held accountable when they fail to protect vulnerable people," Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said in a statement shared with Military.com.
“Governments on Tier 3...can and must do more," he added. "Tier 3 must never become a permanent designation; it should serve as a dire warning and a call to action."
The report also identified 12 foreign governments with a documented policy or pattern of state-sponsored human trafficking: Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.
Child Soldiers, Social Media Remain Notable Threats
The report also said that unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers by government forces and non-state armed groups in conflict zones remain a key threat.
In eastern Ukraine, Russia-led forces continue to force local populations into labor and coerce children for military purposes, it said. Additionally, Russian vocational students have been subjected to trafficking conditions to assemble military drones.
Andrii Pidlisnyi is pictured next to a missile. (Andrii Pidlisnyi)Regionally, transnational syndicates are targeting tech-literate youths via online platforms, trapping them in forced criminality within cyberscam compounds across Southeast Asia.
In response to these expanding global networks, the U.S. government investigated 3,171 potential trafficking cases in Fiscal Year 2025, deploying multi-agency operations to target these illicit pipelines.
“Human trafficking is an assault on human dignity and freedom, and the United States must continue to use every tool at its disposal—including the TIP Report—to expose human trafficking whenever it rears its ugly head, protect survivors, and press foreign governments to end this blight upon humanity," Smith said.
