A report by US authority has revealed that the religious and ethnic minorities living in Pakistan are subject to violence and are vulnerable to trafficking. The US has also downgraded Pakistan to the ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ on the country trafficking scale.
US State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for the year 2020 was released by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo . The report stated that religious minorities and children in Pakistan are highly vulnerable to trafficking.
The report also highlighted that terrorist groups in Pakistan kidnap children as young as 12 and force them to spy, fight and conduct suicide attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Pakistan is a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour–particularly from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Refugees and stateless persons from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Burma, as well as religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians and Hazaras, are particularly vulnerable to traffickers in Pakistan,” the report read.
“Non-state militant groups kidnap children as young as 12, buy them from destitute parents, coerce parents with threats or fraudulent promises into giving their children away, or recruit children from madrassas; these armed groups force children to spy, fight, and conduct suicide attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Traffickers have promised Pakistani boys admittance to Afghan religious schools but sold them to members of the Afghan security forces for bacha bazi,” the report added.
‘Tier 2 Watch List’ is a category denoting a country those meriting special scrutiny, on the grounds that it had failed to enact legislation to fully criminalize trafficking.
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report sorts countries into four tiers — Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-2 watchlist, and Tier-3– based on their efforts to fight trafficking. Countries whose governments fully meet the TVPA’s (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking are categorised as Tier-1.
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