The 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released Thursday by the United States Department of State has placed Sri Lanka in the Tier 2 Watch List, saying the island nation’s government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking although it is making significant efforts to do so.

Tier 2 Watch List countries are the countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

These efforts included increasing prosecutions and investigating allegations of sexual exploitation of children at a state-run orphanage.

The government also continued to work with international organizations on anti-trafficking training and awareness-raising. However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period, even considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity, the TIP report said.

The government did not report efforts to investigate some allegations of official complicity, including those from previous years.

The government achieved fewer convictions and its efforts to identify Sri Lankan forced labor victims abroad remained inadequate, ColomboPage reported.

The TIP Report recommended improving efforts to vigorously investigate and prosecute suspected traffickers, including isolated reports of officials allegedly complicit in trafficking, with fair trials and convict and sentence traffickers to adequate penalties involving significant prison terms.

(SAM)