The Government of Georgia “continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts” for the elimination of trafficking, reads the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2022 report.

It remains a tier 1 country in terms of combatting trafficking, a process for which the Georgian Government “fully meets the minimum standards,” according to the document.

“The Government of Georgia fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore Georgia remained on Tier 1.

These efforts included providing comprehensive victim assistance, including robust pandemic mitigation efforts at government-run shelters. The government increased the number of labor inspectors, developed guidelines for labor inspectors to screen for indicators of forced labor, and updated a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to conduct joint inspections with law enforcement.

The government created a new mobile group and crisis center in the Adjara region for identifying potential victims among vulnerable children and amended the criminal code to allow the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOIA) to assign victim-witness coordinators to trafficking victims.

Although the government meets the minimum standards, it convicted fewer traffickers and identified the lowest number of victims since 2016. Police conducted some ad hoc raids on commercial sex establishments without a clear strategy on victim identification, and authorities continued to lack the knowledge to investigate and collect evidence in complex cases involving financial crimes, organized crime, and digital evidence.

Law enforcement required victims to remain in country through the end of the trial, likely hindering victim cooperation from foreign victims wanting to repatriate, and judges have never awarded restitution in criminal cases. The government did not adequately publicize public assessments or information on its efforts and did not establish a work permit system for migrant workers”, - reads the report.

Regarding the Russian-occupied regions, the State Department noted that although there was no information available about Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, anecdotal evidence points to migrants being subjected to forced labor, including North Koreans who “may have been forced to work by the North Korean government”.