According to the human trafficking report for 2012 issued by the US Government on 19 June 2012, Myanmar was ranked to Tier-2 watch list from Tier-3, the lowest level previous years. The US government used to rank the position reviewing the efforts of the global nations in the fight against human trafficking after evaluating the lowest norm included in the provisions of the Law on Protection of Victims against Human Trafficking (2010).

The Tier-3 of this year’s report represents 17 countries out of 186 global nations, and financial sanctions will be imposed against those countries if they fail to show significant progress in 90 days. The report reveals measures taken by Myanmar against human trafficking, establishment of hotline that receives public complaints and takes action over the complaints and setting up of 16589 community based watch groups that guard against human trafficking.

Likewise, the report also reveals Myanmar’s adopting and implementing the plan on elimination of forced labour in cooperation with ILO, introducing the new law to deal with forced labour and efforts of Myanmar in the protection of its workers in Thailand in cooperation with the latter. Myanmar has laid down and is implementing the five-year plan under the leadership of the Central Committee for Protection of Human Trafficking since 1997 regarding the control of human trafficking as a national concern.

Action was taken against 2,328 human traffickers under the human trafficking protection law from 2006 to date.