HARARE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States has pledged to strengthen partnerships with Zimbabwe and support its efforts to reform anti-trafficking legislation so that it conforms to international best practice.
The pledge came after a delegation from the State Department Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons visited Zimbabwe from September 25 to 29 and held meetings and seminars with Zimbabwe government officials and civil society representatives, among other stakeholders.
In a statement on Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Harare said the meetings focused on U.S. priorities on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) issues and also enabled the U.S. representatives to engage on priorities of all member parties to the United Nations Parlemo Protocol.
"Our foreign assistance (in Zimbabwe) is going to be focusing a lot on legislative amendments including bringing the 2014 anti-trafficking law into alignment with the Parlemo Protocols and we do that through partnerships with international organizations," said Torrie Higgins, Program Advisor at the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State.
"We are also going to be looking at partnering on upgrading some shelter services and training shelter staff on how to provide services for trafficking in persons victims."
The Palermo protocols are three protocols that were adopted by the United Nations to supplement the 2000 Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Convention). They include the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
The visit by the U.S. delegation came at a time when the United States has noted key achievements in the past year in handling trafficking in persons in Zimbabwe.
According to the 2017 State Department Trafficking in Persons report, Zimbabwe's achievements included increased efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged trafficking crimes.
Between April 2016 and May 2017, Zimbabwean authorities coordinated with Kuwait to repatriate and refer to care 121 female trafficking victims, and also repatriated five victims from Sudan.
The women had been lured to Kuwait on the promise of better employment opportunities.
After noting the improvements, Zimbabwe was upgraded from Tier 3 -- among countries assessed as not meeting the minimum standards nor making significant efforts to meet them -- to Tier 2 Watch List, which has countries that do not fully meet the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
