India rejects US human trafficking report

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday rejected the US state department’s annual report on trafficking in persons, which put India on a watch-list, terming it a “judgmental and prescriptive approach by a foreign government.”

The report has placed India in the Tier 2 watch-list and is scathing in its criticism of India’s record in prevention of trafficking saying that India has “failed to comply” with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have been put in Tier 2, which includes countries that have made an effort to control human trafficking, forced and bonded labour and prostitution.

India was quick to react and warned that this move could harm the ongoing dialogue between the two countries on the issue. “On the subject of trafficking in persons, as with other areas, we reject judgmental and prescriptive approach by a foreign government,” a ministry of external affairs spokesperson said.

India and the US have an ongoing dialogue on human trafficking and these subjects are discussed in the Global Issues Forum. “The approach of the 2006 report does not reflect the active co-operation on this subject between the two countries. It certainly is not helpful to furthering our dialogue in that regard,” he said.

The state department report said India lacked a national law enforcement response to any form of trafficking, but that it did take some preliminary measures to create a central law enforcement unit to do so.

“India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced or bonded labour and commercial sexual exploitation,” the report says

Another issue that the report brings up is the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. “The government drafted, but had not yet introduced in Parliament, amendments to the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) that would afford greater protection to sex trafficking victims....”

The report also points out that India is a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.

The sixth annual report was released by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. The report ranks 158 countries into four categories with the Tier 2 watch-list being at the top.