The United States Department placed Palau again in Tier 2 on the annual Trafficking In Persons Report (TIP), but the report highlighted several efforts being made by the island nation to combat human trafficking.
In the report, Palau is said to be “increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore, Palau remained on Tier 2.”
The TIP said that among efforts made by Palau is amending the anti-trafficking law to increase penalties for trafficking crimes and improve protections for trafficking victims, investigating more trafficking crimes, identifying more trafficking victims, conducting public awareness campaigns, and providing protection services to victims.
Palau has also allocated direct funding “for the first time in three years” to victim assistance and for the first time to the implementation of the NAP.
However, the government still did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. “The government did not initiate any trafficking prosecutions, convict any traffickers, or conduct educational or public awareness campaigns for labor recruiters, while not prohibiting agencies from charging workers recruitment fees. “
Countries placed on Tier 2 are governments that do not fully meet the. U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
For the past five years, human traffickers have exploited domestic and foreign victims in Palau, and traffickers exploit victims from Palau abroad.
The report cited that according to an NGO, only one-third of male respondents to a 2023 survey believed trafficking took place in Palau.
However, according to the government, approximately one-third of respondents to another 2023 survey were unaware of the existence of a national law to protect trafficking victims, and approximately 20 percent of respondents did not believe trafficking took place in Palau.
In the past five years, Palau’s profile in the TIP report included traffickers exploiting Palauan’s girls in sex trafficking, primarily in the states of Koror and Airai.
It also noted that because one-third of the country’s population of 18,000 are foreigners, they are at risk for trafficking.
“Undocumented immigrants and migrant workers with low levels of education and English-language proficiency have an increased vulnerability to trafficking. Filipino, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, and People’s Republic of China (PRC) national adults pay thousands of dollars in recruitment fees, sometimes up to $8,000, and willingly migrate to Palau for jobs in domestic service, agriculture, the hospitality industry, or construction.”
“Around the globe, an estimated 27 million people are exploited for labor, services, and commercial sex. Through force, fraud, and coercion, they are made to toil in the fields and factories, in restaurants and residences. Traffickers prey on some of the world’s most marginalized and vulnerable individuals – profiting from their plight,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement during the release of the report. (By: Bernadette Carreon)