Despite Maid Abuses, Cambodia Retains Trafficking Ranking

Cambodia held on to its Tier 2 ranking for the third straight year in the U.S. State Depart- ments latest global Trafficking in Persons Report, which praised the country for a rise in prosecutions, but criticized the country over a new sub-decree on migrant labor.

In the report, Cambodia’s neighbors Thailand and Malaysia-which host most of Cambodia’s migrant workforce-received rare waivers from the U.S., allowing them to avoid slipping into the lowest ranking possible. Released in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, the report gave Cambodia the second highest of four possible rankings, reserved for governments that fail to comply with the America’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act but which are “are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

Cambodia has been ranked at Tier 2 since 2010 after improving from Tier 2 Watch, a way station for countries moving between Tier 2 and the lowest rank of Tier 3. …

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) deputy director for Asia, said the report failed to fully appreciate the “structural nature of corruption” behind the local recruitment industry. ”I am surprised that the highly corrupt labor recruitment sector, which has been delivering Cambodians into debt bondage in countries like Thailand and Malaysia has not been more clearly raised in this report,” he said. …