Today, in advance of this year’s release of the annual Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) report, five senior State Department officials will be
briefing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a closed-door
hearing. Following concerted criticism around last year’s report and
specific concerns about the politicization of a number of country
rankings, this year’s report will face additional scrutiny. Consistency
in determining country rankings based on each government’s efforts to
combat human trafficking and supporting evidence for those rankings will
be essential for the TIP report to remain a credible and effective tool
in combatting this modern day form of slavery that claims an estimated
20.9 million victims each year.
Last year the
ranking of Malaysia sparked substantial concern when it was upgraded
from Tier 3, the lowest ranking, to Tier 2 Watch List. Malaysia’s
anti-trafficking efforts during the reporting period were meager at
best, and the 2015 TIP report failed to provide substantial evidence
that Malaysia had improved its efforts to combat human trafficking since
2014, when the country exhibited a rapidly declining rate of
investigations, prosecutions, and convictions.
Read more at The Huffington Post
Read more at The Huffington Post
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