• Cease the use of forced labor in filtration and other detention centers and the use of child labor for military purposes.
• Stop the forcible recruitment and use of Russian citizens and foreign nationals as soldiers by government forces and pro-government militias and enforce limits on the length of compulsory military service.
• Cease support to non-state armed groups that unlawfully recruit or use child soldiers.
• Investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and convict traffickers under the trafficking statutes, including complicit officials and suspected trafficking cases related to foreign national workers in Russia, including North Koreans, while respecting due process.
• Given significant concerns the DPRK subjects its overseas workers to conditions that amount to forced labor, screen North Korean workers, students, and tourists for trafficking indicators and refer them to appropriate services, in a manner consistent with obligations under UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2397.
• Cease the forcible relocation of Ukrainian adults and children and take all necessary steps to prevent trafficking among this population, including by allowing those forcibly relocated to Belarus and Russia and within Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine freedom of movement.
• Develop and implement formal national procedures to guide law enforcement, labor inspectors, and other government officials in identifying and referring victims to service providers.
• Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
• Ensure victim identification and protection measures are not tied to the prosecution of a trafficker and allow all first responders to officially identify potential trafficking victims and refer them to care.
• Increase efforts to raise public awareness of both sex and labor trafficking.
• Provide victims access to legal alternatives to removal to countries where they may face hardship or retribution.
• Amend the criminal code to include a definition of human trafficking that is consistent with the definition under international law.

The government decreased already minimal law enforcement efforts.

Articles 127.1 (trafficking in persons) and 127.2 (use of slave labor) of the criminal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Article 127.1 prescribed penalties of up to five years’ prison labor or up to six years’ imprisonment for crimes involving an adult victim, and three to 10 years’ imprisonment for those involving a child victim. Article 127.2 prescribed penalties of up to five years’ prison labor or up to five years’ imprisonment for crimes involving an adult victim, and up to five years’ prison labor or three to 10 years’ imprisonment for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with punishments prescribed for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping. However, inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, these articles established the use of force, fraud, or coercion as an aggravating factor, rather than an essential element of the crime.

The government did not report data on criminal cases related to trafficking. No single government agency was responsible for collecting and maintaining data. NGOs previously noted hundreds of trafficking-related cases were reported to authorities, but the government processed most under other administrative or criminal codes, which resulted in underreporting and did not adequately reflect the scale of the problem. Authorities previously prosecuted trafficking crimes under related statutes, including Articles 240 (involvement in “prostitution”), 240.1 (receiving sexual services from a minor), and 241 (organization of “prostitution”), the penalties for which were generally lower than those prescribed for trafficking crimes; however, the government did not report trafficking cases under these statutes during the reporting period. The government did not report providing anti-trafficking training to law enforcement or judicial officials. Russian authorities did not report cooperating in any international trafficking investigations. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking crimes; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking and other crimes remained a significant concern, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. NGOs reported government officials and police regularly accepted bribes in exchange for not pursuing trafficking cases and officials often benefitted financially or materially from trafficking crimes.

Since 2022, Russian-occupation authorities forcibly transferred hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including children, elderly persons, and persons with disabilities, within Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine and into Belarus and Russia, including to some of Russia’s most remote regions, and often through filtration and detention centers in Russia-occupied areas of Ukraine, where authorities deprived Ukrainian citizens of their documents and forced them to take Russian passports. Russian authorities reportedly forcibly separated some Ukrainian children from their parents or guardians and placed them for adoption with Russian families or gave them to Russian foster families. Reports of forced labor in filtration detention centers persisted. Detainees were reportedly forced to work on town improvement projects, coerced into enlisting in a local police force, and forced to repair, paint, and clean barracks. Moreover, observers reported the Russian government detained thousands of Ukrainian civilians in other prisons and detention centers throughout Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine; authorities forced many of these detainees to perform labor, including to dig trenches and mass graves.

