Cape Verde is off the list of countries with “significant” human trafficking

Os United States (USA) kept Brazil on the list of “observed” countries due to the risk of human trafficking, but withdrew Cape Verde and recognized the “significant efforts” of the archipelago to combat the phenomenon.

The 2026 People Traffic Report, released on Thursday by the U.S. State Department, underlines that Cape Verde has been raised to level two as regards the protection of victims of human trafficking.

The annual document includes three categories and the subcategory “level two observation list”, which is intended for countries with a “very significant” number of trafficking victims or which cannot provide evidence of efforts.

In comparison with 2025, Cape Verde came out of this subcategory and moved to level two: “countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards [of victim protection], but are making significant efforts.”.

The Government of Cape Verde “showed a general increase in efforts,” says the report, which highlights the beginning of a judicial process and the identification and referral of a victim to assistance.

The document also underlines training for border officials and authorities and the updating of procedures for identifying and assisting victims.

However, he laments the State Department, Cape Verde “did not condemn any drug dealer or mention efforts to combat the complicity of the authorities” and efforts to identify and assist the victims “stayed limited.”.

Brazil remains in the subcategory of “observed” countries, with the report mentioning that “law enforcement actions in the fight against trafficking [human] remained inadequate.”.

The authorities continue to conduct prosecutions against traffickers of persons for the purpose of civil exploitation in the civil spheres, rather than criminal ones, partly “because of insufficient evidence collection”.

Something that resulted in administrative penalties instead of criminal investigations and criminal prosecutions with prison sentences, which “weakened the deterrent effect”, defends the State Department.

The report states that, on average, it took the courts more than 10 years to judge trafficking cases and that “less than half” of registered victims received government assistance.

Efforts to combat trafficking in sexual exploitation were “insufficient in the face of the scale of crime” and there was “a lack of adequate coordination” between federal and state authorities, regrets the document.

Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and East Timor remain at level two on the list, which does not contain São Tomé and Príncipe.