ekistan is placed on Tier 3 because it
failed to fulfill commitments by the country to take additional
steps during 2005, including the adoption of comprehensive
anti-trafficking legislation, criminal code amendments to raise
trafficking penalties, support to the country's first trafficking
shelter, and approval of a national action plan

Illicit drugs:
transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and, to a
lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit cultivation
of cannabis and small amounts of opium poppy for domestic
consumption; poppy cultivation almost wiped out by government crop
eradication program; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals
bound for Afghanistan

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

======================================================================

@Vanuatu

Introduction Vanuatu

Background:
Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language,
migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceeding European
exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern accounts
for the complex linguistic diversity found on the archipelago to
this day. The British and French, who settled the New Hebrides in
the 19th century, agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium,
which administered the islands until independence in 1980, when the
new name of Vanuatu was adopted.

Geography Vanuatu

Location:
Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Australia

Geographic coordinates:
16 00 S, 167 00 E

Map references:
Oceania

Area:
total: 12,200 sq km
land: 12,200 sq km
water: 0 sq km
note: includes more than 80 islands, about 65 of which are inhabited

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
0 km

Coastline:
2,528 km

Maritime claims:
measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
tropical; moderated by southeast trade winds from May to October;
moderate rainfall from November to April; may be affected by
cyclones from December to April

Terrain:
mostly mountainous islands of volcanic origin; narrow coastal plains

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
highest point