Human Trafficking Report 2022: There are things to celebrate but many injustices still to fight

The annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report has been released for 2022. The report does an incredible job of showing the scope and response of human trafficking in the world.

1. Respect for the images of survivors was highlighted. They included a large disclosure that the stories and photographs included in the report are meant to be illustrative with names and faces changed to protect the identity of survivors.

2. Focus on Trauma-Informed Care and Survivor-Informed Approach to supporting people in and rescued from human trafficking.

3. Highlighted that movement or being transported somewhere else is not an essential part of a victim of human trafficking. The essentials are any involvement in being forced, fraud or coerced into involuntary servitude, debt bondage, slavery or peonage (Peonage is a system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work).

4. Championed Survivor Leadership! Listening to survivors is essential but letting them lead the charge to end human trafficking and how to support survivors is also vital. Survivors are experts in this field.

5. Prioritised acknowledging past mistakes in the portrayal and care of victims and survivors. It is essential to learn lessons from the past and listen to survivors.

Cambodia has been down graded to the lowest possible raking - Tier 3. They have never been ranked this low in the report in the TIP history

This is really discouraging for the country and the National Committee on Counter-Trafficking (NCCT) in Cambodia has said the report doesn't take into consideration the progress their department had made. However, the Cambodia government did not disclose vital information needed (budget and funding), did not provide adequate protection services for survivors (relying almost exclusively on foreign donors and NGO's to provide essential care) or show any progress in fighting the 'endemic corruption.'

The major areas of exploitation and vulnerability in Cambodia continues to be sex trafficking, labour trafficking especially in fishing and brick kilns and an increase in domestic services.

For the full information see the Cambodia section of the 2022 TIP report available for free download from the US State department website (p 154 - 158).