US Embassy in Armenia

YEREVAN—The Republic of Armenia has maintained its Tier I status for a third year in a row in the US State Department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons assessment. Armenia is among just 31 countries out of 188 to have achieved Tier I status.

The Embassy of the United States in Yerevan congratulated the government of Armenia for maintaining its Tier I status after taking concrete actions to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

In 2014, Armenian Parliament approved a law establishing standard procedures for the identification, support, protection, and reintegration of suspected and identified trafficking victims by national and local government bodies, NGOs, international organizations, and civil society.  In addition, Armenian police have successfully identified foreign victims trafficked in Armenia and referred them to care, and the government has maintained strong collaborative working ties with anti-trafficking NGOs, local media, donor organizations, and regional partners.

The 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report also contains several recommendations for the government of Armenia to consider implementing in order to more effectively identify, treat, and reintegrate victims of trafficking and to prosecute traffickers.  Many of the recommendations depend not just on government actions alone, but require enhanced cooperation with domestic NGOs and civil society, as well as with regional authorities and NGOs.

The US Embassy has stated that it values its partnership with the government of Armenia in the fight against trafficking in persons, and looks forward to working with the government more, particularly in the areas of formal victim-witness protection and victim identification.

The full Trafficking in Persons report for Armenia can be found at (http://photos.state.gov/libraries/armenia/231771/PDFs/tip2015.pdf ) in English and at (http://photos.state.gov/libraries/armenia/231771/PDFs/tip2015_arm.pdf ) in Armenian.