Law enforcement officials in Tonga said they have arrested a person and recovered a victim during a human trafficking bust last week.
The report comes after the U.S State Department raised concerns about the lack of a prevention plan in Tonga to combat all forms of trafficking and support and protect victims.
The following year, Tonga launched its first action plan to combat human trafficking.
The victim is being assisted to return to their home country while the accused trafficker was remanded to be held in police custody.
Reports have revealed that Tonga’s Technical Working Group (TWG) for Trafficking in Persons (TIP) has uncovered a human trafficking case, resulting in the arrest of the accused.
Tonga police had been involved.
The TWG, with support from USAID Pacific RISE-CTIP, coordinated efforts to assist the victim, offering meals, temporary shelter, transportation, counselling, and ensuring the victim’s safe return to their home country.
As Kaniva News reported in 2022, Tonga has not done enough to combat people trafficking and would remain on an American watch list, according to the US State Department’s annual report.
Since convicting its first trafficker in April 2011, the government has not prosecuted or convicted any traffickers, the State Department said.
Tongans working overseas were vulnerable to labour exploitation. However, it also said that Asian workers in Tonga were vulnerable to labour exploitation and being forced to become sex workers.
East Asian women, especially those from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), who were recruited from their home countries for legitimate work in Tonga were vulnerable to sex trafficking.
They often paid excessive recruitment fees and sometimes ended up as sex workers in clandestine establishments operating as legitimate businesses.
Reports indicated that Fijians working in the domestic service industry in Tonga experienced mistreatment typical of labour trafficking.
Tongans working overseas, including in Australia and New Zealand, were vulnerable to labour trafficking, including through withholding of wages and excessive work hours.
