By Mustafa Shafawi | Posted: 28 June 2011 1853 hrs
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) says it is dismayed to find the US "Trafficking in Persons Report 2011" riddled with inaccuracies in the section on Singapore.
In response to media queries, a MFA spokesman said such a casual approach to the facts is troubling.
The MFA highlighted two inaccuracies among the "numerous others".
It said the report has a major issue with forced labour on fishing vessels that "originated in Singapore".
"This is the first such claim that such vessels originated in Singapore. This is untrue and unverified," said the MFA.
"The Singapore government would not tolerate forced labour on Singapore flagged ships. The United States should thoroughly investigate the 'reports' before faulting us for not pursuing our 'phantom' ships," added the MFA.
There's also the astonishing observation that "no known victims" of trafficking were afforded medical and other services at shelters in the past year.
The Singapore government said it is deeply puzzled with this statement.
Just last month it had provided the US with detailed information about a variety of services that trafficking victims had used in the past year, including medical, counselling and translation.
While Singapore acknowledged that much remains to be done in its fight against trafficking, it said it is disappointed that the US chose to blatantly dismiss the facts and suggest that the country is not doing its share.
The MFA spokesman said the US report also seems to assume that the domestic processes of all countries reviewed are the same as that of the United States.
Singapore noted that the US has again unabashedly awarded itself a Tier-1 ranking, meaning full compliance.
Yet, the New York Times had observed in a 23 April report that teenage girls coerced into prostitution in the US are treated not as trafficking victims but as miscreants who are arrested and prosecuted, instead of protected.
This, the MFA spokesman said, is directly opposite from Singapore's approach to commercial sex workers of any age in Singapore. They are all prima facie considered as TIP victims.
The spokesman added that as is well known, the US also suffers from serious problems with illegal immigrants.
Many are trafficked by well-organised criminal gangs which seem to be able to operate with impunity, noted the spokesman.
On any objective criteria, the US has a more serious TIP problem compared with Singapore, said the MFA.
It said this incongruity could perhaps be explained by the fact that the report does not apply a consistent, transparent and measurable standard for all countries.
As Senator James Webb said before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 24 May 2011 "there are some inconsistencies in the way that [the US is] carrying out an otherwise well-intentioned policy. The classic example of that was that we've given Nigeria a '1' in our TIP Reports and we've given Japan a '2', and Singapore a 2W [in 2010].
"We need to fix the law so that we are measuring the right sorts of things as we put these policies forward because it is causing a great deal of resentment among people who are otherwise our close friends."
US human trafficking report "riddled with inaccuracies" - Channel NewsAsia
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