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A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 29 June 2018
U.S. trafficking report highlights vulnerability of children
By SUSANNAH GEORGE Trump. separated more than 2,300
Associated Press "Our commitment to fight- migrant families. After glob-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chil- ing (human trafficking) al uproar over the policy,
dren removed from their and ending this together President Donald Trump is-
families and placed in insti- is incredibly strong," Pom- sued an order temporarily
tutional care are at greater peo said. "The world should halting the practice of split-
risk of being trafficked, the know that we will not stop ting families at the border
U.S. warned Thursday in an before we know human and prosecuting parents
annual report. trafficking is a thing of the and guardians, but admin-
The State Department re- past." istration officials say the
port, which ranks govern- Ivanka Trump attended the policy remains intact.
ments in their efforts to ceremony and handed out When asked to explain the
combat slavery and the awards to individuals rec- disconnect between U.S.
flesh trade, left the Trump ognized for helping fight policy and the trafficking
administration open to ac- human trafficking, but did report, a senior State De-
cusations of hypocrisy as not make any public re- partment official said the
the administration's "zero marks. report released Thursday
tolerance" immigration Among the countries de- covers events from April 1,
policy has separated more moted to "tier 3," the rank- 2017, through the end of
than 2,000 migrant children ing system's lowest cat- March 2018. The adminis-
from their parents on the egory, was Myanmar, also tration began enforcing
country's southern border. known as Burma. The report the zero tolerance policy
The Trafficking in Persons Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, walks in with Ivanka Trump, cited its military opera- in May of this year. The of-
report was unveiled in a the daughter and assistant to President Donald Trump, during an tions in Rakhine State that ficial added that the report
ceremony at the State De- event to announce the 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) forced hundreds of thou- outlines ways in which all
partment by Secretary of ceremony at the US State Department in Washington, Thursday, sands of Rohingya Mus- countries, including those
State Mike Pompeo and June 28, 2018. Associated Press lims to flee to Bangladesh. like the U.S. that are listed
presidential adviser Ivanka Other countries with "Tier 3" in the top tier, can improve.
status include China, North Human rights activists said
Korea and Iran. the administration should
Countries on tier 3 can be take its own advice.
penalized with sanctions, "The State Department de-
including the withholding serves credit for its com-
of non-humanitarian aid prehensive and eloquent
and assistance that could exposition on the horrors of
affect agreements with institutionalization of chil-
the International Monetary dren," said John Sifton, an
Fund and World Bank. The advocacy director at Hu-
president retains the au- man Rights Watch. "We
thority to waive the sanc- strongly urge White House
tions in U.S. national inter- and Department of Home-
ests or if the penalties could land Security officials to
adversely affect vulnerable read that section in the
populations. Countries giv- context of their procedures
en the worst designation for processing asylum seek-
have often been granted ers and other persons seek-
such waivers. ing entry into the United
The United States is listed States," he added.
on tier 1, among countries Myanmar was also includ-
most effectively combat- ed on a list of countries
ing human trafficking. identified as recruiting and
In a lengthy section on the using child soldiers by gov-
detrimental effects of insti- ernment forces or armed
tutionalizing children, the groups aligned with the
report stated that "removal government. Iran and Iraq
of a child from the family were also added to the list
should only be considered this year, potentially sub-
as a temporary, last resort." jecting their government to
Children held in "govern- restrictions on security as-
ment-run facilities, can be sistance and commercial
easy targets for traffickers" licensing of military equip-
due to the "physical and ment.
psychological effects of Thailand, which has faced
staying in residential insti- global scrutiny for the use
tutions, combined with so- of slave labor on fishing
cietal isolation and often vessels, was promoted from
subpar regulatory oversight a watch list to tier 2. The
by governments," the re- report cited its convictions
port stated. of traffickers and complicit
The Trump administration officials, including 11 in-
recently scaled back the volved in the trafficking of
"zero-tolerance" policy that Rohingya migrants.q
