Washington: US today placed India on Tier
Two watch list of human trafficking arguing that New Delhi has
not demonstrated sufficient progress in its law enforcement,
protection, or prevention efforts to address labour
trafficking, particularly bonded labour.
This is the seventh consecutive year that India has
been placed in Tier Two Watch list of its annual report on
human trafficking. The 10th annual Trafficking in Persons
Report was released by the State Department today.
The report recommended that India strengthen central
and state government law enforcement capacity to conduct
intrastate and interstate law enforcement activities against
labour trafficking (including bonded labour) and sex
trafficking.
It also urged India to encourage state and district
governments to file bonded labour cases under the appropriate
criminal statutes to facilitate speedier justice and limit
traffickers` opportunities for bail; encourage other states to
establish Immoral Trafficking.
The report said India is a source, destination, and
transit country for men, women, and children subjected to
trafficking in persons, specifically forced labour and
commercial sexual exploitation.
It said the Indian government does not fully comply
with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so,
particularly with regard to the law enforcement response to
sex trafficking.
Despite these efforts, the Indian government has not
demonstrated sufficient progress in its law enforcement,
protection, or prevention efforts to address labour
trafficking, particularly bonded labour; the report said
explaining the reason why India has been placed in Tier Two of
the Watch List.
Tier Two Watch List is a list of those countries
whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking
Victims Protection Acts` minimum standards, but are making
significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with
those standards.
In her remarks, the Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton, said, the Report, for the first time, includes a
ranking of the United States based on the same standards to
which it hold other countries.
"The United States takes its first-ever ranking not
as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global
efforts against modern slavery, including those within
America. This human rights abuse is universal, and no one
should claim immunity from its reach or from the
responsibility to confront it," she said.
The 10th annual Trafficking in Persons Report
outlines the continuing challenges across the globe, including
in the United States, Clinton said.
PTI
