Below is an article published by The Daily Times:
 
Pakistan has been ranked as a “Tier 2” country in the 2010 US Trafficking in Persons Report, which has cited improvements from the previous year due to efforts to prosecute human traffickers, and prevent and combat bonded labour, Daily Times learned on Monday [14 June 2010].

Announcing the release of the report, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said Washington was committed to supporting Pakistan in its efforts to combat human trafficking.

Prosecutions: Highlighting Pakistan’s action against human trafficking, the report said the conviction of 385 criminals in 2009 under the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance, and 2,894 prosecutions and 166 convictions under various other penal code sections used to prosecute trafficking offences had led to significant improvements.

The report stated that the Sindh police’s successful efforts to free over 2,000 bonded labourers from feudal landlords, and their work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to raise awareness and develop better protection services for labourers and their families had also improved the situation.

The report stated the Punjab government’s Elimination of Bonded Labour in Brick Kilns project – launched with assistance from the International Labour Organisation and Pakistani NGOs – helped nearly 6,000 bonded labourers obtain Computerized National Identification Cards, provided $140,000 in interest-free loans to labourers and established 60 schools for the workers’ children.

The report highlighted that Islamabad had also completed a four-year project to repatriate and rehabilitate over 1,000 children who had been trafficked to the United Arab Emirates.

It also lauded the Sindh government’s Landless Harees Programme, which offered the landless-poor in rural Sindh an alternative to tenant farming including land, seed and fertiliser distribution, agricultural development assistance, cash grants, and micro health insurance.

The 10th annual US Trafficking in Persons Report outlines the continuing challenges across the globe, including in the US. The report, for the first time, includes a ranking of the US based on the same standards with which it ranks other countries.

The report stated Washington takes its first-ever ranking not as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global efforts against modern slavery, including those within America. This human rights abuse is universal, and no one should claim immunity from its reach or from the responsibility to confront it, it stated.

The report serves as the primary diplomatic tool through which Washington encourages partnership and increased determination in the fight against forced labour, sexual exploitation and modern-day slaver.