The U.S. State Department’s has for the second time in straight two years placed Liberia on its global watchlist, terming Liberia’s justice system in crisis and victim protection services in a state of collapse.
The U.S. State Department’s 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report also condemns the government’s failure to secure a single conviction against a trafficker, underscoring a deep disconnect between policy and practice.
The report stated that regardless of maintaining a legal framework that theoretically provides strong protections, including the 2021 Revised Act that mandates minimum 20-year sentences for convicted traffickers, Liberia’s implementation has been critically inadequate. The government’s efforts were deemed insufficient despite some progress in investigating officials allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes, highlighting a troubling gap between policy and practice.
Further, the report notes that Liberian courts failed to convict a single trafficker, even as the government investigated 11 potential cases involving 18 suspects. This conviction drought occurred despite an increase from the previous year’s nine investigations, revealing fundamental weaknesses in how trafficking cases move through the justice system. The report identifies several critical barriers to effective prosecution, including law enforcement’s chronic lack of resources and widespread misunderstanding of what constitutes human trafficking. Many officials reportedly continue to view certain forms of exploitation, particularly children in domestic servitude, as culturally acceptable rather than criminal offenses.
This cultural normalization has practical consequences, with prosecutors frequently pursuing lesser charges like rape or child endangerment instead of trafficking offenses. The problem is compounded by inadequate training and a lack of centralized record-keeping that further hinders law enforcement efforts. Resource constraints plague every aspect of anti-trafficking work, with police lacking vehicles, fuel, and basic equipment to investigate cases outside Monrovia. This effectively leaves rural populations, particularly in mining regions where exploitation is rampant, without meaningful protection.
Perhaps most alarmingly, the government failed to identify or refer a single trafficking victim to care during the reporting period – a dramatic decrease from the 157 victims identified the previous year. This suggests either a catastrophic failure in victim identification or a deliberate decision to deprioritize this crucial work. The victim protection system that theoretically exists is largely non-functional in practice. Two of the government’s three dedicated trafficking shelters were mostly inoperable, while those that remained open lacked basic amenities and provided inconsistent, substandard care.
With only $20,000 allocated for protection services nationwide, the government relies heavily on international organizations and local NGOs to provide essential support to survivors. This funding shortage affects everything from shelter operations to victim-witness assistance for those participating in trials. Corruption and official complicity present additional major obstacles. In one of the most striking cases, the government charged a director of its own National Anti-Trafficking Task Force with allegedly facilitating human trafficking by fraudulently recruiting victims for overseas employment.
Observers also reported that some court clerks and prosecutors required bribes to schedule trafficking cases, creating additional barriers to justice for victims already facing tremendous obstacles. These incidents highlight how systemic corruption undermines the entire anti-trafficking framework. Prevention efforts suffer from similar neglect, with the government allocating zero direct funding to combat human trafficking for the second consecutive year. This financial abandonment renders other initiatives, like the drafting of a new national action plan, largely symbolic.
The National Anti-Trafficking Task Force, designed to coordinate the government’s response, struggles with infrequent participation from senior officials and chronic staffing issues. This lack of high-level engagement signals insufficient political commitment to addressing the problem. Liberia’s trafficking profile reveals a complex crisis affecting all segments of society. Most cases involve women and children from impoverished rural areas being lured to cities with false promises of education or employment, only to be exploited in domestic servitude, street vending, or sex trafficking.
Children face particular vulnerability, with traffickers exploiting West Africa’s informal foster care system. The situation is worsened by the fact that approximately 70% of children under five lack birth certificates, making them effectively invisible to government protection systems. Early and forced marriages affect approximately 25% of Liberian girls, according to NGO estimates, creating additional pathways to exploitation. In some troubling cases, parents themselves encourage their daughters’ exploitation in sex trafficking to supplement family income.
The problem extends beyond Liberia’s borders, with the country serving as source, destination, and transit point for trafficking. Liberian women are exploited for forced labor in the Middle East, while victims from China, India, and Malaysia have been identified within Liberia. The U.S. report provides a comprehensive set of recommendations, urging Liberia to intensify efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers – including complicit officials – while seeking adequate penalties that involve significant prison terms.
Additional priorities include proactively identifying victims through systematic screening of vulnerable populations and dramatically improving the availability and quality of protection services, particularly outside the capital. The recommendations also stress the need for adequate funding, improved interagency cooperation, and better training for officials across all relevant sectors. Without these fundamental improvements, Liberia’s anti-trafficking efforts are likely to continue faltering.
As the report makes clear, Liberia faces a monumental challenge in combating human trafficking. The combination of inadequate funding, systemic corruption, cultural barriers, and institutional weaknesses has created a situation where traffickers operate with impunity while victims remain unidentified and unprotected. Without significant political will and substantial investment in both prevention and protection, Liberia’s most vulnerable citizens will continue to pay the price for the government’s failure to mount an effective response to this human rights crisis. The 2025 report serves as a stark reminder of the work that remains to be done. For details: Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons – United States Department of State Courtesy of women voices newspaper
