India in US watch-list on human trafficking

Washington, June 6: A US State Department report on human trafficking has placed India on a Tier 2 ''watch-list'' because of what it said were existing bonded labour practices and the lack of adequate action to effectively end this.

Briefing reporters on the fifth annual report on Trafficking in Persons, released here yesterday, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons John Miller said they estimate that hundreds of thousands of Indians were victims of a form of slavery wherein a family is indebted to an employer generation after generation.

The ''Tier 2 Watch-list'' includes countries that show signs of falling backwards, but Mr Miller said that ''W'' also stood for ''worry'' and ''warning''.

Four major nations on the watch-list for at least the second year in a row are China, India, Mexico and Russia.

''This has to be a source of concern,'' Mr Miller said, predicting that the four nations could well slip to the least favorable Tier 3 by next year. A Tier 3 assessment could trigger the withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade-related assistance from the United States to that country.

According to the report India has been placed on the watch-list for a second consecutive year for its inability to show evidence of increased efforts to address trafficking in persons, particularly its lack of progress in forming a national law enforcement response to inter-state and transnational trafficking crimes.

The government, the report said, also lacked a meaningful response to the significant problem of trafficking-related complicity of law enforcement officials.

The central government needs to designate and empower a national law enforcement entity to carry out investigations and law enforcement operations against trafficking crimes with nation-wide jurisdiction, the report pointed out.

This major deficiency was highlighted by state-level law enforcement officials who, at a 2004 conference, pointed to the difficulty in investigating trafficking crimes across state lines and coordinating with other states' police forces in accounting for the low level of trafficking-related prosecutions and convictions in India.

Overall, Indian anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts remained weak, though notable progress was seen in particular localities, the report said.

Statistics on trafficking-related investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences were not available, though statistics obtained from several key cities and states showed 195 prosecutions and 82 convictions obtained for offences related to trafficking for sexual exploitation in 2004. An estimated 2,058 prosecutions and 1,051 convictions for child labour offenses were obtained in 2004 throughout India.

According to the report India is a source, transit, and destination country for women, men, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labour exploitation. Indian men and women are trafficked into situations of involuntary servitude in countries in West Asia and children may be forced to work as beggars or camel jockeys.

Bangladeshi women and children are trafficked to India or trafficked through India en route to Pakistan and West Asia for purposes of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced labour. Nepalese women and girls are trafficked to India for these purposes, it said.

The report also says India is also a growing destination for sex tourists from Europe, the United States, and other Western countries. Internal trafficking of women, men, and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, bonded labour, and indentured servitude was widespread.

Numerous studies show that the vast majority of females in the Indian commercial sex industry are currently victims of sexual servitude or were originally trafficked into the sex trade.

The Government of India, it said, does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.

Earlier, releasing the report, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the defeat of human trafficking ''the great moral calling of our time''.

She said the United States has distributed 400 million dollars in assistance to other nations in recent years, helping them improve systems to combat human trafficking and provide more support for victims.

''All nations that are resolute in the fight to end human trafficking have a partner in the United States,'' Ms Rice said.

The Department of State is required by law to submit a report each year to the US Congress on foreign governments' efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons.

This report is intended to raise global awareness and spur foreign governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of trafficking in persons.

A country that fails to take significant actions to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons receives a negative ''Tier 3'' assessment.

Iran, Syria, Burma, Laos, Sudan and Cuba fall into this category.

UNI