WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday listed Myanmar as among the worst offenders in human trafficking, consigning a country President Barack Obama only four years ago brought in from the diplomatic cold to the same ranking as Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The designation, contained in the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, came just weeks after the Treasury Department lifted a broad array of sanctions on Myanmar, including those applying to state-run banks and businesses. Senior officials argued then that although the country’s human rights record was not perfect, its leaders deserved to be rewarded for their steps toward democratization. Relaxing the sanctions, they said, would serve as an incentive for the government to further improve its behavior.
U.S. officials said Myanmar had not met expectations for improvement, though they said its efforts had been “significant.” The determination could have potentially damaging effects on a relationship that was just showing signs of thaw.
The Obama administration reestablished diplomatic ties to Myanmar in 2012, after a lengthy overture by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the country’s ruling generals, as well as to the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. In November 2012, just after he was re-elected, Obama made a landmark visit to Myanmar with Clinton. He was back two years later for an Asian summit meeting, but by then, there were already signs of backsliding by Myanmar’s rulers, particularly in their treatment of the Muslim minority population, known as the Rohingya.
Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize winner, became the leader of Myanmar, once known as Burma, earlier this year, part of a political sea change that began in 2011 with the reopening of the country’s parliament.
In May, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Suu Kyi, a significant diplomatic moment between the United States and Myanmar. But Kerry also pressed her on the country’s treatment of the Rohingya.
The State Department said in its report that the conscription of children by the country’s military and the widespread use of forced labor, including the sex trafficking of women and girls, also remain serious problems in Myanmar. While the government has continued to prosecute and raise awareness about trafficking, it said Myanmar had not done enough to hold civilian officials responsible, a core issue as it appears the problem may be shifting to the private sphere rather than being resolved.
Unveiling the report, which provides an annual assessment of government efforts to fight human trafficking around the world, Kerry said on Thursday that “it’s outrageous that even today the magnitude of the human trafficking challenge cannot be overstated.”
Among the 188 countries that the report examines is the United States. While it placed among the top-ranked countries, it continues to have problems with forced labor and sex trafficking, the report said. Many of its victims came from Mexico and the Philippines last year.