US human trafficking report promotes Myanmar but demotes China – The Guardian

A billboard in a Yangon suburb discouraging recruitment of children for the Myanmar military. Photograph: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

The US asserted on Tuesday that Myanmar is no longer one of the worlds worst offenders on human trafficking, removing it and Iraq from a list of countries that use child soldiers.

But in its annual Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department also demoted China to the lowest ranking over its trafficking record, putting it in the same category as North Korea, Zimbabwe and Syria.

Afghanistan was recognised for taking steps to curb trafficking, while Iraq was seen as making insufficient progress on that issue.

Ivanka Trump, the senior White House adviser and daughter of President Donald Trump, said ending human trafficking was in both the moral and strategic interests of the US, describing the effort as a major foreign policy priority for the administration.

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said the roughly 20 million victims of human trafficking globally illustrate how much more work must be done.

Regrettably, our challenge is enormous, Tillerson said. Human trafficking is becoming more nuanced and more difficult to identify. Much of these activities are going underground, and theyre going online.

Myanmar was promoted for its efforts against recruitment of child soldiers and its first prosecution of government officials under a human trafficking law. The south-east Asian nation had been demoted to the lowest tier last year, shortly after it shifted to civilian government, ending decades of oppressive military rule.

Myanmars elevation is a boost for Aung San Suu Kyis administration, which is facing growing criticism from human rights groups. The political transition in the country has been a bumpy one as it wrestles with ethnic conflict and deep-seated discrimination against its Rohingya Muslim minority.

The demotion of China was a particular surprise this year, marking the first major, public rebuke of Beijings human rights record by the Trump administration, which has generally avoided direct, public criticism of the country while seeking its help on North Korea.

The US said that not only was China not meeting minimum standards to stop trafficking, it also was not making significant efforts to do so. The report also said there were indications that Chinas government was still complicit in forced labour, including in some drug rehabilitation centres. The US said Chinas efforts to prosecute traffickers had also fallen.

Chinas foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said it strongly opposed the US using its domestic laws to attack another countrys record, and maintained that the results of Beijings anti-human trafficking efforts are obvious for everyone to see.

As we have said repeatedly, no country has the right to speak irresponsibly on Chinas domestic affairs, Lu said ahead of the reports official launch.

Chinas governments commitment to fighting human trafficking has been resolute and our results have been obvious for everyone to see, he said, adding that China is willing to work with other countries on the basis of mutual respect to combat global human trafficking.

Human Rights Watch said removing Myanmar was premature, and undermined US credibility in ending the use of children in warfare. The group said the UN documented child recruitment by Myanmars armed forces in 2016.

The annual TiP report ranks countries in a three-tier system on their effectiveness in tackling human trafficking and other forms of slavery.

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US human trafficking report promotes Myanmar but demotes China - The Guardian