(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) While some countries have progressed in the global fight against human trafficking, "modern slavery" continues to pose a significant threat to peoples across the globe, according to a State Department report released Monday.
"Human trafficking has no boundaries and respects no laws," the annual Trafficking in Person Report said. "Victims include adults and children, foreign nationals and citizens, those who travel far-whether through legal or illegal channels-only to be subjected to exploitation, and those who have been exploited without ever leaving their hometowns."
Secretary of State John Kerry formally launched the report, which ranks the efforts of 188 governments to combat the problems of the sex trade and forced labor.
"Traffickers are both ruthless and relentless," Kerry said at the State Department, stating that the criminals "prey upon the most vulnerable, they target the weak, the despairing, the isolated. And they make false promises and transport their victims across borders to labor without passports, or phones, in places where the language is unknown, and where there are no means of escape."
Of note in this year's report, Cuba, with whom the U.S. recently established diplomatic relations with after a 50-year impasse, and Malaysia, a potential partner in a free trade agreement, saw improved rankings from the previous year.
The nations were upgraded from being "tier 3" countries, which the report says are those that do not fully comply with "minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so."
Tier 2 countries, which Cuba and Malaysia have been upgraded to, do not fully comply with minimum standards, "but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards."
While Malaysia's ranking has fluctuated, Cuba has been on the trafficking blacklist since at least 2008.
Saudi Arabia and Kenya were also upgraded from tier 3 to tier 2.
Thailand, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Kuwait, Iran and Syria are all classified as tier 3 nations.
Since the discovery of more than 30 bodies € including those of Rohingya Muslim migrants - in southern Thailand, authorities have launched a nationwide anti-human trafficking campaign that led to the discovery of numerous trafficking camps in the jungle bordering Malaysia. The crackdown has resulted in the arrests of more than 150 people including local officials, police officers and one military general.
Before the report's release, Thai junta leader-cum-Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha had said that he was hopeful that the U.S. would remove it from the lowest-level ranking, citing efforts to combat the issue.
In a letter to Kerry, Human Rights Watch and a coalition of 24 other rights groups lauded the U.S.'s decision to keep Thailand on the blacklist.
"The State Department's decision will keep pressure for substantive changes by Bangkok," the rights groups wrote. "In particular, Thailand needs to demonstrate it is willing to enforce newly established mechanisms to increase transparency and regulatory accountability within its seafood industry, and apply those mechanisms to combating human trafficking."
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