U.S. softens view of Malaysia, Cuba in human trafficking report

US Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Sarah Sewall rejected the notion that any political considerations had influenced Malaysia’s ranking.

The countries in Tier 3, the lowest category, are those whose governments do not respect worldwide norms or laws on trafficking and ‘are not making significant efforts to do so, ‘ as stated by the 382-page report.

Despite efforts from the Thai government calling for an upgrade, Thailand remains at tier-3 level, the worst ranking given by State Department.

Sewall cited the strengthening of Malaysia’s anti-trafficking law and the increase in the number of trafficking investigations and prosecutions in the period covered by the report – which ended March 31.

“Despite these efforts, serious concerns persist, as government-compelled forced labor of adults remained endemic in the 2014 cotton harvest”, it said.

Washington accused Russian Federation and Thailand of failing to tackle human trafficking on Monday, while praising progress in Malaysia and Cuba, in a report on a global scourge decried as “modern slavery”.

The congresswoman said it is hard to understand how the State Department can say Malaysia is improving given that convictions of traffickers dropped from nine in 2013 to three in 2014.

According to the report, most of Taiwan’s more than 550,000 migrant workers are hired in their home countries through recruitment agencies and brokers, and they perform low-skilled work as home caregivers and domestic helpers or in the farming, manufacturing, construction and fishing sectors.

It also emphasized that the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report also contains several recommendations for the Government of Armenia to consider implementing “in order to more effectively identify, treat, and reintegrate victims of trafficking and to prosecute traffickers”.

But Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said convictions for trafficking were lower than last year and, pointing to the mass graves, said trafficking and abuse of migrants were still done “with impunity”. An anti-trafficking amendment to legislation crucial for the deal’s ratification by Congress would limit his ability to secure free trade agreements with countries assigned to tier 3.

DeLauro, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-New Jersey, said there was no justification for the change of status for Malaysia.

Men and women in Taiwan, however, are exploited and vulnerable to trafficking overseas in legal businesses, with a few Taiwanese women recruited through employment ads in Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. and forced into prostitution, the report said.

DeLauro called Malaysia’s decision to turn away a few 800 Rohingya migrants who were fleeing persecution in Myanmar “appalling”, while in May, 139 graves of human trafficking victims were found in Malaysia on the Thailand border.

Other efforts to bolster efforts in addressing human trafficking issues included getting more non-governmental organisations as well as private sector onboard, he said.

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reacted to the United States’ decision to keep Thailand in the Tier 3 Watch List on human trafficking for another year, affirming that the Kingdom has been making huge progress in eradicating the problem.