Pacific countries continue to battle human trafficking

Transcript

A human trafficking report released by the US State department has received little backing from leaders and anti-human trafficking organisations in the Pacific.

This year's report placed the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands on a Tier 2 Watch List with Papua New Guinea given the worst ranking of Tier 3.

Countries placed on Tier 3 risk financial sanctions from the United States.

Indira Moala reports:

It is the second year in a row that both Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands have been placed on the watch list. The State Department's report says the Marshall Islands did not increase efforts to protect victims of human trafficking. It also suggested that government officials were complicit in human trafficking, but provided no specific details. Yet the Marshalls government has completely dismissed the report and a spokesperson from the International Organization of Migration, Ashley Carl, says he has seen strong commitment from government officials who had already sought the IOM's help.

ASHLEY CARL: With the Marshalls government, it's not a concern with their willingness to address the issue, I think it's more about developing the appropriate systems to identify the problems in the first place. Things like sufficient training for Law enforcement officials on screening potential victims of trafficking. And then the development of protection framework should they be identified. They've already got a lot of the appropriate legislation in place, so it's just a matter of operationalising the appropriate legislation.

The report claimed that there have been no prosecutions for human trafficking since 2011, when its anti-trafficking legislation was established. Dr Patricia Kailola from the Pacific Dialogue, an anti-human trafficking NGO based in Fiji, believes the report is well intentioned, but some statements lack context.

PATRICIA KAILOLA: It's basically just a basic objective report. I wouldn't say it's very fair. They don't get out and talk as far as I know. But like, they haven't come to us - we went to them. So I think it's a little bit patronizing perhaps for the US to make these statements and like classify people A, B and C but then they actually don't get out and put their shoulder to the wheel to assist.

Pamela Brown Blackburn is the Pacific Ombudsman for Humanitarian Law and she believes the US federal government has made a concerted effort towards helping to combat the issue in the region. Ms Blackburn says more awareness and training is needed to help implement anti-trafficking laws that already exist in the region.

PAMELA BROWN BLACKBURN: You have people that deny the existence of the problem and believe that anyone who's involved is involved consentually and wants to be there. You just have to continue to do public outreach and training and have everybody working as a community - not simply your law enforcement people or your NGO's but everyone involved. People tend to turn a blind eye, and it's much easier to simply prosecute people as prostitutes then to develop a trafficking case - they're very hard to develop.

Ms Blackburn says the US federal government is currently working mainly in the Micronesian area with aims to expand to Polynesia and Melanesia as resources become available.