This week, the United States recognized Pakistan’s efforts against human trafficking, removing the country from its trafficking watchlist and revising Pakistan’s classification to ‘Tier 2’ in the State Department’s ‘Trafficking in Persons (TIP)’ 2022 report.
Tier 2 countries are those whose governments do not completely meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but are making significant efforts to do so. The report said Pakistan had improved its anti-trafficking performance during the reporting period.
“Overall, the government increased its efforts from the previous reporting period, despite the pandemic’s effect on anti-trafficking capacity; as a result, Pakistan was upgraded to Tier 2,” the report said.
It praised the Pakistani government and its provincial departments for making progress in implementing standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral and training more stakeholders.
“According to the report, the government has allocated resources for the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and amended the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act (PTPA) to remove provisions that allowed fines in lieu of imprisonment for sex trafficking crimes with women and children as victims.”
Despite significant progress in some areas, the government of Pakistan has failed to meet minimum standards in several key areas related to human trafficking, according to a new report. The report urges the Pakistani government to increase prosecutions and convictions of all forms of trafficking, including bonded labor, and to imposes significant prison terms on perpetrators.
