Cambodia, Indonesia escape U.S. trafficking sanctions
Cambodia, Indonesia escape U.S. trafficking sanctions
Matthew Lee, Agence France-Presse, Washington
Cambodia and Indonesia on Wednesday escaped U.S. censure for their efforts to combat the trafficking of human beings and spared the possible imposition of sanctions while Myanmar, already under heavy U.S. criticism, was rebuked anew by the State Department.
In its third annual Trafficking in Persons Report released on Wednesday, the department moved both Cambodia and Indonesia out of its so-called "Tier 3" group of countries, inclusion in which can lead to sanctions, into "Tier 2" citing improvements in their records.
But Myanmar, the only other Southeast Asian nation to have been included in Tier 3 last year, remained so designated and will face a cut off in non-humanitarian and non-trade-related U.S. aid unless it acts to meet Washington's trafficking concerns, according to the report.
"The government of Burma (Myanmar) does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so," the report said, using the former name of the country.
The report accused Myanmar's military rulers, now under U.S. fire for their continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and their failure to adequately fight the narcotics trade, of complicity in trafficking people for forced labor.
"Government involvement in forced labor continues," it said, adding that Yangon's efforts to stamp out sex trafficking had been reluctant and achieved only mixed results.
"Burma's failure to make progress on forced labor more than offsets the government's improving, but still inadequate, record of combating trafficking for sexual exploitation," the report said, explaining the failing grade.
The problem of trafficking still exists in Cambodia and Indonesia, the report said, and much more needs to be done to successfully combat it but Phnom Penh and Jakarta both recognize their deficiencies and are working to fix them.
In Indonesia, the report said the government had approved legislation aimed at protecting children from trafficking and was moving to improve its criminal code to effectively prevent and punish traffickers.
"Indonesia is (also) open to multilateral cooperation to combat trafficking ... but much remains to be done, particularly within the country," it said.
Southeast Asia has historically suffered from massive trafficking of people, particularly women and children, for the thriving international sex trade, but with the exception of Myanmar, all 10 of the countries in the region passed U.S. muster, according to the report.
Brunei, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam remained in Tier 2 -- which means they do not fully meet U.S. standards but are making "significant efforts" to comply -- for the second year in a row.
Singapore, which had been included in Tier 2 in 2002, was not mentioned in the 2003 report.
The United States on Wednesday cited 15 nations, including NATO allies Greece and Turkey, for failing to adequately fight sex trafficking, opening the way for possible sanctions.
In addition to Greece and Turkey, the nations affected are: Belize, Bosnia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Suriname and Uzbekistan, the State Department said in its third annual "Trafficking in Persons" report.