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Inefficient fight against traficking will worsen US-Armenian relatio

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  • Inefficient fight against traficking will worsen US-Armenian relatio

    INEFFICIENT FIGHT AGAINST TRAFFICKING WILL WORSEN US-ARMENIA RELATIONS

    Pan Armenian News
    18.06.2005 02:54

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ The US State Department 5th Annual Report on fighting
    trafficking included Armenia in the second group of states in a special
    list of control of struggle against trafficking, as the country did
    not manage to provide enough proof of efficiency of fight against human
    trafficking. It was stated by Ambassador John Miller, the Director of
    the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
    Persons in the course of an interactive press conference organized at
    the US Embassy in Yerevan. In his words, Armenia adopted a national
    program of actions for fighting trafficking, however there is no
    sufficient proof that the program is being implemented. Specifically,
    there is no evidence that the law on trafficking was applied to those
    guilty. Moreover, all sanctions were either conditional or much
    milder than those provided for the crime. As noted by the report,
    only 1 out of the 16 accused was sentenced in compliance with the
    article 132 (anti-trafficking), the remaining 15 were indicted for
    pimping, which provides for milder punishment. Mr. Miller said there
    are reports that representatives of the Office of Public Prosecutor
    of Armenia and frontier guards are involved in human trafficking. "We
    hope the Government of Armenia will make every effort to prove the
    contrary," he said. As noted by Jennifer Strong Tamli, the person
    responsible for the report on Armenia, there is no concrete evidence
    that representatives of law-enforcement bodies are also involved. In
    his turn J. Miller said, "I would be surprised if any of the persons
    present here had not known about it." In his words, another report (a
    current one) will be published in 2006. However, he hoped that when
    the final report is ready next June Armenia will move from the special
    control list to the second group that includes countries with progress
    in combating human trafficking. "Otherwise, the consequences will tell
    on the US-Armenia relations," Miller said. "The US is ready to work
    with Armenia, where a serious problem of trafficking is available,
    as it is a source country," he said. In Miller's words, the UAE and
    Turkey are the basic destination countries of Armenian women and
    children. "The phenomenon is present in any country irrespective
    of the degree of development, however the US pays much attention
    to trafficking, as slavery has left its trace in the US history,"
    Miller emphasized.
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