Thailand ‘disappointed’ with British NGO for not seeing anti-human trafficking progress

Sek Wannamethee, spokesman of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed disappointment with Britain’s Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) which reported Tuesday that Thailand has made no progress in tackling human trafficking.

Mr Sek, the Ministry’s Information Department director general, said that the UK-based foundation ignored Thailand’s serious efforts to suppress and prevent human trafficking.

‘Broken Promises,’ the report released this by the London-based EJF, says that Thailand has not sufficiently improved its efforts to fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and recommend that the country should remain Tier 3 Watch List of the US Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report in 2015.

The briefing paper reviews progress made by the Thai government to prevent and suppress human trafficking in the fishing industry.

Thailand was downgraded to the lowest level in the TIP report in June 2014.

The EJF intended to attack Thailand and turned a blind eye to the Thai government’s efficient efforts and development in combating and preventing human trafficking and rescuing victims, Mr Sek said.

In 2014, the Labour Ministry took legal action against 156 job brokerage firms that violated the labour law and 107 other firms would face similar action, Mr Sek cited.

Also in 2014, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security systematically identified victims of human trafficking and this year the Labour Ministry and the Department of Fisheries were checking fishing boats in 22 coastal provinces, Mr Sek said.

“The Thai government [has increased] clear and strict measures to eliminate corruption and punish [corrupt] government officials,” he said.

“The government handles [the] solution to human trafficking as an urgent national agenda and allocates budgets and personnel to revamp the whole system of human trafficking solution. Relevant organizations are working hard to produce concrete results,” Mr Sek said.

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