Cambodia Drops on US Global Human Trafficking Ranking
The U.S. has downgraded Cambodia in its latest global Trafficking in Persons Report for showing no discernable improvements in its efforts to combat human trafficking over the past year, the country’s first demotion in five years. … The 2013 report cites an increase in the number of Cambodians being trafficked onto Thai fishing trawlers, a drop in the prosecution of traffickers and persistent complicity in the illicit trade among government officials. The assessment moves Cambodia from Tier 2, where it had been for the past three years, down to Tier 2 Watch List. Using a scale of Tier 1 to Tier 3, 3 being the worst, the rankings are less a measure of the size of a country’s human trafficking problem than the government’s efforts to tackle it. “The government prosecuted and convicted fewer trafficking offenders and identified fewer victims than it did in the previous year. The government did not make efforts to address trafficking-related corruption during the year, and complicity of government officials contributed to a climate of impunity for trafficking offenders and a denial of justice to victims,” the report says. … The report applauds some government efforts in 2012, including the convictions of staff at one labor recruitment agency and new procedures for assisting male trafficking victims. But it said the actual protection of male victims remained “inadequate.” …
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-drops-on-us-global-human-trafficking-ranking-31423/
