ENTRE News – The United States (US) has included Brunei Darussalam in its blacklist for human trafficking cases. In the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ annual report, Brunei and Sudan were blacklisted as “level 3.” These two countries are considered not to have taken significant steps towards cases of human trafficking.
The US Ministry of Foreign Affairs also assessed that Brunei had not punished human traffickers for seven consecutive years. The government of this Southeast Asian country actually tried and deported a number of victims who needed help regarding this case.
“[Brunei] publicized efforts to arrest fleeing workers, and caned some of those caught,” the US State Department said.
Meanwhile, Sudan is considered to be carrying out human trafficking which is used for war purposes.
“We assess that the policy or pattern of human trafficking by the Sudanese government is related to the recruitment of child soldiers,” according to the US State Department, quoted by AFP.
As a result of this report, the governments of Sudan and Brunei are threatened with US sanctions because they are on the blacklist. The US Ministry of Foreign Affairs report also states that human trafficking is still a major problem throughout the world. They noted that around 27 million people in the world are exploited for work and sexual activity.
The report also highlights the role of technology which is considered to make it easier for traders to cross the borders of other countries. US Secretary FOR4D of State Anthony Blinken said there was a significant increase in cyber fraud for working abroad. The countries on the third level blacklist mostly have bad relations with the United States. Some of them include China, Russia and Venezuela.
However, this is not the case with Brunei. Brunei has friendly relations with the US although the Muslim-majority country has been heavily criticized for retaining the death penalty for homosexuality.
In addition to including Brunei and Sudan, the United States also removed Algeria from the blacklist because it assessed the country as “making significant efforts”, referring to Algeria’s new anti-trafficking law. The law prosecutes three times as many suspected human traffickers.
