A 2005 cabinet resolution established stateless trafficking victims in Thailand could be given residency status on a case-by-case basis; however, the Thai government had yet to report granting residency status to a foreign or stateless trafficking victim for nine consecutive years. Thai law protects victims from being prosecuted for acts committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking; however, the serious flaws in the Thai government’s victim identification procedures and its aggressive efforts to arrest and deport immigration violators increased victims’ risk of being re-victimized and treated as criminals. Unidentified victims were likely among the migrants who were subjected to government citations for lack of proper documentation during the year and were detained in sometimes-overcrowded immigration detention facilities. The government did not provide legal alternatives to victims who faced retribution or hardship upon return to their home countries; foreign victims were systematically repatriated if they were unwilling to testify or following the conclusion of legal proceedings.

PREVENTION
The government increased efforts to prevent trafficking. The government increased funding significantly to combat human trafficking. It conducted campaigns through the use of radio, television, billboards, and handouts to raise public awareness of the dangers of human trafficking throughout the country. Nonetheless, awareness efforts in many areas continued to concentrate on Thai populations and did not adequately reach out to migrant populations, who are also vulnerable to trafficking. In addition, advocates expressed concerns that ongoing cases against an anti-trafficking advocate, in retaliation for his research documenting alleged trafficking violations in a food processing factory in Thailand, had the effect of silencing other human rights advocates.The criminal defamation lawsuit filed by the Thai Navy against two journalists in 2013 for reporting on trafficking of ethnic Rohingya in Thailand continued in 2014.These developments did not foster a climate conducive to preventing trafficking, identifying victims, and  apprehending traffickers.
The prime minister chaired a new committee to combat trafficking in persons and established new subcommittees to address trafficking issues, inviting more ministries to be involved in this effort, and acknowledged human trafficking as a national priority. The Ministry of Labor established centers in 10 provinces to provide information and services to Thai workers seeking employment overseas; however, the Department of Employment remained ineffective in regulating the excessive fees incurred by these workers in order to obtain employment abroad or in Thailand, which made them vulnerable to debt bondage or exploitative working and living conditions. The government registered and offered work permits to 1.6 million migrant workers in an attempt to regularize their legal status in Thailand. National verification by origin countries (Burma, Cambodia, and Laos) still remained pending at the end of the reporting year. The government did not make efforts to regulate service providers or employment service agencies that provided service to migrant workers. Due to proactive efforts by some officials, 900 hill tribe members received citizenship.While national-level officials seemed to have a greater understanding that statelessness may be a risk factor for trafficking, this understanding had not necessarily become a standard at the municipal and regional levels. Government labor inspections of 392 worksites led to identification of labor violations in 32 worksites but not to cases of labor trafficking.The government acknowledged the labor shortage was due in large

part to some workers’ unwillingness to work in the fishing industry due to poor working and living conditions; the government made efforts to improve these conditions by passing new labor laws that increased the minimum age in the fishing industry to 18 years old, guaranteed minimum wage, and required employment contracts, rest periods, and holidays.The government amended the 68-year- old Fishery Act, which led to registering fishing boats and workers and conducting more multidisciplinary team inspections onboard vessels to monitor labor conditions. Weak law enforcement, inadequate human and financial resources, lack of systematic data linkage among relevant agencies, and fragmented coordination among regulatory agencies in the fishing industry contributed to overall impunity for exploitative labor practices in this sector.
In 2014, the government revoked the licenses of one labor recruitment agency, suspended the license of one agency, filed criminal charges against three companies, and investigated 156 illegal brokers/agents that sent Thai workers abroad. In an effort to prevent child sex tourism, the government denied entry to 98 known foreign sex offenders and launched a public awareness campaign warning tourists of the strict penalties for engaging in sex with minors.The government reported operating a surveillance network on child sex tourism by training business operators in high-risk areas to identify and report cases to the police. The government took steps to decrease the demand for commercial sex acts, including investigating cases against 772 individuals accused of procuring or soliciting prostitution; it is unclear how many resulted in prosecutions or convictions in 2014.The government also made progress towards finalizing legislation that criminalizes the possession of child pornography. The government, however, did not report on efforts to decrease the demand for forced labor. The government briefed diplomats on human trafficking before their departure to overseas posts.

TIMOR-LESTE:
Tier 2 Watch List 
Timor-Leste is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.Timor- Leste may be a source for women and girls sent to Indonesia and other countries for domestic servitude.Timorese women and girls from rural areas are lured to the capital with the promise of better employment or education prospects and subjected to sex trafficking or domestic servitude; at least one chief has been complicit in this form of trafficking.Timorese family members place children in bonded domestic and agricultural labor to pay off family debts. Foreign migrant women, including those from Indonesia, China, and the Philippines, are vulnerable to sex trafficking in Timor-Leste.Traffickers allegedly retain the passports of victims and rotate sex trafficking victims in and out of the country every few months.Transnational traffickers may be members of Indonesian or Chinese organized crime syndicates. According to some NGOs, men and boys from Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand are forced to work on foreign fishing boats operating in Timorese waters where they face conditions of confinement, no medical care, and malnutrition. Police may accept bribes from establishments involved in trafficking or from traffickers attempting to cross borders illegally. Police have been identified as clients of commercial sex venues investigated for suspected  trafficking.
The Government of Timor-Leste does not fully comply with the

minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting period, it prosecuted and convicted a former village chief for child sex trafficking offenses. Authorities drafted guidelines for police to screen potential victims for indicators of trafficking, though this was not finalized or implemented during the year. Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate evidence of overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period, therefore,Timor-Leste remains on Tier 2 Watch List. Authorities increased efforts to investigate potential sex trafficking crimes, but victim identification efforts remained inadequate, and law enforcement officials received limited training to address this gap.The government rescued two child victims, with support from an NGO, but it did not report providing services to any victims.The government conducted an anti-trafficking awareness campaign for students in seven regions of the country.