Human Trafficking Tier 2 Watch List for Thailand… Again!

The State Department released its 2012 human trafficking report on Tuesday and for the third straight year Thailand was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. But there is more to this than meets the eye.

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and one of the good things the U.S. Government actually does in the world. I have pulled out the part of the 2012 report on Thailand and made it available here. The entire world report can be found on the U.S. Department of State website here.

The TIP report is mandated by the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act (TVPA) passed by the U.S Congress in 2000. In the TIP Report (released annually in June), each country is placed onto one of three tiers based on the extent of their governments’ efforts to comply with the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” found in Section 108 of the TVPA.

A GUIDE TO THE TIERS

TIER 1
Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards.

TIER 2
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

TIER 2 WATCH LIST
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards 

AND:

a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;

b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or

c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

TIER 3
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

The TVPA lists additional factors through which to determine whether a country should be on Tier 2 (or Tier 2 Watch List) versus Tier 3. First, the extent to which the country is a country of origin, transit, or destination for severe forms of trafficking. Second, the extent to which the country’s government does not comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards and, in particular, the extent to which officials or government employees have been complicit in severe forms of trafficking. And third, reasonable measures required bringing the government into compliance with the minimum standards in light of the government’s resources and capabilities to address and eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons.

As I’ve reported before, after Thailand’s military made Abhisit Vejjajiva the Prime Minister, Thailand’s Tier ranking slipped from being Tier 2 previously under the democratically elected PPP led government to being on the Tier 2 Watch List for 2010 and 2011.   

This consecutive Tier 2 Watch List ranking is important in that in 2008, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act included a provision (Section 107) that any country that has been ranked Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years and that would otherwise be ranked Tier 2 Watch List for the next year will instead be ranked Tier 3 for the next year. 

And if a country is ranked as Tier 3 then several penalties could be levied. Penalties such as the withholding or withdrawing of non humanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance, the withholding of funding for government employees’ participation in educational and cultural exchange programs, and U.S. opposition to assistance (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related assistance) from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

So, by being placed on the Tier 2 Watch List and allowing human trafficking to flourish in Thailand for two consecutive years, Abhisit not only embarrassed the Kingdom but he put the country at risk of economic penalties.  

However, Section 107 of the 2008 Act also provided a waiver of the consecutive Tier 2 Watch List rule. 

“The President may waive the application of clause for up to 2 years if the President determines, and reports credible evidence to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, that such a waiver is justified because - (I) the country has a written plan to begin making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;  (II) the plan, if implemented, would constitute making such significant efforts; and (III) the country is devoting sufficient resources to implement the plan.”

This is how Thailand received another Tier 2 Watch List ranking and not the otherwise required downgrade to the Tier 3 ranking. The government led by PM Yingluck Shinawatra provided a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is devoting sufficient resources to implement that plan. Her government also continued implementation of its human trafficking law and conducted awareness-raising activities on human trafficking.

Also, during Yingluck’s first month in office, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, was invited to visit.  In a press statement following her visit, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons noted, among other shortcomings, weak enforcement of the country’s legal antitrafficking framework, inadequate efforts to address trafficking of migrants, endemic corruption among law enforcement officials, and a systemic failure to properly identify victims and protect their rights and safety. Yingluck’s government agreed to fund and open five national verification centers for Burmese migrant workers inside Thailand. These centers opened in late April 2012.

Although much more progress is needed, the democratically elected government led by PM Yingluck Shinawatra has at least started tackling the problem of human trafficking in Thailand exacerbated by a military installed government led by Abhisit Vejjajiva. Under his regime, Thailand’s image in the world’s eyes were tarnished. Instead of focusing government resources insanely on apprehending Thaksin Shinawatra and staying in power, Abhisit should have addressed the needs of Thailand’s citizens – but, of course, Thailand’s citizens weren’t the ones Abhisit had to report to.