MANILA, June 21 – Thai Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul today blamed red tape as the major reason behind Thailand’s failure to be lifted from an unfavourable position on the US watch list on human trafficking.
The US government’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report says the Thai government has not shown sufficient evidence of increasing its efforts to address human trafficking compared to the previous year.
The kingdom has been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year, says the TIP Report, which adds that Thailand was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
Mr Surapong, on a visit to the Philippines, said a new division may be set up to specially deal with elimination of human trafficking to speed up the efforts.
He said he has reported the TIP Report to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who expressed satisfaction with the results.
In his capacity as chairman of the committee on resolution of human trafficking, the deputy prime minister said he will hold a meeting with related government agencies to wrap up the TIP Report before officially submitting it to the prime minister.
He insisted that the Thai government has done its best to seriously deal with the human trafficking problem and managed to apprehend many offenders as well as regularly report to the US government.
He said he will discuss with Justice Minister Pracha Promnok to find ways to speed up the efforts, adding that he was optimistic Thailand will be upgraded to a better level next year.
Tier 2 Watch List includes countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protecting Act, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
The TIP Report says Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.
