The U.S. State Department has released its 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, an annual global assessment of government efforts to combat human trafficking and related forms of exploitation. Unveiled on October 8, the document under the Trump administration calls for greater accountability for governments that fail to punish traffickers or protect victims, while pledging to use all available tools against traffickers and their enablers.
The TIP Report is mandated by the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and organizes each country narrative around prosecution, protection and prevention, judging whether governments meet minimum standards for eliminating trafficking. Countries are ranked in four tiers: Tier 1 for governments that fully meet the TVPA’s standards, Tier 2 for those that do not fully meet them but are making significant efforts, a Tier 2 Watch List for cases where victim numbers are rising despite those efforts, and Tier 3 for governments that neither meet the standards nor make significant efforts to do so.
In East Asia, the report keeps South Korea in Tier 1 for a third consecutive year, listing it among 33 countries and territories with the highest level of compliance, including the United States, Britain, Germany and others. At the same time, the narrative highlights continuing risks of forced labor affecting foreign crew on distant-water fishing vessels, disabled people and migrant workers in salt farms, even as authorities have investigated abuses and supported victims. North Korea remains in Tier 3 and is designated the world’s worst human trafficking nation for the 24th consecutive year, with the report citing state-sponsored forced labor practices. China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Afghanistan and Cambodia are also listed in Tier 3, reflecting concerns over forced labor and lack of effective anti-trafficking enforcement.
In Africa, Nigeria is classified as a Tier 2 country for the fifteenth year in a row, as the report finds that while the government is making significant efforts, it still falls short of fully meeting the TVPA’s minimum standards. Cuba remains on the TIP Report’s trafficking blacklist in Tier 3, with the State Department saying Havana’s prosecution, protection and prevention efforts decreased compared with 2025 and identifying a government policy or pattern of forced labor in labor export programs, including overseas medical missions. According to analysis of the report, the number of workers attached to these missions dropped from around 24,000 at the beginning of 2025 to between 15,000 and 18,000 in 2026, after four countries terminated bilateral agreements with the Cuban government, though Cuban workers were still present in 53 countries.
The report’s criticism of China and Hong Kong has already drawn diplomatic pushback. A summary by U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, who serves as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s special representative on human trafficking issues, says the TIP Report exposes China’s continued failure to address forced labor and notes that Israel and Ghana have moved up to Tier 1 while Papua New Guinea has improved from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watch List. In response, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government issued a statement strongly denouncing what it called groundless and slanderous remarks in the 2026 TIP Report’s discussion of Hong Kong.
The 2026 report builds on extensive input gathered earlier in the year, after the State Department published a Federal Register notice and an online guide outlining how governments, nongovernmental organizations and individual experts could submit information by February 27, 2026. Coalitions such as the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking and academic centers like the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago submitted written comments for the 2026 U.S. country narrative, offering recommendations on how the government could strengthen its response to trafficking.
Anti-trafficking advocates in churches, faith-based ministries and Christian NGOs often use the TIP Report’s narratives and tier rankings to inform their advocacy, partnership decisions and prayer initiatives, especially in countries where governments are deemed unwilling or unable to protect victims. With the Trump administration signaling a willingness to employ diplomatic and legal tools against governments and criminal organizations that profit from human trafficking, the 2026 report is likely to shape future policy discussions, public pressure campaigns and grassroots mobilization in the year ahead.