Thailand remains on Tier 2 for Trafficking in Persons
The Thai government doesn’t fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.
The US has released the 2019 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report saying the Thai government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period so will remain on Tier 2.
These efforts included identifying more victims, sentencing convicted traffickers and complicit officials to significant prison terms, developing several manuals in partnership with civil society to standardise anti-trafficking trainings and policies.
Labor inspectors, for the first time, identified and referred potential victims to multidisciplinary teams, resulting in the identification of labor trafficking victims. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas – the government restricted the movement and communication of victims residing in government shelters, official complicity continued to impede anti-trafficking efforts, and officials did not consistently identify cases of trafficking, especially labor trafficking.
Thailand had languished in the lowest Tier 3 category in 2014. In 2016, the US upgraded Thailand from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watchlist, a category in which countries are adjudged as not fully compliant with the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The country was moved to Tier 2 last year.
The Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha says he’s satisfied the US has kept Thailand in its Tier 2 human trafficking list and vows to work harder to end human trafficking in the country.
