BANGKOK, 17 June 2010 (IRIN) – Southeast Asian governments added to the US State Department’s human trafficking watch list must bolster efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers, activists say.
Thailand, Vietnam and Laos all slipped in their efforts over the past year to tackle human trafficking, according to the US State Department’s latest Trafficking in Persons report, which put them on a Tier 2 Watch List along with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
“The situation has not particularly changed in the sense of getting better or worse. What you’re seeing here is a more accurate calling of the situation by the US State Department – it’s them saying we’re really going to examine what’s happening in these countries,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
“Those governments that moved on to the watch list will be eager to get themselves off that list so they will go to the US Embassy and other organizations asking where the problems occurred,” he said.
The 13 countries doing the least to tackle human trafficking, including Iran and Papua New Guinea, are in Tier 3 and subject to economic sanctions if they do not comply with the minimum standards outlined in the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Michael Turner, press attaché for the US Embassy in Bangkok, said there had been progress in tackling human trafficking, but not at the level many had hoped for in countries such as Thailand.
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