Graft Hindering Fight Against Human Trafficking, Report Says

by Sonia Kohlbacher | July 2, 2016

Widespread corruption among government officials is thwarting Cambodia’s efforts to combat human trafficking, the U.S. State Department said in an annual assessment that upgraded the country’s ranking, but found that it still failed to meet minimum standards.

Cambodian men continue to be forced into labor on Thai fishing boats; women are trafficked to Malaysia for domestic work; brides are sent to China; and poor children are made to beg in Thailand and Vietnam, according to the Trafficking in Persons report, which was released on Thursday night.

“Endemic corruption at all levels of the government severely limited the ability of individual officials to make progress in holding traffickers accountable,” the report says.

Cambodia was upgraded to Tier 2, the report’s middle ranking, from last year’s Tier 2 Watch List. The report states that Cambodia does not meet the minimum standards necessary to eliminate trafficking, but “is making significant efforts to do so.”

It acknowledges the government’s prevention efforts and progress in protecting victims, but notes that corrupt officials in Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia are working with brokers to traffick victims, and that criminal cases involving perpetrators with apparent political ties are often foiled.

The report also faults the government’s failure to issue formal guidelines that would allow the use of undercover investigative techniques, which means that police must build cases against suspected traffickers without evidence obtained while undercover.

A 2010 amendment to Cambodia’s Criminal Code that criminalizes the covert collection of audio, video and photo evidence has frustrated NGOs that use their own trained investigative teams to pursue sex trafficking cases...