Observers previously reported Russian security forces used Ukrainian children as informants and used Russian children, including orphans and children with disabilities, to sew clothes and bandages for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine and to make tactical stretchers, mobile stoves, and trench candles. Russian authorities expanded efforts to train Russian children and Ukrainian children in Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine for possible future conscripted service in Russian armed forces, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. As in previous reporting periods, the government provided support to the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, an armed group that unlawfully recruited and used child soldiers in the Central African Republic (CAR). Media previously reported the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group kidnapped boys in CAR and exploited them in forced labor in mines. Reports indicate Russian officials and illicit recruiters fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from Africa, South Asia, South America, and Central Asia – including through diplomatic engagements in Moscow – for vocational training programs and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites.

The government recruited convicts in Russian prisons, including prisoners from Central Asia, to fight for Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war; authorities reportedly offered these convicts a pardon, freedom, and monthly salary in exchange for fighting, but observers previously reported some convicts were not pardoned, nor did they or their families receive full compensation. Observers reported Russian authorities used coercion and deception to recruit foreign nationals to fight in Ukraine. Furthermore, observers noted the government’s 2022 mobilization decree banned volunteer recruits from ending their contracts and indicated authorities executed soldiers who refused to fight. The government reportedly ordered regional authorities to target vulnerable populations, including persons with disabilities, individuals who were homeless or indebted, and migrants, for military recruitment; observers noted these populations were particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Observers reported Russia-led forces unlawfully conscripted or forced many Ukrainians in Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine, including those in detention, to fight against their own country or engage in forced labor, such as to clear rubble and dispose of corpses. A Russian decree imposing martial law – which remained in place during the reporting period – in Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine, gave authorities the power, among other things, to force people to work “for defense needs.” Russia-led forces in Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine forced prisoners from Ukrainian prisons to renovate the detention facilities and build defensive fortifications, often under the threat of violence.

Despite credible reports of North Koreans in Russia working under conditions that amount to forced labor, the Russian government did not report any investigations into those conditions. In violation of UNSCRs 2375 and 2397, Russia continued to host North Korean workers dispatched by DPRK authorities, especially in the Far East, often under conditions of forced labor. Additionally, Russia increasingly sought labor from North Korean workers in construction and defense projects, often under forced labor conditions. The government did not report how many North Korean workers remained in 2024. Observers reported the government continued to attempt to conceal the flow of North Korean workers to Russia by issuing them tourist and student visas. The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not report how many visas the government issued to North Korean citizens in 2024 or 2023 (4,723 in 2022). The Border Service did not report the number of North Korean citizens who entered Russia in 2024 (1,117 in 2023 and 223 in 2022); experts noted many of these citizens worked without documentation in Russia, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. In April 2024, media reports indicated Russian authorities began confiscating North Korean workers’ cell phones, restricted workers to dormitories, and encouraged workers to monitor and report on each other to prevent defections – all indicators of human trafficking.

The government maintained negligible victim protection efforts.

The government did not report identifying any trafficking victims for the fourth consecutive year, compared with 52 in 2020, the most recent year for which authorities reported statistics. The government remained without a formal system to guide officials in proactive identification of victims or their referral to available services. The criminal code recognized an individual as a victim only if authorities initiated an investigation and the law did not specifically define who was a trafficking victim or differentiate trafficking victims from victims of other crimes; experts noted this hindered identification measures and limited access to services. Civil society previously reported a significant number of cases went unreported due to the lack of a formal referral mechanism, victims’ credible fears of authorities, and the lack of government assistance to victims. Observers noted police regularly avoided registering victims in criminal cases unlikely to be solved, to avoid a lower conviction rate. The government also did not have a victim-witness assistance program to provide protection services to victims participating in criminal justice proceedings. In recent years, authorities reportedly pressured some victims to cooperate in investigations without any offer of protection. Russia’s removal from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in September 2022, following its exclusion from the Council of Europe, left trafficking victims with fewer remedies and noted that in several past cases only appeals to the ECtHR had led to government action.

