BANGKOK - Thailand should be downgraded by the US State Department in its annual report on human trafficking because of its lack of progress in protecting garment and fishing workers, according to a coalition of human rights groups.
The South-East Asian country had failed to provide sufficient evidence of increased efforts to combat human trafficking, said the Thai Seafood Working Group (SWG), a coalition of almost 60 labour, human rights and green groups.
Last year, Thailand was ranked as a Tier 2 country - above the lowest ranking of Tier 3 - in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report which noted significant efforts to combat trafficking.
