Alleged trafficking in human beings in Algeria: “US report based on erroneous and unreliable information”

Algeria's foreign Ministry said on Monday in Algiers that the US state department's report on the trafficking in persons, incriminating Algeria, was based on erroneous and unreliable information provided by a non-governmental organization headquartered in a country of the northern shore of the Mediterranean basin.

• In a reaction to the 2011 report drafted by the US State Department on the trafficking in persons in the world, the foreign Ministry spokesman, Amar Belani, seriously called into question the impartiality of the US report, stressing that Algeria had adopted all the UN legislation pertaining to the trafficking in human beings and that the Algerian judicial system provided for “extremely severe sanctions” against all those found guilty of such vile offenses.
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• According to the foreign Ministry, if the US report points to the absence of legal proceedings against such acts, it is because no proven act of trafficking in human beings has been reported to the relevant security services including the national Gendarmerie or Police.
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• The spokesman further expressed Algeria‘s perplexity at the contents of such a report stemming from what he termed as “a subjective approach” stressing that it was inappropriate to delve compulsively into “excessive reactions”.
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• Earlier this week, the Head of the Algerian National Advisory Commission For Human Rights Protection And Promotion (CNCPPDH) Farouk Ksentini, described the U.S. report which put Algeria in the list of human trafficking violators, as “exaggerating,” and a hassle to the country’s reputation.
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• Ksentini said in an interview with the Algerian Radio on Wednesday that the accusations conveyed in the aforementioned report are “baseless,” challenging however the reliability of the source of information that the report relied on.

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• The activist said “the human rights situation in Algeria has improved a lot comparing to the nineties, and you can see it on the field, as he put it.”
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• In this context, Ksentini stressed that “a strong official denial should be made through a planned meeting in the Foreign Ministry,” bringing together Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia and Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz, in addition to other departments.

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• Algeria Minister of Justice Tayeb Belaiz said on Sunday that Algeria would officially respond to the relevant U.S. report.

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• Belaiz told reporters at the sidelines of a plenary session of the People’s National Assembly (the lower house of Parliament) that “the Foreign Ministry is due to hold a meeting to examine aspects conveyed in the report on human trafficking in order to formulate an official response to it.”