US human trafficking report cites progress in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has improved its efforts to fight human trafficking, said a US report which has moved Islamabad’s ranking upwards after keeping it in a watch list.
“The Government of Pakistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so,” the US State Department report said. It added: “The government demonstrated increased efforts compared with in the previous reporting period; therefore Pakistan was upgraded to Tier 2.”
The report added: “The government demonstrated increased efforts by increasing the number of victims it identified and investigations and prosecutions of sex trafficking.”
The US state department report acknowledged that the Pakistan government continued to implement its 2015-2020 national strategic framework against trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.
On April 12, shortly before the dissolution, the National Assembly passed a law to tackle human trafficking to European and other countries.
Under the law, the traffickers and those who help them will face a jail term of up to 14 years and a fine of up to two million rupees ($17,000).
“The government’s law enforcement action on labor trafficking remained inadequate compared with the scale of forced and bonded labor in Pakistan, although overall investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for bonded labor increased in Punjab,” the State Department report said.
“The government (of Pakistan) increased victim identification but demonstrated mixed efforts to protect and assist victims,” the report added.