The US put Singapore, Thailand, and others on a human trafficking watch list (AFP).
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Monday [June 14, 2010] put allies Singapore and Thailand as well as Vietnam on a human trafficking watch list, accusing them of failing to prevent women from being forced into prostitution.
While the US did not put itself on its watch list, it should have: Human trafficking a problem in major cities across US
...In an annual report, the State Department added a growing number of Asian nations to its watch list -- Afghanistan, Brunei, Laos, Maldives, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Bangladesh, China, India, Micronesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka remained on the list, unchanged from a year earlier. The State Department recognized improvements in Malaysia and Fiji...
North Korea, Burma (Myanmar), and Papua New Guinea remained at that bottom level. Taiwan was upgraded and listed as fully compliant in efforts against human trafficking. Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea were also listed as fully compliant. Explaining the downgrade for Singapore, the report said that some women from China, the Philippines, and Thailand are tricked into coming to the city-state with promises of legitimate employment and coerced into the sex trade. More>>
More than 12 million are modern slaves, U.S. says
A sobering new report from the State Department finds that more than 12 million people worldwide are victims of "trafficking in persons" — trapped in forced labor, bonded labor, or forced prostitution. But just 4,166 people were convicted of trafficking last year, the report says.
Even so, awareness of the reach of modern slavery has made such crimes easier to report and police, the study says. Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who heads the State Department's anti-slavery efforts, noted that 116 countries have adopted anti-trafficking laws since the United Nations enacted a law against modern slavery 10 years ago. Last year marked a high-water mark, both in identifying trafficking victims and in mounting successful prosecutions. More>>
