THE move by the United States to amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) will place more countries, including Malaysia, under American scrutiny in their fight against human trafficking, reports Reuters today. 

TVPA, first passed in 2000, has been re-authorised by President Donald Trump with a number of “significant changes”. 

The latest version will alter the way the highly influential annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report is compiled.

TIP bands countries into one of three tiers that “grade” how well each nation fights human trafficking.

Tier 1 countries are those whose governments have fully met the TVPA minimum standards, while those on Tier 2 are making significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards.

A Tier 2 watch list highlights nations that have an increasing number of trafficking victims and their failure to prove efforts to fight severe forms of human trafficking from the previous year, and additional steps they take to improve their ranking.

Tier 3 nations are those which do not meet fully the minimum standards and not making significant effort to do so. These countries may face potential cuts to aid and other penalties.

Malaysia, according to last year’s TIP report, was placed on the Tier 2 watch list. 

Countries like Malaysia, China and Cuba, Reuters said, were upgraded in the past for political reasons.

But the new TVPA will end the practice of the State Department taking into account the effectiveness of a country’s efforts to reduce trafficking for the TIP report, it said.

All future TIP reports will have to justify moving nations up or down the rankings.

US Senator Robert Menendez, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the co-author of the act, was quoted as saying that Congress “on a unanimous, bipartisan basis, will not allow the report to be politically manipulated ever again”.

Neha Misra of advocacy group Solidarity Centre said the reauthorisation of the act also includes provisions related to ensuring that countries are rated on the impact of their anti-trafficking efforts in the annual TIP report tier rankings, and not just by their passing of laws or policies.

The new version of the law also discourages the arrest of victims of sex trafficking, who are forced into prostitution.

Other amendments included a ban on US government contractors overseas charging labourers recruitment fees, an increase to maximum jail terms for convicted traffickers and restitution to survivors.

Putrajaya under the new Pakatan Harapan administration has been working on new foreign labour policies as part of efforts to address human trafficking and exploitation of migrant workers.

Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran said in November that a further downgrade for Malaysia in the TIP rankings would subject the country to international sanctions. – January 10, 2019.