Pakistan Destination Country For People Subjected To Forced Labour, Trafficking, Ethnic Minorities Highly Vulnerable: Report

The 2020 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report stated that Pakistan has not demonstrated any significant efforts towards eliminating human trafficking in the country, and has downgraded the capital city Inslamabad to the 'Tier 2 Watch List' on the country trafficking scale.

Countries that fall under the list merit special scrutiny, on the grounds that it had failed to establish legislation to fully criminalize trafficking.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the US State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for the year 2020.

The report also concluded that religious minorities and children in Pakistan are highly vulnerable to trafficking.

"Unlike the previous reporting period, the government did not take action against credible reports of official complicity in trafficking, and organizations recorded several high-profile trafficking cases this year," the report read.

It further stated that the Pak government continued to lack in providing overall adequate resources for victim care, and only referred 4% of all victims identified to care.

"Pakistan is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour--particularly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Refugees and stateless persons from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Burma, as well as religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians and Hazaras, are particularly vulnerable to traffickers in Pakistan," it added.

The TIP report also highlighted how the terrorist groups in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan recruit children as young as 12, provide them military training and religious indoctrination, and force them to spy, fight and conduct suicide attacks.

In exchange, these groups sometimes provide families with cash payments or protection.

"Armed groups target children from impoverished and rural areas, particularly those under Taliban control. Women are abducted and forced into labor."

Such groups have also maintained illegal detention facilities, where they force detainees, including children and adults in sex trafficking, labor etc. They use children in combat and non-combat roles, including to carry weapons, as personal servants, support staff, bodyguards, and sex slaves in bacha bazı, it added.

It also mentioned that Labour inspectors, the front-line officials who are responsible to inspect and identify forced and bonded labour, had inadequate training to identify indicators of trafficking, and had insufficient funding to conduct inspections.

The country lacked standard procedures to refer potential forced and bonded labour cases to police.

"Despite high incidences of child and forced labour in agriculture and domestic work, the majority of provincial labour laws did not allow labour inspectors to inspect these worksites for infractions," the report read.

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) reports sort countries into three Tiers, based on their compliance with standards outlined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000.

Tier 1- includes governments who fully meet the TVPA's (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Tier 2- countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards but are making significant efforts.

Tier-3 - whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

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