Embassy efforts helped upgrade Pakistan in US human trafficking report

WASHINGTON, July 1 (APP):In its latest report on worldwide human trafficking by the US State Department, Pakistan has been upgraded for its improved efforts and the embassy of Pakistan in Washington played an important role in highlighting measures to prevent and reduce human trafficking.
In the 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report, released at the weekend, Pakistan has been upgraded to Tier two list, a watch list, which contained the name of countries which do not fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
The next more severe tier is the TIER 3, countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
“The government demonstrated increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore Pakistan was upgraded to Tier 2,” according to the report, which recognized the efforts of the Pakistan government in making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards.
A spokesman of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington told APP that the embassy officials made concerted efforts to highlight areas where the government made significant improvements in preventing the menace of human trafficking.
The report said the government demonstrated increasing efforts by increasing the number of victims it identified and investigations and prosecutions of sex trafficking.
“The provincial government of Punjab increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for bonded labor, the country’s largest human trafficking problem. The government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir adopted a law prohibiting bonded labor.”
“The governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh reported operating two additional women’s shelters and three additional child protection units, respectively,” the report added.
The federal government continued to implement its 2015-2020 national strategic framework against trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, although the government missed minimum standards in several areas.
“Punjab continued to be the only province to report prosecutions and convictions for bonded labor,” the report said.
The report noted that the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act (BLSA) criminalized bonded labor, with prescribed penalties ranging from two to five years imprisonment, a fine, or both; and these penalties were sufficiently stringent.
Most of the provincial governments have adopted their own labor laws under a devolution process that began in 2010, although federal laws apply until corresponding provincial laws are enacted. During the reporting period, the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir adopted the BLSA, joining the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh.
The National Assembly held multiple hearings during the reporting period to solicit input on a draft comprehensive trafficking bill that would take effect for all regions upon enactment.
The government reported investigating 90 alleged traffickers, prosecuting 53, and convicting 29 under the laws, compared with investigating 98 alleged traffickers, prosecuting 60, and convicting 25 in 2016.