By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thai authorities have expressed dismay over a U.S. State Department report on the fight against human trafficking that placed Thailand in the lowest level for a second consecutive year, according to local media Tuesday.
Thailand was lambasted in the yearly Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) released Monday for its inability to clamp down on slavery and people smuggling within its borders, remaining in Tier 3 alongside North Korea, Yemen and Russia.
In a statement issued hours after the report’s release, the Thai Foreign Ministry said that the Tier 3 branding does not reflect the “significant efforts” undertaken by Thailand to tackle the problem.
“Despite the third tier ranking, Thailand will continue to do its utmost to overcome the remaining challenges while also promoting security and upholding our long and distinguished tradition of adherence to humanitarianism,” the ministry added, according to the Bangkok Post.
It underlined that the Thai government had taken measures in the field of prosecution and law enforcement, as well as protection, but recognized that these efforts only began after March 2015 -- the cut-off date of the yearly report.
“Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,” said the TIP, presented by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington.
“The government of Thailand does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so,” the report added.
During the period between March 2014 and March 2015, according to the report, “the Thai government reported four investigations, five prosecutions, and one conviction” -- a slight improvement compared to only three investigations the previous period.
Major-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, deputy government spokesperson, said he disagrees with the ranking.
"It is the duty and responsibility of the report publishers to explain clearly to the world community about the source of the data they collected, and what standards they used to make their analysis, in order to make that report truly credible and accepted,” he told reporters Tuesday.
"They have to confirm that this is an action based on facts without any hidden agenda," the Khaosod website quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, anti-trafficking and human rights protection groups have welcomed the U.S. decision to keep Thailand at the lowest tier.
While recognizing that the “Thai government has demonstrated its willingness to respond to pressure, and has taken a few encouraging actions,” Human Rights Watch said in a letter to John Kerry on Monday that “the State Department’s decision will keep pressure for substantive changes by Bangkok.”
It added that Thailand particularly “needs to demonstrate its willingness to enforce newly established mechanisms to increase transparency and regulatory accountability within its seafood industry.”
The International Labor Rights Forum also supported the decision, saying the ranking “accurately reflects Thailand’s lagging efforts to combat human trafficking.”
Abby McGill, the anti-trafficking group’s campaign director, called the changes implemented by the Thai government to date “largely cosmetic.”
“We hope this decision will underscore the urgent need to reform immigration and labor laws of migrant workers,” she said in a statement Monday.
The branding comes after a year in which businessmen were condemned for their involvement in slavery in the seafood industry, while significant efforts were made by the military junta to clamp down on the trafficking of Rohingya Muslims in its south.
On May 1, 26 bodies of migrants were found in graves in an abandoned human trafficking camp in a Thai forest bordering Malaysia. The discovery triggered an official campaign to wipe out human smuggling networks from Thai territory.
The TIP report recommended, among others, that Thailand to “prosecute officials allegedly complicit in trafficking and convict and punish those found guilty” and “increase proactive efforts to identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable populations”.
The report hinted at the cause of the problem through its numerous uses of the word "corruption" - stating that it was the main reason for the existence of trafficking and for the difficulties in combatting it.
