'We've done our best,' says PM awaiting US verdict on trafficking
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PRIME Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said Wednesday his government had done its best to tackle human trafficking - as the US Department of State prepares to release the annual report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) on Monday.
John Kirby, spokesperson at the State Department, said the TIP report would be released at 10am (9pm Bangkok time) to announce the status of all countries around the world on the handling of human trafficking issues.
Thailand was downgraded last year to the lowest Tier 3 in the TIP report for what the US saw as its poor management of the humanitarian crisis.
Prayut blamed the government he toppled last year for the downgrade. “I came to solve the problem, not to create a problem, but I don’t know what [will be] the result,” he said, “Let it be.”
Prayut said he worked hard over the past year to improve Thailand’s status in the TIP report. He said he elevated trafficking into a national agenda, setting up a task force to solve the problem.
