The United States has removed Pakistan from the Tier 2 ‘watchlist’ of human trafficking and upgraded it to ‘Tier 2’.
According to the details, the US State Department has revised the classification of Pakistan in the annual report of Trafficking in Persons 2022.
It may be recalled that Pakistan was placed on the watchlist in 2018 due to its poor record in preventing human trafficking. According to the report, due to inappropriate measures, Pakistan has been kept on the second-level watchlist for two consecutive years.
Read more: How important is it for Pakistan to get out of FATF grey list?
In its 2020 Trafficking in-person report, the US downgraded Pakistan from Tier 2 to Tier 2 watchlist, while the report acknowledged that Pakistan was taking ‘significant steps’ in the fight against human trafficking. The TIP report is divided into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 watchlist, and Tier 3.
Countries on the Tier 2 watchlist are those whose governments meet the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards. Despite this, the number of victims of trafficking is increasing significantly.
