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Sufficient progress not made to warrant Tier 2 ranking for Thailand in TIP Report 2020

Seafood Working Group responds to Trafficking in Persons Report 2020

The U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2020 has maintained Thailand’s ranking at Tier 2, despite detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the weaknesses of the Thai government’s efforts in the areas of prosecution,…
News

More than Just China: COVID-19 May Ravage Asia

  What are your main concerns about the coronavirus in Asia? Because testing is so poor in most of Asia, we have no visibility about how widespread infections are. Overcrowded cities where social distancing is challenging or impossible also…
Factory workers wearing protective masks return to Dhaka from northern and southern districts in Bangladesh amid the government’s shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, April 4, 2020.
News

The Coronavirus in Europe: From Lockdowns to Power Grabs

COVID-19 in Europe, the Central Eurasian Region, and Turkey

What are some of your biggest concerns about the coronavirus moving through Europe and Central Asia? Europe is one of the world’s epicenters of COVID-19 cases. There’s an awful death toll in Italy and Spain with the numbers of dead going up…
Military police officers patrol at a market in Budapest, Hungary, March 31, 2020.
News

Thailand: Release Ethnic Minority Refugees, Asylum Seekers

Uphold Pledge to End Immigration Detention of Children

(Bangkok) – Thai authorities should immediately release 181 ethnic minority refugees and asylum seekers, most with UN refugee status, who were recently arrested, Human Rights Watch said today. Those detained come mostly from the Montagnard…
An elderly Montagnard woman sits at the door of a “house church” in Kret Krot village in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on September 26, 2013.
News

University Program First Victim of Hungary Anti-Immigration Tax

Central European University Suspends Program for Asylum Seekers

An education program aimed at giving asylum seekers and refugees in Hungary a new start is the first casualty of the government’s most recent anti-immigrant measures. This week, the Central European University (CEU) suspended…
People in Budapest protest a draft law targeting Central European University, Hungary, April 4, 2017.
News

Hungary is Determined to Silence Any Critics Left Standing

With independent media largely silenced or taken over, the courts increasingly curbed, and a parliament firmly under the control of the newly re-elected Fidesz ruling party, Hungary’s nongovernmental groups are the most effective…
Protesters attend a rally against Hungarian government's clampdown on a top foreign university and non-government organisations in Budapest, Hungary, May 21, 2017.
News

Thai Court Acquits Migrant Workers of Defamation

Government Should Better Protect Victims of Labor Abuses

  In an important verdict for the protection of labor rights and freedom of expression in Thailand, a magistrates court in Bangkok on Wednesday acquitted 14 Burmese migrant workers of criminal defamation charges for filing a complaint against…
A worker tends to chickens at a farm in Thailand.
Video

Video: New Law in Hungary Makes Helping Migrants a Crime

A bill passed by the Hungarian Parliament would criminalize efforts to help migrants and asylum seekers and curb their access to protection. The law amends nine existing laws related to asylum, the national border, and the police. It creates a…
News

European People's Party faces moment of truth over Hungary

Last week, the European People's Party (EPP) had a chance to stand up for its values and those of the European Union. But instead, it ducked the issue. The umbrella group of center-right and Christian democrat parties in European…
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban before a photo at the European Union Tallinn Digital Summit in Tallinn, Estonia, September 29, 2017.
News

Hungary: Bill Makes Aiding Migrants a Crime

Proposed Constitutional Amendment Limits Asylum Access

(Budapest) – A revised draft bill published by the Hungarian government on May 29, 2018, would criminalize efforts to help migrants and asylum seekers and curb their access to protection, Human Rights Watch said today. The bill the…
An anti-immigration poster by Viktor Orban's Fidesz party during Hungary's April 2018 elections, April 8, 2018, Gyongyos, Hungary.
News

Thailand: Burmese Workers on Trial for Reporting Abuses

14 Migrants Face Year in Prison for Alleged Defamation

  (New York) – The Thai government should publicly oppose in court the criminal defamation charges against 14 Burmese migrant workers for filing a complaint against their employer with Thailand’s human rights commission, Human Rights Watch…
A worker tends to chickens at a farm in Thailand.
Video

Thailand: Forced Labor, Trafficking Persist in Fishing Fleets

Forced labor and other rights abuses are widespread in Thailand’s fishing fleets despite government commitments to comprehensive reforms. The report and a 15-minute film were released at a briefing at the European Parliament on January 23, 2018.…
News

Thailand: Forced Labor, Trafficking Persist in Fishing Fleets

Reforms Fall Short of Addressing EU, US Concerns

(Brussels) – Forced labor and other rights abuses are widespread in Thailand’s fishing fleets despite government commitments to comprehensive reforms, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report and a 15-minute film were…
A fisher at the prow of a boat, mooring rope in hand, as the vessel arrives in port in Pattani, August 12, 2016.
News

Thailand: Migrant Worker Law Triggers Regional Exodus

Revise New Decree to End Disproportionate Penalties, Protect Rights

  (New York) – The Thai government should halt enforcement of a new migrant workers’ law that imposes excessive criminal penalties and has caused thousands of migrant workers to flee Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today. Since the…
201706Asia_Cambodia_Migrants
News

Hungary Should Be Setting Alarm Bells Ringing in Brussels

Hungary’s governing party is cranking up the heat on nongovernmental organizations.  With its tight grip on parliament, and having undermined the courts and the media, the Fidesz government doesn’t like being held to account by pesky independent…
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during his state-of-the-nation address in Budapest, Hungary, February 10, 2017.
News

Asylum Seekers Left in the Cold

Serbia, Hungary Leave People Without Adequate Shelter as Winter Hits Hard

While many in Serbia prepare for Orthodox Christmas, others in the country and neighboring Hungary are bedding down in freezing cold weather hoping to survive. Temperatures in Hungary and Serbia have dropped to minus 20 degrees centigrade at night.…
Asylum seekers and migrants living in appalling conditions in abandoned warehouses behind Belgrade train station, Serbia. November 22, 2016.
News

Hungary's Treatment of Refugees Is A Disgrace To Its History

“We came from wars and places where governments are threatening people," 20-year old Nasratullah, an asylum seeker fleeing violence in Afghanistan, told me last week. "And then we came to Hungary and police beat us a lot. I want to know why they are doing…
Migrants walk along Hungary's border fence on the Serbian side of the border near Morahalom, Hungary, February 22, 2016

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