The US has decided to place Myanmar on its global list of worst offenders in human trafficking, officials said, a move aimed at prodding the country’s new democratically elected government and its still-powerful military to do more to curb the use of child soldiers and forced labor.
The reprimand of Myanmar comes despite US efforts to court the strategically important country to help counteract China’s rise in the region and build a Southeast Asian bulwark against Beijing’s territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.
Myanmar’s demotion, part of the US Department of State’s closely watched annual Trafficking in Persons report due to be released today, also appears intended to send a message of US concern about continued widespread persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority nation.
Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized internationally for neglecting the Rohingya issue since her administration took office this year.
Washington has faced a complex balancing act over Myanmar, a former military dictatorship that has emerged from decades of international isolation since launching sweeping political changes in 2011.
US President Barack Obama’s diplomatic opening to Myanmar is widely seen as a key foreign policy achievement as he enters his final seven months in office, but even as he has eased some sanctions, he has kept others in place to maintain leverage for further reforms.
At the same time, Washington wants to keep Myanmar from slipping back into China’s orbit at a time when US officials are trying to forge a unified regional front.
The US decision to drop Myanmar to “Tier 3,” the lowest grade, putting it alongside countries like Iran, North Korea and Syria, was confirmed by a US official in Washington and a Bangkok-based official from an international organization informed of the move.
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