Report Links Iran's Human Trafficking to Its Proxy Wars

Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps exploit women, children, undocumented migrants and refugees to finance and support the regime's proxy wars across the region, according to an analysis by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs reported by The Jerusalem Post. The center published the analysis last week. It says these trafficking networks generate revenue that helps sustain Iran's military operations.

Ella Rosenberg, a senior research fellow at the center and a member of the Dvorah Forum, said Iran's laws let the regime project an image of compliance with international anti-trafficking rules while falling short of international standards and failing to protect victims. The Post reports she noted that the Islamic Republic blurs the line between human trafficking and migrant smuggling, and that the regime has consistently refused to ratify the 2000 United Nations Palermo Protocol against trafficking in persons.

Beyond failing to protect victims, Rosenberg assessed that the IRGC profits directly from trafficking, according to the Post. She said the IRGC uses the sex trafficking sector, often facilitated by the regime through temporary marriages, as a major source of income. She described Iran as a source, transit and destination country for the sex trafficking of women and girls, pointing to widespread poverty, systemic corruption and economic mismanagement. The networks move victims within Iran and across its borders into neighboring countries, including Iraq, with the alleged support of the IRGC, she said.

The center's report said the IRGC's Quds Force and the Basij militia systematically traffic undocumented migrants, refugees and children to "sustain their proxy wars across the Middle East." The Post reports that the Basij recruits and coerces Iranian children as young as 12 into military indoctrination and combat support roles, which the report calls a severe form of human trafficking. The Post notes it has previously reported on the death of an 11-year-old Basij member killed at a checkpoint in Iran.

Rosenberg noted that sanctions from the EU and the United States have focused mainly on Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missiles, support for terrorism and suppression of dissent, the Post reports. Because the IRGC and its front companies have not been sanctioned for trafficking, she said, Tehran keeps a lifeline, and because the money is often liquid, it is hard to track how much Iran takes in. She advised the U.S. Treasury Department to use the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to designate IRGC border commanders, Basij recruitment officers and complicit Iranian law enforcement officials.