Shortly after the US president’s visit to Kuala Lumpur, American lawmakers in Washington DC are calling on Barack Obama to take punitive measures against countries, including Thailand and Malaysia, that do too little to fight human trafficking. These lawmakers also said Myanmar shoudn’t get a waiver to avoid possible sanctions over its own human rights record.
Republican US Representative Chris Smith cited reports on the exploitation of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim community in their home country as well as their ill treatment in Thailand and Malaysia, and said authorities have done too little to protect them.
“Rohingya are leaving Burma by the thousands to escape religious persecution,” Smith said at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on Tier Rankings and the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report, citing a Reuters investigation into the treatment of Rohingya Muslims.
Myanmar sees Rohingya as illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship.
“According to reports put out by Reuters, Thai authorities are selling Rohingya to human traffickers, where they are held in ‘tropical gulags’ until relatives pay ransom,” Smith said, adding that those who do not pay are sold into sex slavery or hard labour, and many die from abuse or disease.
The congressional subcommittee’s report defines “Tier 1” countries as those that meet American anti-trafficking standards. “Tier 2” nations do not meet those standards, but are taking steps to do so. “Tier 3” nations do not meet congressional anti-trafficking standards, and are not making any significant effort to do so.
Countries which fall under the Tier 3 classification are open to sanction by the US government. An additional US law also provides for a watch list, under which a Tier 2 country is placed for two years, and will be downgraded to Tier 3 status if the conditions under their jurisdiction do not improve, unless they receive a presidential waiver – in which case they will get an extended two-year probation period.
China, Russia and Uzbekistan are Tier 2 countries that have run out of US presidential waivers and were downgraded to Tier 3 status last year. Several other countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, will either need to improve their anti-human trafficking record this year or be delegated to Tier 3.
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