The annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report by the U.S. State Department downgraded Myanmar to the worst rating possible, citing the government’s failure to provide legal status to the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority, resulting in their increased vulnerability to human trafficking and forced labor. Myanmar was placed back in Tier 3, the lowest of the four levels provided by the report, after a brief upgrade to the Tier 2 Watch List in 2017. Laos was also pushed down into Tier 3 this year. The government’s “lack of significant effort” to address trafficking resulted in an automatic downgrade as the country had been on the Tier 2 Watch List for four straight years. Tier 3 is for governments of countries that do not fully meet the minimum standards of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act and are not making significant efforts to do so. They could be subject to restrictions on U.S. funding and non-humanitarian, non-trade-related assistance. Other Tier 3 countries include North Korea and Russia. China also joined the list last year. The 2018 report, published on Thursday, labeled the military operations in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State as “ethnic cleansing.” It said that many of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees that fled to neighboring Bangladesh “were subjected to exploitation or transported to other countries for the purpose of sex trafficking.” The government was also blamed for not providing citizenship and identity documents to many Rohingya, which increased their vulnerability. Freedom of movement was also limited, the report said, which hindered access to employment and education for some communities that “may have contributed to more Rohingya men pursuing informal employment channels … including forced labor.” The report also pointed out that government officials were “occasionally complicit” in trafficking as well as facilitating the smuggling and exploitation of Rohingya migrants. The issue of government officials’ involvement in facilitating trafficking was also raised against Laos. The report cited the “lack of awareness of front-line officers” and urged the Lao government to strengthen efforts to implement the 2016 anti-trafficking law by investigating, prosecuting and convicting traffickers, including complicit officials. Thailand, which had been on the Tier 2 Watch List for the past two years, got upgraded to Tier 2 in the 2018 report. It noted that the Thai government demonstrated “increasing efforts” to investigate and convict traffickers along with complicit officials, including those linked with the trafficking of Rohingya migrants. In 2014, the country was downgraded to Tier 3, with the fishing industry being cited as one of the major human trafficking fields. That downgrade, followed by media reports on the use of slavery on fishing boats, led to a temporary suspension of Thai seafood sales by large Western retailers. The Thai government has since ramped up efforts to monitor fishing vessels and to give legal status to migrant workers. “This better placement of Thailand to Tier 2 reflects the [U.S.’s] due recognition of the [Thai] government’s serious and sustained efforts as well as significant progress in combatting all forms of human trafficking during the past year,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement following release of the report. Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong was quoted by local media as saying: “The upgrade will put the minds of Thai product importers at ease and will give a boost to Thai trading volumes.” Among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Philippines is the only country that is placed in Tier 1, the highest rating of the report. For other countries whose ratings were unchanged in this year’s report, Malaysia is in the Tier 2 Watch List, and the rest are in Tier 2.