Israel secures highest US anti-trafficking ranking after five years

The US State Department has returned Israel to Tier 1, the highest category in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, after five consecutive years in Tier 2.The 2026 report, published Thursday and covering government efforts from April 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026, found that the Israeli government fully meets the US minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking and recorded several key achievements during the reporting period.The report said police opened 42 trafficking investigations in 2025, including 33 involving sex trafficking and nine involving forced labor, more than double the 20 investigations opened in 2024.It said prosecutors also charged 19 alleged traffickers, compared with 13 the previous year. The State Department highlighted what it described as a February 2026 indictment against an employer accused of the forced labor of numerous foreign workers, the first such indictment in more than a decade.However, the report also identified significant continuing shortcomings.