Transcript
Papua New Guinea still has many women and children subjected to sex trafficking and child prostitution by logging and mining workers.
PNG has now moved off the worst category, after introducing anti-trafficking provisions and establishing a new training programme for frontline officials.
Also an anti-trafficking committee and national plan of action was also drafted.
The head of the International Organisation for Migration in PNG, Lance Bonneau, commended the government and says officials deal with significant challenges, like diverse cultures and geographical spread.
“It's certainly something that can be addressed and they've taken approaches to get out to the provincial levels and the fact they are trying to look at improved training curriculums for frontline officials, wherever they may be, will be a very positive step.”
The Marshall Islands has also come off the bottom rung, after being the lowest ranked over the past two years that had become a point of contention.
The country has both local and East Asian girls who get recruited by foreign fishing vessels that dock in Majuro.
Our correspondent Giff Johnson says being ranked so low did spur a national plan of action, funding for victim services and awareness raising efforts.
“Which still isn't an ideal location to be, but it's certainly a significant step up and reflects things like various passage of an updated law to do with trafficking and a fair amount of community based work in trying to raise the profile and understanding about trafficking.”
The report recognised the republic's modest efforts to identify trafficking perpetrators but noted a lack of prosecutions.
Similarly in American Samoa, where Fili Sagapolutele explains improvements are down to better legislation and the US Department of Justice Human Trafficking Taskforce.
Previously in the territory there had been trafficking in its textile industry and locals treating Samoa relatives as domestic slaves.
“American Samoa is also included in there and they also provides funding if there are cases. And they provide funding to train law enforcement, provide community outreach, and prevention programmes just to make sure everyone is on the same level, making sure there's no form of human trafficking. These are small islands so you are sure to find out and hear about it.”
The work of human rights advocate Suzanna Tiapula focuses on supporting partners in the Pacific, who says more work is needed.
“I think one of the shortcomings is that there is a real paucity of data. There's not enough research not enough evidence based for many of the recommendations. That said, the value of this trafficking persons report especially for small communities is that they have the capacity to say things or recommend things that might be difficult.”
And despite many challenges to accessing information, inadequate training and remote communities, it's still useful seeing what's working elsewhere.
“The greatest value is that in working with other countries we have the opportunities to compare, identify strengths we may not have thought about, barriers and strategies.”
Other small island states looked at include Palau, Tonga, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Federated States of Micronesia, but others like Samoa and Vanuatu are excluded.
Highly ranked include countries like the United States, Australia and New Zealand but downgraded to the bottom was the People's Republic of China.
