The United States warned on Thursday that human trafficking around the world was taking advantage of the instability caused by the new coronavirus to develop.

” While the fight against human trafficking has always been marked by a sense of urgency, the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic underline as never before the need for all actors to work together to lead this fight “, a declared the head of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo in the presentation of the annual report of Washington on this plague.

” We know that human traffickers take advantage of the most vulnerable and seize any opportunity to exploit them, ” he said. ” The instability and lack of access to crucial services caused by the pandemic is rapidly increasing the number of people vulnerable to exploitation by these traffickers, ” he warned. Its ambassador in charge of this file, John Richmond, hit the nail on the head: ” the traffickers, they were not confined ” but ” found ways to innovate and even take advantage of the chaos, ” he wrote. in the preface to this report.

According to the document, Afghanistan, Algeria, Lesotho and Nicaragua join the American blacklist this year, which means that Washington considers that they have not made enough efforts. This blacklisting could lead to sanctions: the United States can limit aid or withdraw its support for the targeted country in organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. These countries join 15 other states that were already at the bottom of the ranking, including China, North Korea, Russia, Iran or Venezuela.

Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the Americans, on the other hand leaves the blacklist after having been registered there last year. Mauritania is also promoted. Rarely, Ireland, a western country close to Washington, was placed this year ” under surveillance “: without being added to the black list, it is the subject of special attention because it ” has not obtained any conviction for trafficking ”since changing its law in 2013 to“ weaken deterrence and contribute to impunity ”.