Source & Author: FIS.com
Thailand hopes its status will be upgraded in the annual United States Trafficking in Persons report (TIP), as it has intensified prosecutions for human trafficking.
In 2016, the country’s status was upgraded to Tier 2 “Watch List” after being downgraded to the lowest level, Tier 3, following a coup in 2014.
The military government has promised to fight human trafficking, particularly in Thailand’s multi-billion-dollar seafood industry.
With a “zero tolerance” commitment against human trafficking, the report on the efforts made in this area presented this week to the United States authorities indicates that the government increased its overall budget to combat trafficking in persons by 23.88 per cent and intensified its legal safeguards through the creation of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Increasing Effectiveness of Human Trafficking Prosecution, The Nation informed.
With respect to prosecutions, the report details police uncovered and investigated 333 cases, and the Office of the Attorney-General indicted 301 cases, figures which show an increase of 5 per cent and 19.92 per cent respectively from 2015.
The number of convictions rose to 268 from 205 in 2015. Assets seized from traffickers also increased by 307 per cent to USD 22 million compared with the year before.
However, rights groups say millions of migrant workers remain vulnerable to abuse in fishing, the sex trade and other industries.
The US State Department’s answer is expected to be known June.