Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Dari article.
The United States says the Taliban government in Afghanistan does not ‘fully’ meet the minimum standards for combating human trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
In the U.S. State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, released on Thursday, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan remained in Tier 3.
During the reporting period, from April 2025 to March 2026, “... there was a pattern of recruitment and use of child soldiers in combat and support roles and a pattern of sexual slavery (bacha bazi — a practice in which men exploit boys for social and sexual entertainment),” the report said.
Tier 3 refers to countries where government agencies and other public sector institutions do not fully comply with the minimum criteria for combating human trafficking and do not make significant efforts to improve the situation.
The report listed 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan and South Sudan, in Tier 3.
The State Department said the Taliban did not take any steps to address the problem of trafficking.
“The Taliban did not report any investigation, prosecutions, or convictions, nor did it identify or protect any trafficking victims," the report said.
In July, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Organization for Migration called for coordination of efforts to prevent trafficking and assist victims.
“Victims continue to be pushed into unsafe work, forced labor, sexual exploitation, slavery-like conditions, or even have their organs removed against their will. Women, children, returnees, and indebted households remain at heightened risk,” said UNODC and IOM in a joint statement.
The U.S. State Department noted that referring to the Taliban in the report does not mean recognition of the Taliban as the Afghan government.
According to the report, the Taliban and other armed groups employ children illegally and use them in war and to perform support duties, the report said.
“The Taliban recruit children through coercion and fraud, including from schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, enrolling them in jihadi madrassas that reportedly provide military training,” the report said.
In addition to the Taliban, groups such as the Islamic State Khorasan, also called ISIS-K, and the National Resistance Front, an anti-Taliban armed group, also use children in the fighting.
Although the Taliban have issued a decree banning human trafficking, the report noted that it “did not provide a clear definition of human trafficking or penalties that were sufficiently stringent. The new edict also included provisions that recognized aspects of slavery.”