SL needs to do more to prevent human trafficking – report

Although Sri Lanka does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking the country is making significant efforts to do so, a report on human trafficking said.

The 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report released Monday by the United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton placed Sri Lanka among Tier 2 countries.

Tier 2 countries are the countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Sri Lanka is yet to ratify the United Nations TIP protocol of 2000, the protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children.  The report noted that the Sri Lankan government convicted three traffickers, in the first case under its anti-trafficking legislation, and rejuvenated its inter-agency task force.

“However, serious problems remain unaddressed, such as the detention of identified trafficking victims (including those who provided evidence to support the three convictions), the failure to achieve criminal convictions for fraudulent recruitment agencies involved in trafficking in persons, and official complicity in human trafficking,” the TIP Report noted.  A recent Human Rights Watch report noted that over one-third of Sri Lankan domestic workers in Jordan are physically abused by their employers, 11 percent were sexually assaulted, 60 percent were not paid wages, over 60 percent had their passports confiscated, and 80 percent experienced forced confinement – these are abuses that indicate forced labour, the report said.