PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday his government would continue exercising its “zero tolerance” policy on human trafficking to improve national standards in coping with slavery after the United States decided to upgrade Thailand from the lowest Tier-3 rating.

“I will do my job. It’s our duty to take care of human beings and trafficked persons are also human beings,” Prayut told reporters when asked for a response to the US report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) released yesterday. “Whatever status we have been given, we have to do the job. If I can’t complete the mission, the next government must carry on,” he said.

The TIP 2016 report upgraded Thailand from Tier-3 to Tier-2 Watch List. “The government of Thailand does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so,” the 408-page report said. It recognised a number of measures taken by the Thai authorities over the past year to tackle the human trafficking problems such as improving of many legal instruments for efficient prosecution.

The government amended its 2008 anti-trafficking laws and other laws related to forced labour in the fishing and seafood industry, which increased criminal and civil penalties on traffickers, allowed for the closure of businesses involved in forced labour, and provided legal protection for whistleblowers, it said.

The report also made recommendations such as putting in more effort to prosecute officials complicit in trafficking, and convict and punish those found guilty with sufficiently stringent sentences as well as increase efforts to identify victims among vulnerable populations.

On the protection measures, the Thai government maintained efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims, although overall victim screening and protection efforts remained inadequate, according to the report.

Wanna Bootsane, a key member of the Rak Thai Foundation that monitors migrant worker issues on the east coast of the country, told The Nation that overall the government’s efforts over the past year have been impressive. The government has been sincere in its attempt to tackle human trafficking, she said. However, she added that it was a complicated issue involving several sectors of society.

Despite her satisfaction with the government’s recent efforts, Wanna remains concerned that the problems of human trafficking and slave labour will persist in the long run. She also said that she was not sure whether the government would continue its efforts after achieving its goal of being upgraded to Tier 2.

NGO worker Sompong Srakaew, the director of the Labour Rights Promotion Network, also said the government has done a satisfactory job over the past year in dealing with human-trafficking problems.

However, the labour rights advocate said Tier-2 status was not exactly notable and that more effort is needed for Thailand to be ranked higher.

Although praising the government for being sincere in trying to solve the long-standing issue, Sompong said there is a lot of work still left to be done. For instance, he said, the government could make it legal for migrants to work in Thailand to eradicate bribery, which is at the root of vicious trafficking issues.

Thanavath Phonvichai, director at the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre, said the upgrade from Tier 3 to Tier 2 would have a positive impact on Thailand’s exports and boost consumer confidence.

He said about 20 per cent of trade from Thailand, including agricultural and fishery products, would benefit from the upgrade as consumers and international buyers will have more trust in Thailand’s labour standards.

Nopporn Thepsithar, chairman of the Thai National Shippers Council, said foreign traders will have greater confidence in Thai products, especially seafood.

THAILAND has said its battle against modern forms of slavery has netted a lot of “big fish” in human trafficking syndicates, including senior government officials. Given this, the country is hopeful of being upgraded in coming days from the lowest rank in the United States’ annual assessment on the problem.

The Thai government mobilised a budget of billions of baht last year, plus major personal resources and many other efforts, including improving legal procedures to end trafficking.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday: “Will things get better if we don’t do anything? Can we perform less than at present time? We’ve done much better than in previous times.”

The premier said his recent use of all-encompassing power under Article 44 of the Interim Charter to abruptly transfer the governor of Samut Sakhon, plus 22 other officials, including many police, on Saturday was among measures taken by his government to get the job done.

The governor and officials now face inquiries into alleged abuse of foreign workers, ill-treatment of Rohingya migrants and human trafficking.

The US State Department is about to release its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report – on Thursday – to classify countries’ practices and efforts to reduce modern-day slavery. Thailand has been downgraded to the lowest level, Tier-3, for two consecutive years.

The government gave updates to the US TIP office in January and March for it to consider on tasks authorities have undertaken from January last year to March this year. The reports were also sent to other countries and international organisations, which expressed concern over the problem, according to Songsak Saicheua, head of the Department of American and South Pacific Affairs.

“Thailand has made the battle against human trafficking a national priority in order to join international efforts to tackle the chronic problems,” Songsak said, “We did our best on our part and hope the international community judge us fairly based on our work.”

The government mapped out the 5P strategy: Policy, Prosecution, Protection, Prevention and Partnership – as a comprehensive master plan to fight human trafficking, he said.

On the policy side, the government allocated a 69-per-cent increase in budget from Bt 1.7 billion in 2014 to Bt2.5 billion last year. The authorities also amended and improved legal instruments such as the Anti-Human Trafficking Act, the Royal Ordinance on Fisheries, the Penal Code on Child Pornography Offences, as well as the Anti-Human Trafficking Criminal Procedure Act, he said.

The authorities made a significant achievement in prosecutions with investigation into 317 human trafficking cases last year, up 13 per cent from 280 cases in 2014. The courts dealt with 169 cases last year, he said.

“Prosecutions not only increased in quantity but also in quality, since we have a number of ‘big fish’ in human trafficking syndicates and official complicity,” Songsak said.

Senior officials prosecuted

He added that 34 state officials including high-ranking military and police were being prosecuted. They were arrested and are being tried without freedom to get bail during the court procedure, he said.

Many senior security officials were also facing prosecution for alleged involvement in trafficking of Muslim Rohingya who fled from hardship and communal conflict in their homes in Rakhine State in western Myanmar to Thailand.

On the protection front, Songsak said Thailand was only country in Southeast Asia with measures to protect victims of trafficking by giving them compensation and job opportunities.

For prevention and partnership, Thailand had a lot of measures to regulate and manage migrant workers, signing pacts with many neighbouring countries as well as joining international efforts to limit abuses, he said.

Thai officials in all relevant agencies meet with and listen to officials from the US and international organisations, as well as NGOs that champion on human rights and trafficking, he said. “We answer their questions, listen to their recommendation and bring them to see the reality on the ground,” he said, “and always tell them we enforce ‘zero tolerance’ on human trafficking.”

Meanwhile, neighbouring Myanmar, considered a major source of trafficking, has reportedly been downgraded from Tier-2 watch-list to the bottom level, Tier-3, according to a report by Reuters.