The US state department released its Trafficking in Persons report last week, in which Myanmar remained on a Tier 2 watch list, on par with Malaysia, but above Thailand in terms of government response to human trafficking, with Tier 1 being best and Tier 3 being the worst.
The Trafficking in Persons Report measures a country’s perceived actions to counter human trafficking, rather than their actual effectiveness at preventing the crime. For example, India was ranked in Tier 2, above Myanmar, malaysia or Thailand, despite the country having more trafficked people per capita, and many more overall.
Countries on the Tier 3, the lowest rank, could be subject to economic sanctions, although these could be waived.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of NGO Human Rights Watch, Asia Division, told Myanmar Business Today, “A country placed in Tier 3 faces possible sanctions through the cut off of US international aid, and the US voting against loans for the country at the World Bank, the IMF and other international financial institutions. However, President Obama has 90 days after the launch of the report to decide whether to waive some or all of those sanctions. In 2014, sanctions were waived against both Thailand and Malaysia.”
The Bangkok Post has reported Thai Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon as saying that he is confident that Thailand will avoid sanctions again.
Still, it is important for Myanmar’s business community to watch these rankings.
Matthew Smith, executive director of human rights watchdog group Fortify Rights, told Myanmar Business Today, “We’ve spoken with government officials throughout the region and they all explain how avoiding a Tier 3 designation is a top priority. Even absent sanctions, there are adverse ripple effects to being at the bottom of the barrel.
“Thailand has spent a considerable amount of time trying to persuade the [US] State Department that it doesn’t belong on Tier 3, only recently realising that the best way to get off Tier 3 is to improve in action, not rhetoric. No country in this region wants to be classed alongside pariah states like North Korea. There are often unseen economic impacts. Responsible investors consider these types of things before making investment decisions, and government officials know that. Few countries dismiss the TIP designations entirely.”
Some have noted the politicisation of Myanmar’s placement on the list. According to Robertson, both Thailand and Malaysia are working hard to remain friendly with the US because the military government in Bangkok doesn’t want to be isolated more than it already is, and Malaysia wants the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
“If Malaysia remained in Tier 3, they would have been tossed out of the TPP because of new Congressional legislation saying that a trade deal cannot benefit from ‘fast track’ authority if it includes any Tier 3 country. Malaysia’s anti-trafficking performance in 2015 was clearly not sufficient to earn the upgrade to Tier 2 Watch List, so the Obama Administration is playing games to make sure that nothing gets in the way of their top international priority, which is concluding the TPP treaty.”
Myanmar has been on the Tier two watch list since 2012, when it was upgraded from Tier 3.
The US State Department’s report explained Myanmar’s position on the watch list by stating, “… the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Burma is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year. Burma was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and it has committed to devoting sufficient resources to implement that plan.”
The report continued, “Local traffickers use deceptive tactics to recruit men into forced labour on palm oil and rubber plantations or in jade and precious stone mines. Children are subjected to sex trafficking or to forced labour in teashops, the agricultural sector, and in begging. Children and adults are subjected to domestic servitude.”
Robertson said, “One area that is really overlooked in the discussion of trafficking is the role of exploitative manpower recruitment agencies in countries like Myanmar, many of which charge huge fees, give false assurances and bogus contract conditions, and generally deliver workers into situations of severe exploitation overseas. This happens frequently in Thailand and Cambodia, and Myanmar is heading down the same route.”
