The military government deserves praise for the upgrade of Thailand's status in the latest annual US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report even though this is the same ranking the country had almost a decade before prior to plunging in a string of downgrades.
The US State Department decided last week to upgrade Thailand from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2 in its 2018 TIP report, thanks to the government's increased efforts to address trafficking problems.
Tier 2 is given to countries where the government does not fully comply with minimum standards but is making significant efforts to comply with them.
Soonruth Bunyamanee is acting editor, Bangkok Post.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha welcomed the upgrade, saying that it is down to the success of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in tackling trafficking which has also benefited the country in many areas.
I also offer my congratulations to the country and the NCPO for this promotion. However, a Tier 2 ranking should not be reason for the government to become complacent. It is still not a satisfactory level and there is much room for improvement when it comes to dealing with Thailand's trafficking problems.
Shortly after Gen Prayut staged the coup on May 22, 2014, and installed his government, the US State Department downgraded Thailand to the lowest level of Tier 3 from Tier 2 Watch List.
Then, the US report cited Thailand's failure to fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking for the poor ranking. It indicated the country's shortcomings in several areas such as law enforcement, arrest and prosecution of key players behind trafficking networks, and actions against officials involved in trafficking or turning a blind eye to the problem.
Even though there is no evidence to suggest an immediate link between the downgrade and the military coup, it is widely believed that Washington uses the TIP ranking as a political tool in dealing with other countries.
It is inevitable that the 2014 downgrade was seen as discrimination against Thailand by the US after it placed the nation in the same bracket as some authoritarian states such as Iran, North Korea and Syria.
Tier 3 sits at the foot of the rankings and numbered 23 countries at that time, including all of the most despicable slave-trading and anti-rights nations.
Since then, in his bid boost the image of the country and his government, Gen Prayut has cranked up his administration's drive against human trafficking by amending several relevant laws and setting deadlines for actions and reports.
There has also been a series of harsh crackdowns on traffickers. Notably, there has been a joint effort among different state agencies against Rohingya trafficking rings, which had exploited a loophole to smuggle minority Muslims who suffered discrimination in Myanmar out from the country to labour markets in Malaysia and Indonesia via Thailand.
Thailand's fishing industry, in particular, has faced widespread criticism since the Tier 3 ranking in 2014. Tackling forced labour in fishing has become a priority of this government.
But the government's efforts were all to no avail when Washington decided to keep Thailand in Tier 3 a year later, sparking criticism from the Thai Foreign Ministry that the ranking did not accurately reflect the significant efforts undertaken by the Thai government to tackle trafficking.
In 2016, the US Department of State finally upgraded Thailand to the Tier 2 Watch List which indicated that the Thai government still deserved special scrutiny. It underscored that the problem of human trafficking in Thailand remained large and required additional, substantial and effective government leadership.
In the year after, Washington kept the country on the Tier 2 Watch List despite that the government insisted there was significant progress in its work to deal with trafficking.
It was until this year that Thailand was finally upgraded to Tier 2, the same ranking the country last had in 2008 and 2009.
On the one hand, the latest promotion of Thailand's status reflects substantial progress of the country's efforts in dealing with the problem. On the other hand, it reflects Washington's shifting geopolitical policy towards Thailand as the junta government has assured it that a general election will be definitely held early next year.
The TIP upgrade will benefit Thailand in terms of international cooperation. In addition, it will ease pressure on Thai seafood products exported to foreign markets as well as reduce the risk of a ban on Thai export goods.
Still, the US decision to upgrade Thailand does not mean that the country has met international requirements in handling the trafficking problem.
True, the government has demonstrated increasing efforts by prosecuting and convicting more traffickers last year, including 11 officials involved in the trafficking of Rohingya migrants, and decreasing prosecution time for trafficking cases through the use of specialised anti-trafficking law enforcement divisions.
However, it still failed to meet minimum standards in several key areas. For example, the report specifies that officials identified fewer victims of forced labour and investigated fewer forced labour cases compared to the previous reporting period. Although the government continued to increase labour inspections in high-risk industries, it resulted in disproportionately few identified victims and criminal investigations while official complicity continued to impede anti-trafficking efforts.
In fact, although the government has made all-out efforts to deal with the problem, it does not help the government that several local agencies have not cooperated and even chosen to go against the policy, particularly in forced labour activities.
Even though the Prayut government deserves some credit for this development, it has merely restored the country's status to the level it had prior to the series of downgrades. Clearly, no one can afford to stay complacent.