This discretion has led to abuse, in turn creating a situation very conducive to trafficking, largely
because of a lack of accountability.102 Regardless of how a Thai official decides to handle the
situation, be it an informal deportation, “helping on” boats of Rohingya that come ashore, or
selling the Rohingya to traffickers, the official’s decision may be found satisfactory due to the
lack of any standard procedure. Because of this, there is very little accountability for those who
wish to take advantage of a very vulnerable group of people.
In this regard, the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000103 (the
“TVPA”) is very relevant to the situation of the Rohingya in Thailand. The TVPA requires the
government to publish the Trafficking in Persons (“TIP”) Report each year.104 The U.S.
Department of State (“State Department”) places each country into one of four tiers, based on the
extent of their government’s efforts to comply with the “minimum standards for the elimination
of trafficking” under section 108 of the TVPA.105 The U.S. government uses the TIP Report to
engage with foreign governments to advance anti-trafficking reforms.106 Changes were made to
the TVPA in 2008 that provided that any country that remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for two
consecutive years would remain on the Tier 2 Watch List instead of being moved to Tier 3.107 The
automatic downgrade provision came into effect in 2011, but the U.S. Secretary of State is
authorized to waive the downgrade based on credible evidence that the government is making
significant efforts to comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards.108
In 2014, the State Department downgraded Thailand to a Tier 3 country in its Trafficking
in Persons Report.109 The State Department, in the past, made an agreement with Thailand that if
the government formulated a written a plan that, if properly implemented, “would constitute
making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,”
Thailand would not be downgraded to Tier 3.110 But the TVPA authorizes only a maximum of
two consecutive “waivers,” or the agreement entered into with Thailand.111 Another waiver is not
available to Thailand because it has been on the Tier 2 Watch List for more than two consecutive
years, and the State Department determined that Thailand has not made “significant efforts to
comply with the minimum standards as required by the TVPA.”112
The issues mentioned in the TIP Reports from previous years continue to be issues for
Thailand, supporting the argument that the failure to enact clearly-defined laws that deal with
refugees and asylum-seekers contributes to the issue of human trafficking. For example, the 2012
TIP Report stated, “[f]oreign migrants, ethnic minorities, and stateless persons in Thailand are the
greatest risk of being trafficked.”113 The Rohingya fit into all three of those categories.
Additionally, the TIP Report states:
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102 Id.
103 22 U.S.C §§ 7101 (“The purposes of this chapter are to combat trafficking in persons, a contemporary manifestation of slavery
whose victims are predominantly women and children, to ensure just and effective punishment of traffickers, and to protect their
victims.”); see also U.S. DEP’ T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 373 (2014) [hereinafter 2014 TIP REPORT], available at
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/?utm_source=NEW+RESOURCE:+Trafficking+in+Persons+R.
104 U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 7 (2012) [hereinafter 2012 TIP REPORT], available at
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/.
105 Id. at 37.
106 Id.
107 Id. at 43.
108 Id. at 44.
109 2014 TIP REPORT, supra note 103, at 373.
110 2012 TIP REPORT, supra note 104, at 339.
111 2014 TIP REPORT, supra 103, at 373.
