US says Cambodia unchanged but Thailand, Malaysia among worst human traffickers

 

PHNOM PENH ( The Cambodia Herald)- The US State Department has left its human trafficking ranking for Cambodia unchanged for this year but has downgraded Thailand and Malaysia to the lowest level.

Cambodia remains on the Tier 2 Watch List where it was last year, according to the latest Trafficking in Persons Report released in Washington Friday. 

Thailand and Malaysia, however, were downgraded from the Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 3, the worst ranking reserved for 23 countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and are "not making significant efforts to do so."

Among other ASEAN members, Myanmar and Laos were also on the Tier 2 Watch List. Like Cambodia, Myanmar's ranking was unchanged. Laos, however, was downgraded from Tier 2.

The watch list is for countries whose governments do not fully comply with the act's minimum standards but are "making significant efforts to comply" based on commitments to take additional future steps over the next year.

In addition, the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is "very significant" or "significantly increasing" in countries on the watch list. 

Such countries are also notable for their "failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year."

All of the other ASEAN countries — namely Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam — were ranked as Tier 2 countries. 

In the Asia-Pacific region, only Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan were ranked in Tier 1.