Vietnam ready to discuss human trafficking cooperation with US

The ministry’s spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang said Thursday Vietnam hopes the two sides will continue cooperating closely so that the U.S. has more objective, precise, comprehensive assessment of the situation and efforts of Vietnam.

“We are also ready to discuss concrete cooperation issues with the U.S. side and relevant parties to together effectively carry out human trafficking prevention and control,” Hang added.

She said Vietnam has been working to support safe and legal migration, and is determined to prevent human smuggling and trafficking.

“Vietnam has gained important results such as boosting the effectiveness of inter-sectoral coordination, improving statistics, intensifying the investigation and settlement of human trafficking, and increasing communications to raise public awareness about human trafficking.”

The 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report put Vietnam in Tier 2 Watch List, upgraded from Tier 3 in last year’s report.

The 188-country report defines Tier 2 Watch List as a group of countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards of the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 3 group is defined as countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

The 2023 report lists countries that are actively engaged in trafficking, including Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Iran, Russia, South Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan.

Such countries can be punished with U.S. sanctions or have U.S. aid revoked.