In a new Trafficking In Persons report, the U.S. State Department upgraded Uzbekistan from Tier 3 to Tier Watch List. The department’s annual report, which is aimed at curbing human trafficking, was unveiled in a ceremony in Washington on June 28 by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

It evaluates 187 countries and territories and ranks them into four tiers (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List, and Tier 3), with Tier 1 being the best and Tier 3 the worst.

The Government of Uzbekistan "does not fully meet theminimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government made key achievements during the reporting period; therefore Uzbekistan was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List", the report said.

These achievements included "taking substantive actions towards sending the use of forced adult labor during the annual cotton harvest by increasing remuneration to pickers and cotton procurement prices; demobilizing students and, to a lesser extent, partially demobilizing some in other governmentdirected labor sectors; allowing full unimpeded access to international third-party monitors; and engaging in dialogue with activists and treating them in a more humane manner".

At the highest levels, the government publically acknowledged as a problem forced labor in the cotton harvest. The government conducted a substantial campaign to raise awareness of the prohibition against child labor in the harvest for a fourth year, and reports of children being mobilized were extremely limited.

Despite these achievements, government-compelled forced labor remained during the 2017 cotton harvest; approximately 336,000 pickers of an estimated 2.6 million workforce were forced laborers. The government did not consistently implement its ban on the mobilization of public sector employees. It demonstrated decreased efforts in victim identification, as well as the investigation and prosecution of suspected traffickers.

The report listed 43 countries in danger of being downgraded to Tier 3 in future years. The Tier 2 Watch List includes Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, along with EU member Hungary.