For Immediate Release: June 15, 2010

Contact: Shandon Phan, 703-647-6462 |   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Falls Church, Virginia - BPSOS welcomes the United States Department of State's release of its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) today.  For the first time since 2004, Vietnam has been downgraded from "Tier 2" to "Tier 2 Watch List."
 
As a member of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA), BPSOS has worked to expose Vietnam's role in labor trafficking by utilizing a comprehensive strategy of gathering solid labor trafficking cases in surrounding destination countries and using them for advocacy and public awareness campaigns.  According to the TIP report, "[Vietnam] did not show evidence of progress in criminally prosecuting and criminally punishing labor trafficking offenders and protecting victims of all forms of trafficking, particularly victims of labor trafficking and internal trafficking; therefore, Vietnam is placed on Tier 2 Watch List."  
 
"This is a significant wakeup call for the Vietnamese government that it can no longer ignore their role in labor trafficking," said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of BPSOS. "Vietnam must now initiate a plan to get itself off the Watch List or it will find itself in Tier 3." 
 
The report also highlights the practice of Contract Fraud and Contract Switching, by featuring a sample contract from a current BPSOS case. This practice is often used by state-licensed Vietnamese labor export companies where workers are given two different contracts to sign: one in Vietnamese and one in a different language with different and less favorable terms. These contracts also often include provisions that violate basic human rights, such as barring workers from joining trade unions in the destination country or getting pregnant or married to locals during their employment.  
 
"Vietnam can certainly move up if the Vietnamese government takes the State Department report findings seriously and pursues concrete steps of action immediately to address the severe but long ignored problem of labor trafficking in Vietnam," said Phong Le, BPSOS Human Rights and Social Justice Coordinator. "Specifically, they need to pass an anti-trafficking law that recognizes labor trafficking; pay $3.2 million dollars in compensation to the trafficking victims in the American Samoa case; outlaw contract provisions that violate basic human rights; and investigate labor trafficking cases that have been brought to their attention and punish the traffickers." 
 
The report on 177 nations is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments throughout the world, the United States included, to combat modern-day slavery. Its findings raise global awareness and spur countries to take effective actions to counter trafficking in persons.  
 
CAMSA is a coalition of international organizations which consists of BPSOS, International Society for Human Rights, Vietnamese Canadian Federation, U.S. Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers, and Tenaganita. Founded in February 2008 with the mission of eradicating human trafficking in Southeast Asia, within two years of operation CAMSA has successfully assisted over 3,000 victims of human trafficking. For more information about CAMSA and human trafficking as well as how you can help, please visit www.camsa-coalition.org. 
 

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