US not yet move Thailand to more serious watch list on human trafficking

BANGKOK, June 21 (TNA) - The United States has not moved Thailand to the group of countries under its serious watch on human trafficking, after having been steadily informed of the Thai government’s anti-human trafficking efforts and actions. Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul announced the US decision on Thursday, saying that during his official visit to the United States last week, he discussed Thai-American strategies and met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at which several areas of bilateral cooperation were raised, including prevention and suppression of transnational terrorism, crime and human trafficking. According to the Thai foreign minister, human trafficking is an important issue as Thailand has been placed on Washington's Tier 2 watch list for two years and has been, again, kept on the list in the US government's latest decision on June 19, instead of being moved to the Tier 3 watch list with a loss of many kinds of US assistance as earlier feared, after his ministry wrote to Washington explaining that Thailand has worked out concrete plans to suppress human trafficking. Normally a country which has been on Washington's Tier 2 watch list for two years will be moved to the Tier 3 watch list and will lose US assistance with multi-faceted impacts subsequently. The Thai foreign minister acknowledged that other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which have also been on the US Tier 2 watch list include Myanmar and Malaysia, insisting that the Thai government will keep Washington being informed of its anti-human trafficking efforts and actions, as Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra did in every international forum she had attended, in a hope that Thailand will be removed from Washington's Tier 2 watch list next year. Meanwhile, Police Lieutenant Colonel Paisit Sangkhahapong, a special case expert who supervises the anti-human trafficking center of Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI), said it is good that Thailand has not been moved to the US Tier 3 watch list, but the Kingdom needs to implement comprehensive solutions to human trafficking. (TNA)