As in previous years, the government did not provide funding or programs for protection services dedicated to trafficking victims. NGOs provided all protection services, including shelter, food, legal services, basic medical and psycho-social care, interpretation, facilitating the return of documents or wages, and assisting in the resettlement or repatriation of victims, although there was only one NGO specialized in providing assistance to trafficking victims. Observers reported government shelters and crisis centers lacked the capacity to assist trafficking victims and excluded victims who did not meet strict requirements, including possessing valid identification and immigration documents. NGOs reported they no longer referred victims to these shelters because of their poor conditions, the lack of screening for trafficking indicators, and risks of re-trafficking; as in previous years, there were no reports of victims assisted in these shelters in 2024. The government did not report if courts ordered compensation to victims. The government supported the repatriation of Russian children, including potential trafficking victims, allegedly associated with ISIS, a group that unlawfully recruits and uses child soldiers and perpetrates other forms of trafficking, from camps in northeast Syria. The government did not report screening these children for trafficking indicators. In November 2024, the government reported it repatriated 26 children from Syria. The government did not actively cooperate with civil society to combat human trafficking. As in previous reporting periods, the government took steps to limit or ban civil society groups’ activities through measures such as “foreign agent” laws. Additionally, authorities previously prosecuted NGOs assisting trafficking victims under anti-terror laws making it a crime for individuals or organizations to provide material assistance to people considered to be in Russia “illegally.”

Authorities penalized trafficking victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Authorities treated potential trafficking victim as illegal migrants and criminally charged them with “prostitution” or “unlawful presence in country”; authorities detained or deported potential foreign national victims without screening for trafficking indicators. Authorities frequently prosecuted Russian and foreign victims of sex trafficking for engaging in commercial sex and did not take proactive measures to identify victims during law enforcement actions in commercial sex establishments. Authorities punished child victims of forced criminality, often together with the traffickers who forced them to commit unlawful acts. An international organization expressed concern some provisions of the Russian criminal code, which include compulsory labor as possible punishment, were worded broadly enough to lend themselves to application as a means of punishment for the expression of views opposed to the government.

Authorities did not report screening North Korean workers for trafficking indicators or offering victims options to legally remain in the country. A February 2016 agreement between Russia and the DPRK enabled Russian authorities to deport North Koreans residing “illegally” in Russia. Observers noted this may increase the risk of labor trafficking for North Koreans working in Russia and might subject victims to grave harm as DPRK authorities reportedly arrested, imprisoned, subjected to forced labor, tortured, and sometimes executed repatriated trafficking victims.

The government decreased already negligible efforts to prevent trafficking.

The government remained without a designated lead agency to coordinate or monitor its anti-trafficking efforts and a NAP. The government did not report providing funds for awareness campaigns or other prevention activities. The government did not fund or operate a trafficking specific hotline; an NGO and international organization operated a 24/7 hotline to assist trafficking victims. Media indicated the government decreased its quota of allowable temporary residence permits for migrant workers by almost half in 2024. The government streamlined deportation authority and the power to impose broad restrictions on migrant workers’ ability to travel, bank, marry, or drive when placed on a “controlled persons registry” – all of which potentially increase vulnerabilities to trafficking. The Ministry of Internal Affairs previously required recruitment agencies seeking to employ Russians overseas to obtain a license, but it did not report if it continued to regulate and issue such licenses, and no such requirement existed for agencies recruiting foreign workers. The government did not report inspecting businesses for labor violations or finding any indicators of human trafficking. Experts reported Russian-occupation authorities forced Ukrainian citizens in Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine to accept Russian citizenship; the government restricted access to a wide range of services, including trafficking-related services, to residents without Russian citizenship. These measures created significant trafficking vulnerabilities for residents of these areas. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, nor did it make efforts to reduce the demand for participation in extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and abuse by its citizens, despite such allegations.

Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Russia, and traffickers exploit victims from Russia abroad. Although labor trafficking remains the predominant form of human trafficking in Russia, sex trafficking also occurs. Traffickers exploit workers from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and the DPRK in forced labor in Russia. Instances of labor trafficking have been reported in the construction, manufacturing, logging, textile, transport, and maritime industries, as well as in sawmills, agriculture, sheep farms, grocery and retail stores, restaurants, waste sorting, street sweeping, domestic service, call centers, and begging. Labor traffickers also exploit victims in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, facilitation of illegal migration, and the production of counterfeit goods. Undocumented migrants, ethnic minorities, and refugees are at particularly high risk of human trafficking in Russia. Many foreign workers experience exploitative labor conditions characteristic of trafficking, such as withholding of identity documents, non-payment for services rendered, physical abuse, lack of safety measures, or extremely poor living conditions. Children of migrant workers are vulnerable to forced labor in informal sectors. To offset a shortage in the labor force, the government increasingly uses convict labor, particularly for large construction projects; observers express concern prisoners working for private businesses, at times, are not doing so voluntarily despite government claims that its correctional labor programs comply fully with its international obligations. Observers report Russia’s mobilization campaigns related to the Russia-Ukraine war have led to labor shortages; many young men who have not yet been mobilized reportedly prefer to work in the informal economy out of fear that an employer will report them to authorities, leaving these men highly vulnerable to trafficking.

Organized criminal groups often recruit victims from within their own ethnic communities. Traffickers sometimes pose as landlords renting rooms to migrant workers to recruit victims and coerce them into forced labor. Traffickers lure children from state and municipal orphanages into forced begging, forced criminality, sex trafficking, and other forms of abuse. Traffickers target former Russian prisoners for forced labor in so-called “work houses” or labor camps, where they are forced to work for accommodation and food and often subjected to physical violence and coerced to stay. Illicit companies in Southeast Asia recruit and exploit Russian citizens for forced labor in online scam operations. Traffickers exploit women and children from Europe (predominantly Ukraine and Moldova), Southeast Asia (primarily China and the Philippines), Africa (particularly Nigeria), and Central Asia in sex trafficking in Russia. Sex trafficking occurs in brothels, hotels, and saunas, among other locations. Traffickers also exploit homeless children in sex trafficking. Traffickers exploit Russian women and children in sex trafficking in Russia and abroad. Traffickers exploit women and girls from Russia’s North Caucasus region in sex trafficking in Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Traffickers use social media to recruit, monitor, and control victims. Russian criminal groups threaten family members to coerce women into commercial sex in Russia and abroad.

Corruption among some government officials and within some state agencies creates an environment enabling trafficking crimes. North Korean workers are subject to forced labor in Russia under government-to-government agreements. Media and NGOs report unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and illicit recruiters, fraudulently recruited women ages 18-22 from Africa, South Asia, South America, and Central Asia for vocational training programs and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites. Media report workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching, and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which are indicators of human trafficking. Russian children in vocational schools at times worked to assemble military drones; these children often experienced trafficking indicators such as physical abuse and exceedingly long work hours without breaks or meals.

Russian forces reportedly force many Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine, including at filtration detention centers, to engage in forced labor. Ukrainian citizens, including children, forcibly displaced within Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine and to Belarus and Russia are highly vulnerable to trafficking. Moreover, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war creates significant trafficking vulnerabilities for the millions of refugees who have fled Ukraine and for the IDPs and others in need of humanitarian aid and protection assistance within Ukraine. Since 2014, Russia-led forces have reportedly used children for military purposes and force many Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine to fight against their own country. Reports indicate Russian armed forces used a child in intelligence gathering in Ukraine. As in previous reporting periods, the government supported the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, a non-state armed group that unlawfully recruited and used child soldiers in CAR. Russia-led forces reportedly unlawfully recruited Syrian child soldiers to guard installations and fight in Libya in previous reporting periods.